Culturology

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Culturology (Russian: Культурология) is a new discipline institutionalized in Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and some other states of the former Soviet Bloc. Defined as an integral study of human cultures as integral systems and their influence on human behavior, it may be formally compared to the Western discipline of Cultural studies, however it has a number of important distinctions.

Culturology is introduced into the VAK list of categories of specialties for which scientific degrees may be awarded[1] and is a compulsory object of study during the first year in the institutions of higher education and in secondary schools.

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[edit] History of the term in Russia

The notion of culturology in Russia may be traced to late 19th century and early 20th century and associated with the names of Mikhail Bakhtin, Aleksei Losev, Sergey Averintsev, Georgy Gachev, Yuri Lotman, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Vladimir Toporov, and others.[2] During the Stalinist era this kind or research was superseded by Marxist social studies. Culturology as an interdisciplinary field reemerged in late 1960s.

[edit] Other

American anthropologist Leslie White used the term "culturology" for his scientific studies of culture, which he defined as "the field of science which studies and interprets the distinct order of phenomena termed culture"[3] and presented in a series of essays "The Science of Culture".

[edit] References

  1. ^ Culturology specialties (Russian)
  2. ^ Mikhail Epstein, Transcultural Experiments: Russian and American Models of Creative Communication. New York: St. Martin's Press (Scholarly and Reference Division), 1999, Chapter 1: From Culturology to Transculture
  3. ^ White, Leslie "The Evolution of Culture: The Development of Civilization to the Fall of Rome". McGraw-Hill, New York (1959)

[edit] External links

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