What is culture in geography. Geographic culture concept

As a result of studying the material in this chapter, the student must:

• know foundations of ethnocultural, linguistic, confessional geography of Russia;
• be able to to reveal the cultural and geographical originality of the country and its regions; use the material of literary works for the cultural and geographical characteristics of the country and regions;
• own basic concepts and terms of cultural geography.

The diversity of ethnic groups, languages ​​and religions is an important property of the Russian cultural space. It has developed historically in the process of expanding the borders of Russia and the inclusion of new peoples and new territories in it.

Some cultural and geographical concepts and terms

In the second chapter it was shown that a geographical area is not only a natural but also a cultural phenomenon; in each geographic zone, nature and traditional culture are "tuned" to each other, and even in the 21st century. the law of geographic zoning "works" both in the natural environment and in the sphere of culture. For example, zonalysh, those. correlate with a well-defined geographical landscape, many activities: agriculture and forestry, hunting and fishing, tourism and recreation; zone national cuisine, reflecting the resource potential of the surrounding landscape.

Another important concept is the enclosing landscape. The author of the term is L.N. Gumilev. Accommodating there is such a landscape (forest, steppe, mountain), with which a certain people are historically and mentally connected and which is perceived by them as their own. The enclosing landscape is ecological-historical the cradle of the people, its "ecological niche"; at the same time, the "native" landscape is not only well understood by the representatives of the people, but also "felt", perceived by all the senses. In this context, it is appropriate to cite the legend about the Polovtsian Khan, who settled in Transcaucasia and did not want to leave there, but when he was given a sniff of a bunch of dry wormwood, the "smell of the homeland" turned out to be stronger than rational arguments: the khan with his horde withdrew from his place and returned to his family Polovtsian steppes.

As a rule, medium and small peoples are associated with one zonal landscape, large peoples - with several. So, for the Mari, the motherland is the landscape of the zone of mixed and deciduous forests. Russians in the historical and cultural-linguistic aspects are mainly associated with four enclosing landscapes: the zone of mixed and broad-leaved forests, the taiga zone, the forest-steppe zone and the steppe zone.

Different zonal natural conditions - forest and non-forest - gave rise to different types of farms: with a predominance of agriculture and with a predominance of cattle breeding. Different natural conditions initially favored the formation of different ways of life - sedentary and nomadic , and, accordingly, a different attitude to home, space, territory. Sometimes natural conditions and cultural traditions contributed to the formation of transitional sedentary nomadic forms, for example, as among the Russian Pomors.

Analysis of the results of mass ethnographic research in various regions of the world and developments in physical and geographical zoning allowed ethnographers to draw a conclusion about the significant impact of natural landscapes on the traditional economy of peoples. Theoretical comprehension of these conclusions resulted in the concept economic and cultural type , in accordance with which the material and economic features of the traditional culture of the peoples of the world correlate with the natural-zonal conditions.

An economic and cultural type is a historically established traditional natural and economic complex, typical for peoples who have different origins, but live in similar natural conditions. The economic-cultural type is an economic-natural system, where economic activity and the natural-geographical environment largely determine the characteristics of the material culture of peoples. Thus, the concept of an economic and cultural type is, in fact, a concept natural and economic type.

Economic and cultural types are types of material culture that have developed under the influence of similar natural conditions and adapted to them, i.e. adaptive , types of traditional economic activities. The joint action of similar natural conditions and historically changing types of economic activity led to the formation of similar cultural characteristics in different peoples. For example, such remote peoples as Ukrainians, Karelians and Mari belong to the same economic and cultural type - sedentary arable farmers of the forest zone. As a result, elements of a cultural community can be expected in these seemingly dissimilar peoples.

At the same time, within one people, due to historical circumstances, found themselves in different landscape and, therefore, economic conditions, different economic and cultural types are formed, which leads to cultural divergence and the formation of sub-ethnic groups. Such groups, in particular, include oleppi and coastal Chukchi engaged in various types of traditional economic activities: cattle breeding and hunting for sea animals.

Thus, the concept of the economic and cultural type makes it possible to better understand the origins of cultural differentiation of ethnic groups associated with the heterogeneity of natural (physical and geographical) conditions, which in different host landscapes lead to different results of cultural adaptation.

• For more details see: Levin M.G., Cheboksarov II. II. Economic and cultural types and historical and cultural areas // Soviet Ethnography. 1955. No. 4. S. 3-17.
• See: Alekseeva T.I. Human adaptation ... S. 218-219.

The concept of "Cultural geography"

Remark 1

Cultural geography, as one of the branches of geography, considers culture in a geographical space and is often defined as the geography of a person

Cultural geography is one of the leading branches of social geography in foreign countries, along with economic, social and political geography.

In Russia, cultural geography is a set of scientific directions that are close in terms of the object of research, but it has not yet taken shape as an integral scientific discipline.

In the 20s of the last century, a school of cultural landscape was created in the United States, therefore, K. Sauer, who founded this school, is considered to be the founder of cultural geography.

At this time, in Russian geographical science, the culture of different regions and its description were part of anthropogeography. The development of cultural geography in the country began in the 80s, and was associated with the study of the cultural landscape and ethnology.

In cultural geography, sections are distinguished depending on the subject of study:

• ethnic geography;
• geography of languages;
• geography of religions;
• geography of art;
• geography of mass culture;
• geography of cultural infrastructure.

At present, cultural geography is of practical importance in more specialized fields, for example, feminist geography, children's geography, tourism, gender geography, urban geography, and political geography.

Cultural geography has its own object, which is the geocultural space - the product of the interaction of spaces, cultural and geographic.

The object of study of cultural geography in the foreign world, especially in the United States in the second half of the XX century, became local areas. Within their boundaries, they rarely coincide with the boundaries of the administrative-territorial division, but the population perceives them as culturally integral territories.

The purpose of the development of cultural geography is the study of cultural practices and human activities to the extent that they are spatially related to each other.

The globalization that began in the 21st century is associated with such processes as the unification of culture, the loss of local cultural traditions, and the loss of cultural values. The original ethno-cultural territorial communities were blurred and disappeared, therefore the research carried out in the field of cultural geography began to be of great applied importance.

Studies of cultural geography and their results are important in the development of strategies for the socio-economic development of countries and regions. The nature of the economic development of a country is influenced by the adopted system of values, norms of behavior, type of mentality, traditions of economic ethics, economic and ecological culture.

Specialists working in the field of cultural geography are involved in the development of both national and international government programs for the protection of cultural heritage.

In Soviet post-war geography, only anthropogenic landscape science really developed. Cultural geography was a project of the future, and today its status has remained almost unchanged.

NN Baranskiy said that the formation of cultural geography would be desirable. Cultural geography was a social part on which social needs were concentrated.

S. B. Lavrov at that time noted that specialists in social geography should not switch to cultural and geographical aspects, because social geography itself is far from perfect.

Remark 2

Thus, it turns out that at this time cultural geography, not yet restored, suffered from a close connection with social geography. It never went beyond the framework of social geography and became a science about the way of life of local communities.

Nevertheless, at the end of the 80s of the last century, cultural geography emerged as a narrow applied field of knowledge. At first, she studied the distribution of cultural artifacts on the territory of the country and was associated with the works of A.G. Druzhinin, who considered the concept of the noosphere to be the methodological basis of the geography of culture.

A. G. Druzhinin introduces the concept of a geocultural situation as its property, and not as a special territorial system. He believes that it is geocultural situations that form geoethnocultural systems, therefore, the study of the geography of a particular culture is reduced to their identification.

He very clearly defines the distinctive facet of cultural and social geography and at the same time their indissolubility. In his opinion, this continuity is as follows:

• cultural infrastructure, being an important component of the territorial organization of culture, is subject to social infrastructure;
• the territorial community of people and geocultural situations are linked as varieties of territorial social systems.

In his monograph, A. G. Druzhinin points out that cultural geography is a kind of integral approach in the system of geographical sciences, it permeates all subsystems of socio-economic geography.

A. G. Druzhinin was the first theorist and creator of cultural geography in the country. He names the prerequisites for the formation of cultural geography:

• the presence of research in the field of socio-cultural geography of the population among domestic geographers;
• new disciplines related to geography - geography of lifestyle;
• geography of education;
• geography of consumption, science;
• formation of the conceptual and conceptual apparatus of socio-economic geography.

After a long break, cultural geography in the country has been formed in the last years of the existence of the USSR as a special branch of social geography, and its theme concerns the territorial organization of cultural objects.

And, at the same time, it must be said that the formation of cultural geography in the country is proceeding independently of Western cultural geography, and without reliance on the Russian anthropogeographic school.

Cultural and geographical zoning

Cultural-geographical areas are divided into two types - real areas, mental areas.

Real areas, in turn, are divided into homogeneous and heterogeneous. They can be homogeneous both culturally and culturally and naturally.

In mental cultural-geographical regions, mythological and vernacular regions are distinguished.

The law of geographical zoning, discovered by V.V.Dokuchaev at the beginning of the 20th century, obeys zonal areas, and the author himself considered his discovery as the law of natural and cultural zoning, i.e. considered much wider.

The law of zoning, VV Dokuchaev believed, not only applies to nature, it extends to cultural phenomena, the economic life of the population, to the ongoing social processes and phenomena of spiritual life.

According to L. N. Gumilyov, in the zonal enclosing landscape, nature and traditional economic activity are interconnected.

Within Russia, the following zonal natural and cultural regions successively replace each other from north to south: the arctic desert region, the tundra region, forest-tundra, taiga region, mixed and deciduous forests region, forest-steppe region, steppe region, semi-desert region, desert region, Mediterranean region.

According to Gumilev, the zone of mixed and deciduous forests of the East European (Russian) Plain belongs to the zonal enclosing landscape of Russian culture.

Most of the Old Russian cities are located within the same limits. If we take into account ethnic borders with neighbors, then it is necessary to highlight the Central region of traditional Russian culture.

In the north of the Russian Plain, during the Novgorod and Rostov-Suzdal colonization, the North Russian region was formed with a traditional northern housing complex and a "okay" dialect. The taiga has become the ecological niche of this region.

In the southern part of the Russian Plain, the South Russian region was formed, stretching from the Kursk region to the Krasnodar Territory. Steppe and forest-steppe enclosing landscapes became the ecological niche of the South Russian region.

Remark 3

Nature and traditional culture, especially in the European part of Russia, have changed significantly in the course of globalization processes, and you can now get acquainted with the peculiarities of this or that natural and cultural region in a purer form in reserve museums and in national parks.

CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY, the geography of culture, examines culture in geographical space, studies the spatial differentiation and diversity of its elements, their expression in the landscape and the relationship with the geographical environment, as well as the display of geographical space in the culture itself. In foreign countries, cultural geography is one of the four leading (along with economic geography, social geography, and political geography) branches of social geography. In Russia, cultural geography has not fully developed into an integral scientific discipline and is a set of scientific directions that are close to each other in terms of the object of research.

The works of representatives of the German school of anthropogeography (F. Ratzel and others), as well as the French schools of human geography (P. Vidal de la Blache and others) and the German geographer A. Gettner, had a great influence on the formation of cultural geography. The founder of cultural geography is considered to be K. Sauer, who created the American school of cultural landscape in the 1920s. Cultural geography inherited two major scientific traditions from anthropogeography: the so-called environmental (the study of cultural and geographical differences in their connection with environmental conditions) and the tradition of spatial analysis of culture (the study of its territorial organization and structure, relations and connections between its elements).

In Russian geographical science, up to the mid-1920s, descriptions of the culture of different regions and localities, their ethnographic features were part of anthropogeographic works. During the Soviet period, especially from the late 1920s - early 1930s, anthropocultural approaches to geography were largely lost. The development of cultural geography in Russia, which began in the 1980s, is based on foreign scientific experience, associated with research in the field of landscape science, cultural landscape and ethnology.

Depending on the subject of study in cultural geography, the following sections (subdisciplines) are distinguished. Ethnic geography (ethnogeography, ethnocultural geography) studies the settlement of ethnic groups, the ethnic composition of the population of countries and regions (American scientists W.M. Kolmorgen, U. Zelinski; Russian researchers V.V. Pokshishevsky, S.I.Bruk, V.I. Kozlov ). At the end of the 20th century, cultural geography also developed research into the originality of ethnic processes in different countries and regions, the geographical features of ethnic cultures and traditions, and their connections with the natural environment. At the junction of ethnic geography with ethnology and cultural anthropology, the following are developing: the geography of traditional spiritual (so-called folk) culture (in English-speaking countries known as "folk geography"), which studies the territorial characteristics of folk art; the geography of everyday culture, exploring the territorial distribution of traditional types of food, dwellings, vehicles, cultural and geographical features of marriage and family relations, etc. The concept of economic and cultural types was of great importance for the formation of ethnic geography in Russia (M.G. Levin, N. N. Cheboksarov, B.V. Andrianov and others).

The geography of languages ​​studies the geographical (territorial) patterns and features of the distribution of linguistic groups of different orders (language families, groups, languages, dialects, dialects) (see Linguistic geography).

The geography of religions (confessional geography) examines the religious composition of the population of regions and countries, the peculiarities of the territorial organization of religious structures, the socio-cultural consequences of confessional and geographical differences. The main theoretical works in the field of geography of religions were created in the middle and second half of the 20th century (French geographer P. Defontaine, German researchers P. Fickeler, K. Troll, M. Bütner, M. Schwind, American scientists D. Sofer, E. Isak and others). Since the end of the 20th century in Russian cultural geography, the confessional space of Russia has become the most important object of research.

The subject of the geography of art is the territorial features of the development and distribution of various types of artistic activity. Important areas of research are the identification of the main art centers in the regions and countries of the world, places of origin, areas and ways of spreading various artistic styles, differences in the placement of centers for teaching traditional and innovative types of artistic activity. A widespread theme of works on the geography of art in modern foreign cultural geography is the reflection in works of art of a real (or imaginary) geographic space. In Russia, the geography of art as a separate area of ​​cultural geography developed in the late 20th - early 21st centuries (Yu. A. Vedenin and others).

The geography of mass culture as an independent area of ​​research develops in foreign cultural geography (especially Anglo-American), examines the territorial differences in the popularity of different sports, styles of modern music, various trends in modern fashion, show business, etc.

Geography of cultural infrastructure is a related subdiscipline at the intersection of cultural geography and geography of the service sector; it studies the territorial organization of the network of libraries, museums and other objects of cultural infrastructure.

In the second half of the 20th century, the object of study of cultural geography (especially in the United States) was the so-called ordinary, or vernacular (from the English vernacular - local, characteristic of the area), areas that exist in the self-consciousness of the local population. They rarely coincide within their borders with the units of the administrative-territorial division of states, but they always have a self-name and are perceived by local residents as culturally integral territories. At the beginning of the 21st century, the most promising research is in the field of regional identity, which in cultural geography is understood as the phenomenon of self-identification of the population with a certain territory. (For the rapidly developing directions of cultural geography in the late 20th - early 21st centuries, studying systems of representations of geographic space, see the article Humanitarian Geography.)

Research in the field of cultural geography is of great applied importance, which sharply increased by the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century in the context of globalization and related processes of cultural unification, leveling or loss of local cultural traditions and cultural values, erosion and disappearance of distinctive ethnocultural and socio-cultural territorial communities. Taking into account the results of studies of cultural geography is important when developing strategies for the socio-economic development of countries and regions, substantiating concepts and choosing specific areas of regional policy. Value systems, types of mentality, norms of behavior adopted in certain societies, traditions of economic ethics, economic and ecological culture, regional originality of traditional sociocultural institutions influence the nature of economic development. Specialists in the field of cultural geography participate in the development of international and national government programs for the protection of cultural heritage, proposals for the inclusion of cultural sites in the World Heritage List, etc.

Lit .: Sauer S.O. The morphology of landscape // University of California Publications in Geography. 1925. No. 2; Spencer J., Thomas W. Cultural geography: an evolutionary introduction to our humanized earth. N. Y. 1969; Zelinsky W. The cultural geography of the United States. 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, 1973; Carter G. Man and the land: a cultural geography. 3rd ed. N. Y. 1975; Jordan T., Rowntree L. The human mosaic: a thematic introduction to cultural geography. 4th ed. N. Y .; L., 1986; Sushchiy S. Ya., Druzhinin A. G. Essays on the geography of Russian culture. Rostov-n / D., 1994; Cultural geography / Scientific editor Yu. A. Vedenin, RF Turovsky. M., 2001; Streletskiy V.N. Geographic space and culture: ideological attitudes and research paradigms in cultural geography // Izv. RAS. Ser. geographic. 2002. No. 4; Claval P. Geographie culturelle. Une nouvelle approche des soci6t6s et des milieux. R., 2003; Ragulina M.V. Cultural geography: theory, methods, regional synthesis. Irkutsk, 2004.

Differences in the subjects of research areas of the CG make us think about the structure of both the entire complex of disciplines, united under the general name "geography of culture", and the core of the CG - cultural geography itself. Even within the theoretical direction of the CG, different understandings of the subject of cultural geography (in particular, object, aspect, etc.) coexist. Therefore, we can already talk about the gradual formation within the core of the GC (i.e., cultural geography proper) of at least four subdisciplines (branches of the CG with their own objects and research subjects), which can be called ethnocultural, economic-cultural, ecological-cultural and social -cultural geography.

The objects of study of the CG subdisciplines are: in ethnocultural geography - ethnocultural communities, in economic and cultural geography - economic and cultural complexes, ecological and cultural geography - natural and cultural complexes (cultural landscapes), socio-cultural geography - geocultural communities of people. If the chorological approach (or aspect of research) can be applied within all subdisciplines of the CG, then, for example, at present, the ecological approach is more often used to study natural-cultural and economic-cultural complexes, and the axiological (value) approach is becoming more and more popular in studies of ethnocultural and geocultural communities of people.

Thus, it is possible to give definitions of the subjects of research of the four above-mentioned emerging CG subdisciplines. Ethnocultural geography studies the processes and results of spatial differentiation and organization of ethnocultural communities, in particular, the components of ethnic culture: traditions and norms of behavior, lifestyle and everyday life, ethnic stereotypes and mentality in general.

Economic and cultural geography is designed to study the spatial diversity of economic and cultural complexes, i.e. traditions of nature management (in particular, land use) existing in various geo- and ethnocultural communities, and their relationship with the geographic environment, as well as territorial differences in the economic culture of the population.

Ecological and cultural geography can be characterized by the study of natural and cultural complexes, in particular, the study of the expression in the landscape (cultural landscape) of individual elements of material and spiritual culture, their relationship with the geographical environment, as well as territorial differences in the ecological culture of the population.

Rice. 1.

Socio-cultural geography, most likely, should study the processes and results of differentiation of geocultural communities, i.e. territorial communities of people with stable stereotypes of thinking and behavior, original systems of values ​​and preferences, expressed in the specifics of social and political culture, and reflected in geospatial (regional, local, etc.) identity.

Each of the subdisciplines of cultural geography is currently beginning to acquire its own internal structure (sections of the CG subdisciplines). These sections, as their own structure develops and becomes more complex, may in the future go beyond the framework of cultural geography and take shape as independent branches of geography (or interdisciplinary directions), directly included in the "geography of culture" complex (Fig. 1).

Each of the CG subdisciplines has its own "analogue" within the entire complex of disciplines that form the CG. These are, as a rule, interdisciplinary directions, formed at the junction with cultural studies (as well as ethnography, sociology, political science, landscape studies and other areas of geographical and related sciences), and, to some extent, are responsible for the formation of their "analogs" in cultural geography. These interdisciplinary areas (and, at the same time, branches of the Civil Code) include geo-ethnocultural studies (analogous to ethnocultural geography), ethnocultural or cultural-geographical landscape studies (analogous to ecological and cultural geography), as well as traditional areas of research at the intersection of cultural geography with ethnography ( economic and cultural types) and sociology (the study of territorial communities of people).

On the other hand, the CG subdisciplines are designed to synthesize the achievements of interdisciplinary directions that are at the junction with the CG, but are included in the "geography of culture" complex. Moreover, each subdiscipline of the CG is responsible for "its" sector within the entire complex of the CG.

Within the framework of the CG subdisciplines, separate sections began to form only in the 1990s, when the CG turned into an independent scientific discipline. Now we can talk about the first stages of the formation of only a few sections of the CG subdisciplines, "discovered" by geographers (who, by the way, still retain their leading positions in the formation of these sections).

In economic and cultural geography, two areas of research (sections) can be distinguished, corresponding to different scientific schools. The continuation of traditional research devoted to the study of territorial differences in the culture of ethnic nature management (more precisely, land use), is currently the geographical study of ethno-economic complexes. Another geographical school in the field of studying the traditions of ethnic nature management and culture of the indigenous peoples of the North was formed under the influence of the ideas of L.N. Gumilyov, whose followers attempted to study the stability of ethnocenoses in the Russian North.

V.N. Streletsky believes that the time has come for the formation of another area of ​​cultural and geographical research - the geography of urban culture. Obviously, the geographical study of urban culture can be viewed as a promising direction (section) of socio-cultural geography. However, the traditional approaches used in geo-urban studies (geography of cities) are not enough in this case, therefore, more attention should be paid to interdisciplinary studies of the urban environment, which have a spatial aspect and were carried out by the joint efforts of architects, sociologists, psychologists and other specialists.

It is also necessary to designate a number of emerging interdisciplinary scientific areas working "part-time" in cultural geography, which can be considered as new "joint" branches of GC (with double, triple, etc. "scientific citizenship"). And finally, the interdisciplinary field of research, which has not yet received a name accepted by all in Russian science, is formed at the junction of cultural geography with psychology and sociology - cognitive geography or behavioral (behavioral) geography, geography of perception (perceptual geography), geography of images (imaginary geography) , sacred geography. The development of this complex of directions, on the one hand, directly depends on the achievements of the theoretical core of cultural geography, but on the other hand, it is of colossal importance for the entire GC, since creates a "ground" for the application of axiological and personal approaches in cultural and geographical research.

geography culture scientific

1. Sometimes civilization is understood as the stage of social development following barbarism. Do you agree with this definition?

I agree that civilization is a stage in the history of mankind, characterized by a certain level of needs, abilities, knowledge, skills and interests of a person, technological and economic mode of production, the structure of political and social relations, and the level of development of spiritual reproduction.

2. Many civilizations that flourished in past eras have not survived to our time. Name some of them and define their role in the development of world culture.

The civilization of the ancient Greeks is the ancestor of modern Western civilization. It was the ancient tradition that ensured the rise of Humanism and the Reformation, the formation of the modern institute of science.

3. By the 15th century, there was approximately the same level of civilizations in China, India and Western Europe, but later the Western European world began to dominate in politics, economics, science and technology. Name the factors that contributed to this.

As one of the factors that allowed the countries of Western Europe to move forward, one can name the influence of Christianity, when political power was legitimized from above by God. The era of great geographical discoveries also contributed to the rise of European civilization. Europeans became monopolists on the sea, which allowed them to find trade routes to India and establish effective trade with the aborigines. The era of colonialism only cemented Europe's leadership over Asia. The influx of slaves, the plundering of Indian civilizations in America contributed to the economic prosperity of the countries of Europe.

4. Explain the meaning of the concept of "traditional civilization".

A type of society in which patriarchal forms of life prevail, the cult of ancestors, a hostile attitude to everything new, integration with other types of cultures occurs very slowly and selectively, the rate of modernization, renewal of social institutions is very low.

5. What is meant by the axial lines of the spread of civilization?

Axis lines are understood as critical stages in the development of society, when the old model of relations is broken and society moves to a new qualitative level of development.

6. Do you know which objects of Russia are included in the list of cultural and natural heritage of mankind, approved by UNESCO?

1 - Historical center of St. Petersburg, suburbs and fortifications 2 - Architectural ensemble of the Kizhi churchyard 3 - Moscow Kremlin and Red Square 4 - Historical center of Veliky Novgorod and surrounding monuments 5 - Cultural and historical ensemble "Solovetsky Islands" 6 - White-stone monuments of Vladimir and Suzdal and the Church of Boris and Gleb in Kideksha 7 - Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye 8 - The architectural ensemble of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra 9-Virgin Komi forests 10 - Lake Baikal 11 - Volcanoes of Kamchatka 12-Sikhote-Alin mountain range 13 - Altai mountains 14 - Ubsu basin -Nura 15 - Western Caucasus 16 - Historical and architectural complex "Kazan Kremlin" 17 - Ensemble of Ferapontov Monastery 18 - Curonian Spit 19 - Citadel, old town and fortifications of Derbent 20 - Wrangel Island 21 - Ensemble of Novodevichy Monastery 22 - Historical center of Yaroslavl 23 - Struve Geodetic Arc

7. What conclusions can be drawn by analyzing the table "The share of major civilizations in the world's population"?

The number of representatives associating themselves with Western European civilization is falling, while Islamic and Negro-African civilization is rapidly progressing.

8. Analyzing the interaction of different cultures, how would you comment on the statement of the Russian philosopher V.S. Solovyov: “People are compared with a plant, they forget that a plant ... should not only keep its roots in the soil, but also rise above the soil, it should be open to external alien influences, for dew and rain, for free wind and sunlight .. . "?

The interaction of cultures is inevitable and should not be resisted. A culture, like a plant, must accept some changes that are inevitable over time.

9. The outstanding Russian philosopher and geographer L.I. Mechnikov wrote that all great civilizations were the fruit of various ethnic elements that mixed with each other. Justify or refute this thesis.

This is indeed the case. As an example, we can cite the Russian ethnos, which was formed from many different peoples, among which one can name the Tatar-Mongols and the Finno-Ugrians, who dissolved in the Russian people.

10. The civilizational criteria include human self-identification. Who do you feel yourself to be? Who do your loved ones feel like?

Russian, citizen of the Russian Federation.