CC BY
74
UDC 101
SPIRITUAL LIFE OF SOCIETY: REGIONAL ASPECT
O. Y. Kolosova
Krasnodar university of Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russian Federation Stavropol, Russia [email protected]
V. N. Goncharov
North-Caucasus federal university. Stavropol, Russia [email protected]
The relevancy of the problem study of spiritual traditions preservation in the modern culture is defined by the important significance, which belongs to the traditions in the process of sociocultural development. Traditions, the research of which allows formulating and decision of principally important problems of building and functioning of the society, and its culture and provide informative analysis of different spheres of social activity, contribute to preservation and amplification of
spiritual and material culture values.
Key words: spirituality, spiritual sphere of the region, traditions, religion, spiritual values, society, culture.
The history of the humanity - is an endless movement of discontinuity and continuity, alternation of generations, formations, maybe even civilizations. Traditions represent a method of enrichment of vital socially significant experience [2, p. 3]. Speaking about traditions, one can emphasize the sphere of spiritual traditions, which are interpreted as the process of spiritual values translation from one generation to the other. If academicism presupposes transmissibility of "something" from one generation to the other, then traditionalism represents world view, transforming all heritage of social group into positive tradition. Analyzing the role of traditions in culture, one should consider that relation to the traditions can balance between inclination towards innovations and blind preservation of any traditional norms. Traditional values represent the variety of values, where social experience from person to person, from generation to generation is transmitted and accepted [5, p. 42]. The problem of spiritual traditions preservation becomes especially actual in the periods of accelerated society development, significant social changes. The preservations of traditions provides connection between generations, herewith the creative aspect in activity from every of them is not denied
[4; 6].
Traditional values represent the variety of values, where historically social experience is transmitted from person to person, from generation to generation.
According to L.E. Yakovleva, one can emphasize three spheres in the structure of national tradition: spiritual, historical and social. The first expresses the relation of people to God and nature, and it is fixed by the certain world view. The second expresses the relation of people to their past and history, and it takes shape in the certain philosophy of history. The third expresses the views of the community representatives to the specific of social relations and finds its expression in the certain hierarchy of social values [7, p. 35].
The spiritual sphere of the region, as opposed to the spiritual life of society and the country in whole, still remains as poorly studied object of "the huge science", whether it is social philosophy, sociology, culturology, psychology, aesthetics and etc. Regional studies aspect of humanitarian and social sciences requires organization and serious working out of a row of theoretical and methodological problems, with which the sciences of economical and socially-political directions have already confronted [1,3, 8].
The first logically justified, directed research of region spiritual sphere is based on the experience of cognition of society spiritual life in whole. This direction does not require revision or a sig-
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nificant correction of legal and concept system, principles and ideals of sciences, which have accumulated the huge material of spiritual phenomenon study. Among such phenomena there are such structural components of spiritual life as mythology, religion, ideology, moral, artistic culture, science, mass media products, and also such informative elements of society spiritual life as customs, norms, values, meanings and knowledge, mythologeme and concepts. The analysis of spiritual phenomena in the given direction also presupposes research and actualization in the regional aspect of their cultural processes dynamics: the processes of inheritance and innovation, unification and differentiation, degeneration and blossom, isolation and dispersion, fundamentalism and modernization, localization and universalization.
In whole, the research logic of region spiritual sphere in framework of the given direction can be defined as the general logic of superiority of common over the concrete, the entire over the part and as political logic of centre domination over periphery. It is rather difficult to consistently solve the problem of spiritual life basic regional subject positioning in the framework of this direction. The capital aristocracy, managing the process of production and distribution of spiritual production, aimed to federal informative channels to regions and dominant over any local spiritual product, inevitably became it.
Another view to the region spiritual sphere cognition logic is connected with originality exposure, specificity of this sphere as a special part of sociocultural space of the country. In the framework of this spiritual phenomena direction research, incongruity of the regions, emphasized according to spiritual criteria (dominating form of religion or confession, the level of science development, education, language of communication, presence of objects of culturally-historical heritage and etc.) was found, and also according to another more traditional for regional studies criteria: administrative, politico-military, physiographic, economical. For instance, the North-Caucasian geographical region includes more than ten subjects of Russian Federation, but according to the spiritual life content it coincides neither with the South federal district, nor with the regions of spreading of Buddhism, Islam, and Orthodoxy on the south of Russia.
Original in sociocultural, spiritual relation, for a long time the region forms historically - hundreds, and often thousands years, as Buddhism in Kalmykia or Buryatia. In such region stable mechanisms of cultural heritage, agglomeration, storage and transfer of the most significant information for the inhabitants of the given region are formed. Collective memory of people takes the special place among such mechanisms. It imprinted in national language and its local (regional) dialects, symbolic and material means of information storage, and mainly: in legends and songs, feasts and promenades, culinary recipes and medical potions, national suits and traditional business, secular and church rituals, books, architecture monuments of different centuries, peculiarities of temple and war constructions, toponymy of the streets of big and small cities, names of townships and villages, especially important nature objects. The analysis of the spiritual sphere of the region in this aspect inevitably leads to the problem of mentioned originality preservation. Within the frame of verbal culture extensive myth-poetical complexes, folk heritage have obviously expressed regional and sometimes district, local character and especially effective function within a family, settlements of rural type, ethnical groups and communities.
For preservation of spiritual life originality of separate regions, the spread form of confession is particularly important. The fact is that for a long time culture developed in the womb of religious practice, which selected and kept only the most important knowledge and meanings, had the sacred status and gradually acquiring character of religious dogmata. Dogmata pretended to omnitude and were consecrated by the highest in the given region authorities. There, first of all, one can speak about paganism, about primitive forms of religious experience. But it shouldn't be forgotten that at first the world religions appeared and developed as regional spiritual phenomena, but heathen beliefs still in large measure determine originality of spiritual life of Siberia and Far East indigenous people in some of the north and east regions of Russia.
Religious traditions - treasurers are appealed to spread them, transfer them to the following generations. Achievement of aim will depend on how successfully traditional values can be adapted to the modern types of activity and forms of social life. Today this is very topical theme. The modern
types of activity take only the defined forms of social life - these are economics and finances, political system, technology, science and some spheres of legal regulation. Traditional spheres still contain: world view and existential problems, interpersonal relationships, family, society spiritual unity and etc. Complex cooperation is realized between traditional and modern components.
The achievement of equilibrium, synthesis, balance of modern rationally- technological values and traditional institutes, now is appeared to be the challenge for religious traditions. It would be wrong to oppose traditional and modern. If the process of formation of new institutes, norms and forms of communication occurs not on the basis of religious principle negation, but on the contrary, under their natural inclusion, then traditional norms and values will obtain the new meaning and become the basis of transformation.
Russia is a multiconfessional country, however, coexistence of a number of religions and spiritual cultures is not an obstacle for unity on the basis of the general basic values.
Culturally-historical traditions, at the heart of which religion is situated, represent extremely difficult phenomena, including various systems of religious faiths, ideas, presentations and behavior models. Any great culture brings some elements, contributing to developing of society in modern conditions and also elements, frankly restrain its development. This also relates to the Russian culture [9]. It is indisputably that the system of spiritual values of Russian society is not limited by orthodox tradition. But Orthodoxy appears to be the basis component of Russian spirituality, thanks to which the cultural synthesis of various ethnoses and nations of Russia could come out to the universal world level. Atheistic views appear to be no less dynamical form of social inheritance, continue to develop in the spiritual life of Russian society. Complex character of Russian spirituality and its manysided manifestations are explained by complex process of Russian civilization formation, entwinement of historical times, ethnoses, and social communities. It is necessary to rethink religious traditions of the past in modern sociocultural context to determine new possibilities in society spiritual development for Russia to pass to a new, quality level [10].
The research of religious values as phenomena of sociocultural heritage let us look from a new angle at the nature of national selfconsciousness, and understanding of historically formed foundations of life and social interrelations is capable to help in actual problem decision of modernity, such as overcoming of earthliness and immorality. The logic of spiritual sphere analysis as an expression of sociocultural originality of the region is widely used in ethnographical researches, in complex and narrowly special researches of modern nations life, in comparative culturology, history and theory of art, religion, in any comparative studies of spiritual phenomena. The applied relevance of the given direction is especially great for researches of structurally touristic market, models of entrepreneurial behavior in tourism, for ethnical tourism guidance development, touristic typology of Russia regions, estimation of touristic- resource potential of territory and etc.
The third logically justified direction in the analysis of the region spiritual sphere appears to be research of the region as according to independent sociocultural system, "small society", in the context of which one should not use concepts, for instance, "selfconsciousness of the region", but "regional selfconsciousness", not "spiritual life of the region", but "regional spiritual life", not "public opinion of the region", but "regional public opinion" and etc. And the case is not in specification of terms, but in essential overestimation of the role and place of the region in the unified economical, political, social space of the country, in relocation of the basic efforts for development of the regions in the regions themselves.
As it was mentioned above, logic of universalism proceeds from dominant role of the centre over the periphery, capital over province. Logic of regional integrity proceeds from mosaic, sociocultural heterogeneity of the country space. There one should emphasize the special importance and necessa-riness of every region, its peculiar adequacy for social reproduction of the person, realization of his rights and freedom as citizen, comprehensive and harmonious development as a person, contentment of his various demands of material, mental and cultural plan. Region as a "large" society is characterized by four basic sociocultural functions: life-supporting, spiritually- integrated, status - differentiated, power- regulating. Every of these functions is realized through corresponding regionally-functioning structure, appear in the form of total of social institutes, organizations, communities,
natural and culturally-historical resources. Integrity of such functions, structures and processes forms direct sociocultural environment of a person and serves as spatial cell of society as anthropo-societal system. Regional policy, for instance, of European Union, originates from this polycentric vision of the unified social space construction. It is not accidentally that abnormal load on ecological and cultural resources is called as one of the new challenges for territorial policy of the EU. The priority of territorial development of the EU corresponding to this challenge is defined as following: strengthening of ecological structures and cultural resources, as additional value for the development. It is assumed to be that coordination of international efforts and conjoint union management can preserve and move cultural traditions, spiritual values of various countries and unite territory projects in the sphere of culture and environment conservancy. Spiritual sphere of the regions within the framework in analyzed direction, acts as a main arena of intensive and permanent dialogue among the all participants of territorial development, and idea of global competitiveness and all region stability achievement of Europe became as the leading "national" idea in spiritual sphere of any European Union country.
Region consideration as a whole economical and sociocultural organism, situated in a competitive environment, is characterized for Russian reality of the last years. Mainly within the framework of the third direction of regions spiritual sphere research the necessity of Russian regions status increasing as sociocultural societies became rather evident. Up to the present moment the regions act as the objects or administrative-political subjects in the patriotic political-administrative practice. Their coordination is realized most of all through bodies of government. This in a significant degree decreases dynamism and stability of Russian society. It will be able to properly reply to calls from changing internal and global situation, if it modernizes in modern net societal system, which will stable evolve on the basis of manysided vertical and horizontal interaction of regional and sociocultural societies.
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