What does the concept of traditional society mean? Traditional society and its features

Plan
Introduction
1 General characteristics
2 Transformation of traditional society
and literature

Introduction

Traditional society is a society that is regulated by tradition. Preservation of traditions is a higher value in it than development. The social structure in it is characterized by a rigid class hierarchy, the existence of stable social communities (especially in Eastern countries), and a special way of regulating the life of society, based on traditions and customs. This organization of society strives to preserve the socio-cultural foundations of life unchanged. Traditional society - agricultural society.

1. General characteristics

A traditional society is usually characterized by:

· traditional economy

· predominance of the agricultural way of life;

· structural stability;

· class organization;

· low mobility;

· high mortality rate;

· low life expectancy.

A traditional person perceives the world and the established order of life as something inextricably integral, holistic, sacred and not subject to change. A person’s place in society and his status are determined by tradition (usually by birthright).

In a traditional society, collectivist attitudes predominate, individualism is not encouraged (since freedom of individual action can lead to a violation of the established order, time-tested). In general, traditional societies are characterized by the predominance of collective interests over private ones, including the primacy of the interests of existing hierarchical structures(state, clan, etc.). What is valued is not so much individual capacity as the place in the hierarchy (official, class, clan, etc.) that a person occupies.

In a traditional society, as a rule, relations of redistribution rather than market exchange predominate, and elements of a market economy are strictly regulated. This is due to the fact that free market relations increase social mobility and change the social structure of society (in particular, they destroy class); the redistribution system can be regulated by tradition, but market prices cannot; forced redistribution prevents “unauthorized” enrichment/impoverishment of both individuals and classes. The pursuit of economic gain in traditional society is often morally condemned and opposed to selfless help.

In a traditional society, most people live their entire lives in a local community (for example, a village), and connections with the “big society” are rather weak. Wherein family ties, on the contrary, are very strong.

The worldview (ideology) of a traditional society is determined by tradition and authority.

2. Transformation of traditional society

Traditional society is extremely stable. As the famous demographer and sociologist Anatoly Vishnevsky writes, “everything in it is interconnected and it is very difficult to remove or change any one element.”

In ancient times, changes in traditional society occurred extremely slowly - over generations, almost imperceptibly for individual person. Periods of accelerated development also occurred in traditional societies (a striking example is the changes in the territory of Eurasia in the 1st millennium BC), but even during such periods, changes were carried out slowly by modern standards, and upon their completion, society again returned to a relatively static state with a predominance of cyclic dynamics.

At the same time, since ancient times there have been societies that cannot be called completely traditional. The departure from traditional society was associated, as a rule, with the development of trade. This category includes Greek city-states, medieval self-governing trading cities, England and Holland of the 16th-17th centuries. Stands apart Ancient Rome(before the 3rd century AD) with its civil society.

The rapid and irreversible transformation of traditional society began to occur only in the 18th century as a result of the industrial revolution. By now, this process has captured almost the entire world.

Rapid changes and departure from traditions can be experienced by a traditional person as a collapse of guidelines and values, loss of the meaning of life, etc. Since adaptation to new conditions and a change in the nature of activity are not included in the strategy of a traditional person, the transformation of society often leads to the marginalization of part of the population.

The most painful transformation of traditional society occurs in cases where the dismantled traditions have a religious justification. At the same time, resistance to change can take the form of religious fundamentalism.

During the period of transformation of a traditional society, authoritarianism may increase in it (either in order to preserve traditions, or in order to overcome resistance to change).

The transformation of traditional society ends with the demographic transition. The generation that grew up in small families has a psychology that differs from the psychology of a traditional person.

Opinions about the need (and extent) of transformation of traditional society differ significantly. For example, the philosopher A. Dugin considers it necessary to abandon the principles of modern society and return to the “golden age” of traditionalism. Sociologist and demographer A. Vishnevsky argues that traditional society “has no chance,” although it “fiercely resists.” According to the calculations of Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Professor A. Nazaretyan, in order to completely abandon development and return society to a static state, the number of humanity must be reduced by several hundred times.

1. Knowledge-Power, No. 9, 2005, “Demographic oddities”

· Textbook “Sociology of Culture” (chapter “Historical dynamics of culture: cultural features of traditional and modern societies. Modernization”)

· Book by A. G. Vishnevsky “Sickle and Ruble. Conservative modernization in the USSR"

· Book “European Modernization”

· Nazaretyan A.P. Demographic utopia of “sustainable development” // Social sciences and modernity. 1996. No. 2. P. 145-152.

The concept of traditional society covers the great agrarian civilizations of the Ancient East (Ancient India and Ancient China, Ancient Egypt and the medieval states of the Muslim East), the European states of the Middle Ages. In a number of countries in Asia and Africa, traditional society continues to exist today, but the collision with modern Western civilization has significantly changed its civilizational characteristics.
The basis of human life is labor, during which a person transforms the matter and energy of nature into items for his own consumption. In a traditional society, the basis of life activity is agricultural labor, the fruits of which provide a person with all the necessary means of life. However, manual agricultural labor using simple tools provided a person with only the most necessary things, and only under favorable weather conditions. The Three "Black Horsemen" terrified the European Middle Ages - famine, war and plague. Hunger is the most severe: there is no shelter from it. He left deep scars on the cultural brow of European peoples. Its echoes can be heard in folklore and epic, in the mournful drawl of folk chants. Most folk signs are about the weather and the prospects for the harvest. The dependence of a person in a traditional society on nature is reflected in the metaphors “nurse-earth”, “mother-earth” (“mother of the cheese earth”), expressing loving careful attitude to nature as a source of life, from which one was not supposed to draw too much.
The farmer perceived nature as Living being, requiring a moral attitude towards oneself. Therefore, a person in a traditional society is not a master, not a conqueror, and not a king of nature. He is a small fraction (microcosm) of the great cosmic whole, the universe. His work activity obeyed the eternal rhythms of nature (seasonal changes in weather, length of daylight hours) - such is the requirement of life itself on the border between the natural and the social. An ancient Chinese parable ridicules a farmer who dared to challenge traditional agriculture based on the rhythms of nature: trying to speed up the growth of cereals, he pulled them by the tops until he pulled them out by the roots.
A person’s attitude towards the subject of labor always presupposes his attitude towards another person. By appropriating this item in the process of labor or consumption, a person is included in the system public relations ownership and distribution. In the feudal society of the European Middle Ages, private ownership of land prevailed - the main wealth of agrarian civilizations. It corresponded to a type of social subordination called personal dependence. The concept of personal dependence characterizes the type of social connection between people belonging to various social classes of feudal society - the steps of the “feudal ladder”. The European feudal lord and the Asian despot were full masters of the bodies and souls of their subjects, and even owned them as property. This was the case in Russia before the abolition of serfdom. Personal addiction breeds non-economic forced labor based on personal power based on direct violence.
Traditional society has developed forms of everyday resistance to the exploitation of labor on the basis of non-economic coercion: refusal to work for a master (corvée), evasion of payment in kind (quitrent) or monetary tax, escape from one’s master, which undermined the social basis of traditional society - the relationship of personal dependence.
People of the same social class or estate (peasants of the territorial-neighboring community, the German mark, members of the noble assembly, etc.) were bound by relationships of solidarity, trust and collective responsibility. The peasant community and city craft corporations jointly bore feudal duties. Communal peasants survived together in lean years: supporting a neighbor with a “piece” was considered the norm of life. Narodniks, describing “going to the people,” note such traits of the people’s character as compassion, collectivism and readiness for self-sacrifice. Traditional society has formed high moral qualities: collectivism, mutual assistance and social responsibility, included in the treasury of civilizational achievements of mankind.
A person in a traditional society did not feel like an individual opposing or competing with others. On the contrary, he perceived himself as an integral part of his village, community, polis. The German sociologist M. Weber noted that having settled in the city Chinese peasant did not break ties with the rural church community, but in Ancient Greece expulsion from the polis was even equated to death penalty(this is where the word “outcast” comes from). The man of the Ancient East completely subordinated himself to the clan and caste standards of social group life and “dissolved” in them. Respect for traditions has long been considered the main value of ancient Chinese humanism.
The social status of a person in traditional society was determined not by personal merit, but by social origin. The rigidity of the class and class barriers of traditional society kept it unchanged throughout his life. People to this day say: “It was written in the family.” The idea that one cannot escape fate, inherent in the traditionalist consciousness, has formed a type of contemplative personality, whose creative efforts are directed not at remaking life, but at spiritual well-being. I. A. Goncharov, with brilliant artistic insight, captured such psychological type in the image of I. I. Oblomov. "Fate", i.e. social predetermination, is a key metaphor ancient Greek tragedies. Sophocles' tragedy "Oedipus the King" tells the story of the titanic efforts of the hero to avoid the terrible fate predicted for him, however, despite all his exploits, evil fate triumphs.
The daily life of traditional society was remarkably stable. It was regulated not so much by laws as tradition - a set of unwritten rules, patterns of activity, behavior and communication that embody the experience of ancestors. In the traditionalist consciousness, it was believed that the “golden age” was already behind, and the gods and heroes left examples of actions and exploits that should be imitated. People's social habits have remained virtually unchanged for many generations. The organization of everyday life, methods of housekeeping and norms of communication, holiday rituals, ideas about illness and death - in a word, everything that we call everyday life was brought up in the family and passed on from generation to generation. Many generations of people have experienced the same social structures, ways of doing things, and social habits. Submission to tradition explains the high stability of traditional societies with their stagnant patriarchal cycle of life and the extremely slow pace of social development.
The sustainability of traditional societies, many of which (especially in Ancient East) remained virtually unchanged over the centuries, and the public authority of the supreme power also contributed. Often she was directly identified with the personality of the king (“The State is me”). The public authority of the earthly ruler was fueled by religious ideas about the divine origin of his power (“The Sovereign is God’s vicegerent on earth”), although history knows few cases when the head of state personally became the head of the church (the Anglican Church). The personification of political and spiritual power in one person (theocracy) ensured the dual subordination of man to both the state and the church, which gave traditional society even greater stability.

Modern societies differ in many ways, but they also have the same parameters according to which they can be typologized.

One of the main directions in the typology is choice political relations , forms state power as grounds for distinguishing different types of society. For example, U and I societies differ in type of government: monarchy, tyranny, aristocracy, oligarchy, democracy. IN modern versions this approach highlights totalitarian(the state determines all the main directions social life); democratic(the population can influence government structures) and authoritarian(combining elements of totalitarianism and democracy) societies.

The basis typology of society it's supposed to Marxism difference between societies type of industrial relations in various socio-economic formations: primitive communal society (primitively appropriating mode of production); societies with the Asian mode of production (the presence of a special type of collective ownership of land); slave societies (ownership of people and use of slave labor); feudal (exploitation of peasants attached to the land); communist or socialist societies (equal treatment of all towards ownership of the means of production through the elimination of private property relations).

Traditional, industrial and post-industrial societies

Most stable in modern sociology is considered a typology based on the selection traditional, industrial and post-industrial society

Traditional society(it is also called simple and agrarian) is a society with an agricultural structure, sedentary structures and a method of sociocultural regulation based on traditions (traditional society). The behavior of individuals in it is strictly controlled, regulated by customs and norms of traditional behavior, established social institutions, among which the most important will be the family. Attempts at any social transformations and innovations are rejected. For him characterized by low rates of development, production. Important for this type of society is an established social solidarity, which Durkheim established while studying the society of the Australian aborigines.

Traditional society characterized by the natural division and specialization of labor (mainly by gender and age), personalization of interpersonal communication (directly of individuals, and not officials or persons of status), informal regulation of interactions (norms of unwritten laws of religion and morality), connection of members by kinship relations (family type of community organization) , a primitive system of community management (hereditary power, rule of elders).

Modern societies differ in the following features: the role-based nature of interaction (people's expectations and behavior are determined by the social status and social functions of individuals); developing deep division of labor (on a professional qualification basis related to education and work experience); a formal system for regulating relations (based on written law: laws, regulations, contracts, etc.); complex system social management(separation of the institute of management, special governing bodies: political, economic, territorial and self-government); secularization of religion (its separation from the system of government); highlighting the set social institutions(self-reproducing systems of special relations that allow for social control, inequality, protection of their members, distribution of goods, production, communication).

These include industrial and post-industrial societies.

Industrial society- this is a type of organization of social life that combines the freedom and interests of the individual with general principles governing them joint activities. It is characterized by flexibility of social structures, social mobility, and a developed system of communications.

In the 1960s concepts appear post-industrial (informational) societies (D. Bell, A. Touraine, J. Habermas), caused by drastic changes in the economy and culture of the most developed countries. The leading role in society is recognized as the role of knowledge and information, computer and automatic devices. An individual who has received the necessary education and has access to the latest information has an advantageous chance of moving up the social hierarchy. The main goal of a person in society becomes creative work.

The negative side of post-industrial society is the danger of strengthening on the part of the state, the ruling elite through access to information and electronic media and communication over people and society as a whole.

Lifeworld human society is becoming stronger is subject to the logic of efficiency and instrumentalism. Culture, including traditional values, is being destroyed under the influence administrative control gravitating towards standardization and unification of social relations and social behavior. Society is increasingly subject to logic economic life and bureaucratic thinking.

Distinctive features of post-industrial society:

transition from the production of goods to a service economy;
the rise and dominance of highly educated technical vocational specialists;
the main role of theoretical knowledge as a source of discoveries and political decisions in society;
control over technology and the ability to assess the consequences of scientific and technical innovations;
decision-making based on the creation of intellectual technology, as well as using the so-called information technology.

The latter is brought to life by the needs of the beginning to form information society. The emergence of such a phenomenon is by no means accidental. The basis of social dynamics in the information society is not traditional material resources, which are also largely exhausted, and informational (intellectual): knowledge, scientific, organizational factors, intellectual abilities of people, their initiative, creativity.

The concept of post-industrialism today has been developed in detail, has a lot of supporters and an ever-increasing number of opponents. The world has formed two main directions assessments of the future development of human society: eco-pessimism and techno-optimism. Ecopessimism predicts total global catastrophe due to increasing pollution environment; destruction of the Earth's biosphere. Techno-optimism draws a rosier picture, assuming that scientific and technical progress will cope with all the difficulties on the path of social development.

Basic typologies of society

In the history of social thought, several typologies of society have been proposed.

Typologies of society during the formation of sociological science

Founder of sociology, French scientist O. Comte proposed a three-member stage typology, which included:

stage of military dominance;
stage of feudal rule;
stage of industrial civilization.

The basis of the typology G. Spencer the principle of evolutionary development of societies from simple to complex is established, i.e. from an elementary society to an increasingly differentiated one. Spencer envisioned the development of societies as an integral part of a single evolutionary process for all of nature. The lowest pole of the evolution of society is formed by the so-called military societies, characterized by high homogeneity, the subordinate position of the individual and the dominance of coercion as a factor of integration. From this phase, through a series of intermediate ones, society develops to the highest pole - industrial society, in which democracy, the voluntary nature of integration, spiritual pluralism and diversity dominate.

Typologies of society in the classical period of development of sociology

These typologies differ from those described above. Sociologists of this period saw their task as explaining it based not on the general order of nature and the laws of its development, but on nature itself and its internal laws. So, E. Durkheim sought to find the “original cell” of the social as such and for this purpose looked for the “simplest,” most elementary society, the simplest form of organization of “collective consciousness.” Therefore, his typology of societies is built from simple to complex, and is based on the principle of complicating the form of social solidarity, i.e. consciousness by individuals of their unity. In simple societies, mechanical solidarity operates because the individuals composing them are very similar in consciousness and life situation- as particles of a mechanical whole. In complex societies, there is a complex system of division of labor, differentiated functions of individuals, therefore the individuals themselves differ from each other in lifestyle and consciousness. They are united by functional connections, and their solidarity is “organic”, functional. Both types of solidarity are represented in any society, but in archaic societies mechanical solidarity predominates, and in modern societies organic solidarity predominates.

German classic of sociology M. Weber viewed the social as a system of domination and subordination. His approach was based on the idea of society as the result of a struggle for power and to maintain dominance. Societies are classified according to the type of dominance that prevails in them. The charismatic type of dominance arises on the basis of the personal special power - charisma - of the ruler. Priests or leaders usually possess charisma, and such dominance is non-rational and does not require a special system of management. Modern society, according to Weber, is characterized by a legal type of domination based on law, characterized by the presence of a bureaucratic management system and the operation of the principle of rationality.

Typology of the French sociologist Zh. Gurvich features a complex multi-level system. He identifies four types of archaic societies that had a primary global structure:

tribal (Australia, American Indians);
tribal, which included heterogeneous and weakly hierarchized groups united around a leader endowed with magical powers (Polynesia, Melanesia);
tribal with a military organization, consisting of family groups and clans (North America);
tribal tribes united into monarchical states (“black” Africa).

charismatic societies (Egypt, Ancient China, Persia, Japan);
patriarchal societies (Homeric Greeks, Jews of the Old Testament era, Romans, Slavs, Franks);
city-states (Greek poleis, Roman cities, Italian cities Renaissance);
feudal hierarchical societies (European Middle Ages);
societies that gave rise to enlightened absolutism and capitalism (Europe only).

IN modern world Gurvich identifies: technical-bureaucratic society; a liberal democratic society built on the principles of collectivist statism; society of pluralistic collectivism, etc.

Typologies of society in modern sociology

The postclassical stage of development of sociology is characterized by typologies based on the principle of technical and technological development of societies. Nowadays, the most popular typology is one that distinguishes between traditional, industrial and post-industrial societies.

Traditional societies characterized by high development of agricultural labor. The main sector of production is the procurement of raw materials, which is carried out within peasant families; members of society strive to satisfy mainly domestic needs. The basis of the economy is the family farm, which is able to satisfy, if not all of its needs, then a significant part of them. Technical development extremely weak. The main method in decision making is the “trial and error” method. Social relations are extremely poorly developed, as is social differentiation. Such societies are tradition-oriented, therefore, oriented towards the past.

Industrial society - a society characterized by high industrial development and rapid economic growth. Economic development is carried out mainly due to an extensive, consumer attitude towards nature: in order to satisfy its current needs, such a society strives for the most complete development of the natural resources at its disposal. The main sector of production is the processing and processing of materials, carried out by teams of workers in factories and factories. Such a society and its members strive for maximum adaptation to the present moment and satisfaction of social needs. The main method of decision-making is empirical research.

Another very important feature of industrial society is the so-called “modernization optimism”, i.e. absolute confidence that any problem, including social, can be solved based on scientific knowledge and technology.

Post-industrial society is a society that originates in currently and has a number of significant differences from industrial society. If an industrial society is characterized by a desire for maximum industrial development, then in a post-industrial society a much more noticeable (and ideally primary) role is played by knowledge, technology and information. In addition, the service sector is developing rapidly, overtaking industry.

In post-industrial society there is no faith in the omnipotence of science. This is partly due to the fact that humanity is faced with negative consequences own activities. For this reason, “ecological values” come to the fore, and this means not only respect for nature, but also Attentive attitude to balance and harmony necessary for adequate development of society.

The basis of post-industrial society is information, which in turn gave rise to another type of society - informational. According to supporters of the theory of the information society, a completely new society is emerging, characterized by processes that are opposite to those that took place in the previous phases of the development of societies even in the 20th century. For example, instead of centralization there is regionalization, instead of hierarchization and bureaucratization - democratization, instead of concentration - disaggregation, instead of standardization - individualization. All these processes are driven by information technology.

People offering services either provide information or use it. For example, teachers transfer knowledge to students, repairmen use their knowledge to maintain equipment, lawyers, doctors, bankers, pilots, designers sell their specialized knowledge of laws, anatomy, finance, aerodynamics and color schemes to clients. They do not produce anything, unlike factory workers in an industrial society. Instead, they transfer or use knowledge to provide services for which others are willing to pay.

Researchers are already using the term " virtual society" to describe the modern type of society, formed and developing under the influence information technologies, especially Internet technologies. The virtual, or possible, world has become new reality due to the computer boom that has swept society. Virtualization (replacement of reality with a se simulation/image) of society, researchers note, is total, since all the elements that make up society are virtualized, significantly changing their appearance, their status and role.

Post-industrial society is also defined as a society " post-economic", "post-labor", i.e. a society in which the economic subsystem loses its decisive significance, and labor ceases to be the basis of all social relations. In a post-industrial society, a person loses his economic essence and is no longer considered an “economic man”; he focuses on new, “postmaterialist” values. The emphasis is shifting to social and humanitarian problems, and the priority issues are the quality and safety of life, the self-realization of the individual in various social spheres, in connection with which new criteria for welfare and social well-being are being formed.

According to the concept of post-economic society, developed by the Russian scientist V.L. Inozemtsev, in a post-economic society, in contrast to an economic society focused on material enrichment, the main goal for most people is the development of their own personality.

The theory of post-economic society is associated with a new periodization of human history, in which three large-scale eras can be distinguished - pre-economic, economic and post-economic. This periodization is based on two criteria: the type of human activity and the nature of the relationship between the interests of the individual and society. The post-economic type of society is defined as a type of social structure where human economic activity becomes more intense and complex, but is no longer determined by its material interests, and is not set by traditionally understood economic feasibility. The economic basis of such a society is formed by the destruction of private property and a return to personal property, to the state of non-alienation of the worker from the tools of production. Fast- economic society a new type of social confrontation is inherent - the confrontation between the information-intellectual elite and all people who are not included in it, engaged in the sphere of mass production and, due to this, pushed to the periphery of society. However, each member of such a society has the opportunity to enter the elite himself, since membership in the elite is determined by abilities and knowledge.

IN scientific literature For example, in sociological dictionaries and textbooks, there are various definitions of the concept of traditional society. Having analyzed them, we can identify the fundamental and determining factors in identifying the type of traditional society. Such factors are: the dominant place of agriculture in society, not subject to dynamic changes, the presence of social structures of different stages of development that do not have a mature industrial complex, opposition to the modern one, the dominance of agriculture in it and low rates of development.

Features of a traditional society

Traditional society is an agrarian society, therefore it is characterized by manual labor, division of labor according to working conditions and public functions, regulation public life based on tradition.

There is no single and precise concept of traditional society in sociological science due to the fact that broad interpretations of the term “” make it possible to classify social structures that differ significantly from each other in their characteristics, for example, tribal and feudal society, to this type.

According to the American sociologist Daniel Bell, a traditional society is characterized by the absence of statehood, the predominance of traditional values and a patriarchal way of life. Traditional society is the first in time of formation and arises with the emergence of society in general. In the periodization of human history, this occupies the longest time period. It identifies several types of societies according to historical eras: primitive society, slave-owning ancient society and medieval feudal society.

In a traditional society, as opposed to an industrial and post-industrial societies, man is entirely dependent on the forces of nature. Industrial production in such a society is absent or occupies a minimal share, because traditional society is not aimed at producing consumer goods and there are religious prohibitions against polluting nature. The main thing in a traditional society is to maintain the existence of man as a species. The development of such a society is associated with the extensive spread of humanity and the collection of natural resources from large territories. The main relationship in such a society is between man and nature.

Introduction

The relevance of the research topic is due to the fact that for several years now the question has been raised about what approach to analysis social phenomena one must choose: formational or civilizational. It is necessary to analyze this approach in the study of traditional society and the state, to identify all the pros and cons of the civilizational approach.

The theoretical development of the topic is enshrined in the works of many scientists, such as A. Toynbee, O. Spengler, P. A. Sorokin, G. Jellinek, W. Rostow.

This approach was studied by such scientists as V.S. Stepin, V.P Karyakov, A. Panarin.

Traditional society in the civilizational approach is studied by D. Bell, O. Toffler, Z. Brzezinski.

Relevance and theoretical elaboration make it possible to highlight the object of research and the subject.

The object is the initial stage of the civilization process (pre-industrial (agrarian)), considering which we will come to a more detailed knowledge of the subject of research.

Subject: Traditional society and the agrarian state in the civilizational approach of the typology of states.

Object and subject allow you to outline goals and objectives.

The purpose of the study is to examine in detail the development of traditional society and the agrarian state within the framework of this approach.

Research objectives:

1. Traditional society and the agrarian state;

2. Study of the problem of the civilizational approach in the typology of states

The solution to the assigned tasks is planned to be carried out using the following methods: analysis, method of systematization of the historical base.

The structure of the course work is determined by the goals and objectives of this research and includes the following parts: introduction, two main parts and a conclusion, a list of sources and literature used. The introduction determines the relevance of the topic, theoretical elaboration, the object and subject of the study are determined, goals and objectives are set, methods are indicated .

traditional society civilizational state

Development and formation of traditional society

Traditional society is a society that is regulated by tradition. Preservation of traditions is a higher value in it than development. The social contribution in it is characterized by a rigid class hierarchy, the existence of stable social communities (especially in Eastern countries), and a special way of regulating the life of society, based on traditions and customs. This organization of society strives to preserve the socio-cultural foundations of life unchanged. Traditional society is an agrarian society.

A traditional society is usually characterized by:

1. Traditional economics

2. The predominance of the agricultural structure;

3. Structure stability;

4. Estate organization;

5. Low mobility;

6. High mortality rate;

7. Low life expectancy.

In a traditional society, collectivist attitudes predominate, individualism is not encouraged (since freedom of individual action can lead to a violation of the established order, time-tested). In general, traditional societies are characterized by the predominance of collective interests over private ones, including the primacy of the interests of existing hierarchical structures (state, clan, etc.). What is valued is not so much individual capacity as the place in the hierarchy (official, class, clan, etc.) that a person occupies.

One of those who studied traditional society is the American economist and political thinker Walt Whitman Rostow. In his works “Stages of Economic Growth” and “Politics and Stages of Growth” he describes traditional society as one of the stages of development of socio-economic trends. In this case, the level of development of productive forces is taken as a basis. For a “traditional society,” W. Rostow believed, it is characteristic that over 75% of the working population is engaged in food production. National income is used mainly unproductively. This society is structured hierarchically, political power belongs to landowners or the central government Rostow W. The Stage of Economic Growth. A Non-communicative Manifesto. Cambridge, 196O. See also: Rostow W. The Process of Economic Growth. 2 ed. Oxford, 1960. P. 307-331.

In a traditional society, most people live their entire lives in a local community (for example, a village), and connections with the “big society” are rather weak. At the same time, family ties, on the contrary, are very strong.

The worldview (ideology) of a traditional society is determined by tradition and authority.

Traditional society is relatively stable, industrial society is constantly enlivened by change. This does not mean, as some journalists write, that history is accelerating. Everything is going as it should be, it’s just that industrial society is created for change and can change while remaining itself; traditional society is changing relatively slowly, but very deeply.

Traditional society, as a rule, is small in number and located in a relatively limited area. Expression mass society emphasizes the gigantic size of industrial society, contrasting it with the relatively small size of traditional society. This leads to specialization and diversity, which are more characteristic of social units (groups and individuals) within a social society.

There are many traditional societies and they are all different; they say that they have one thing in common - that they are not modern. Modern societies are the same in their basic structures and manifestations.

The concept of traditional society covers a huge historical era - from (conditionally) a patriarchal-tribal society with a dominant mythological consciousness to (also conditionally) the end of the feudal period, which was characterized by domination subsistence farming, the division of society into classes with their privileges, with fairly strict, including legal, inter-class partitions, monarchical hereditary power.

A traditional society is characterized by a slow growth of the means of production, which gives rise to the idea of the limited benefits of life available to society (the stereotype of a constant pie) and the possibilities of nature as a source of benefits. Therefore, an important concern for society is to comply with the usual measure of distribution of available means of subsistence.

Production in a traditional society is focused on direct consumption.

In traditional society, kinship is the main form social organization, V modern society it ceased to be such, and the family not only separated from the kinship system, but also became isolated from it. Most contemporaries do not know their names distant relatives, say, second cousins. Close relatives also gather less often than before. Most often, the reason for their meeting is anniversaries and holidays.

In a traditional society, an individual cannot change the position given to him at birth.

Pre-industrial sociality is based on interpersonal relationships. In the scientific literature, when applied to non-market relations, it is customary to use different terms: communocratic, communalist, solidarist, collectivist, associative relations. Each of them is justified to a certain extent, although it implies a specific version of such relationships or some aspect of them. The definition of these relations as communal or traditional turns out to be too vague or partial and does not reflect the essence of the situation.

Egalitarianism in traditional societies coexisted in a complex interweaving with the principles of hierarchism, clearly fixed in consciousness. The degree and nature of hierarchy changed sharply depending on the level social differentiation. Rank, caste, estate divisions, formalized external signs and norms of behavior, became in the consciousness the embodiment of the internal value of individuals. Such a system develops not only obedience, but also admiration, servility, flattery towards superiors and attitudes towards dominance and contempt towards inferiors. Domination and subordination are perceived as components of in-group solidarity, within which big man(a good monarch, landowner, leader, official) provides obligatory patronage, and the little man repays him with obedience.

Distribution in a traditional society is closely related to the egalitarianism and hierarchism of traditional society and consciousness.

Wealth in a traditional society is also closely related to the system of interpersonal relationships and is necessary to maintain it. As mentioned above, material well-being served to confirm social status and the implementation of the responsibilities accompanying it.

Wealth in traditional societies is not associated with work and economic entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship, too, as a rule, is not associated with economic activity. The traditional nobility, possessing great wealth, considers farming an unworthy occupation, incompatible with its status, and disdains entrepreneurial pursuits. The peasantry and artisans in a traditional economy are not able to produce so much in order to get rich and increase their business activity, and they do not set such a goal for themselves. This does not mean that in traditional societies there is no thirst for wealth and profit and enterprise at all - they exist always and everywhere, but in traditional societies every passion for profit, every thirst for money strives for its satisfaction outside the process of production of goods, transport of goods and even more part and trade in goods. People run to the mines, dig treasures, practice alchemy and all sorts of magic in order to get money, because it cannot be obtained within the framework of ordinary farming. Aristotle, who most deeply understood the essence of the pre-capitalist economy, therefore quite correctly considers the making of money beyond the limits of natural need not belonging to economic activity

Trade in traditional societies has a different meaning than in modern capitalist ones. First of all, goods are not simply exchange values, and the buyer and seller are impersonal participants in the exchange. Goods are use values, bearing the sign of those social relations that in pre-bourgeois societies are associated with the consumption of material goods, and these relations, symbolic and prestigious, primarily determine prices.

Exchange in traditional societies extends beyond just goods. The most important element of traditional interpersonal relationships is service.

If in traditional society social control was based on unwritten rules, then in modern society it is based on written norms: instructions, decrees, regulations, laws.

Thus, traditional societies are often the most stable until changes occur. But as soon as norms and values begin to be questioned, people experience a sharp devaluation of their aspirations. Some scientists call this situation a revolution of rising expectations. It is known, for example, that revolutions arise not where people are poor, but where living conditions improve. The thing is that, in parallel with the improvement of living conditions, the desires and needs of people are significantly expanding. Revolutions and other uprisings are most likely when periods of improvement in living conditions are interrupted and a gap is created between the increase in needs and the decline in opportunities for their implementation.

Let us recall that traditional societies are characterized not only by zero economic growth and a desire for a kind of egalitarianism, but also by a rigid religious (or specific) so-called village system of values, morals, and customs that serve as the basis for a sense of national community. The highest values within the traditional model are stability and order, as well as immutability moral values passed on from generation to generation. Significant characteristics also include the isolation of the social structure and the stability of customs and traditions.

The most important characteristic of the economy of traditional societies is that consumption, both physically necessary and prestigious, is determined by social status. At the same time, status in a traditional society is also a vital need of the individual, and the level of consumption is designed to demonstrate it.

The value of labor within traditional societies is ambiguous. The reason for this is the existence of two subcultures (ruling and producing classes) and certain religious and ethical traditions. But in general, forced physical work has a low social status. Changes in the value of work are associated with the spread of Christianity. Medieval theologians already saw work as a necessary activity, since it contributed to a righteous lifestyle. Labor is recognized as worthy of praise as mortification of the flesh, atonement for sin, but it should not be accompanied even by the thought of acquisition or enrichment. For Saint Benedict, work is an instrument of salvation, since it allows one to help others (monastic almsgiving) and because, by occupying the body and mind, it drives away sinful temptations. Work is also valuable for the Jesuits, for whom working well is the mission that the Lord entrusted to us on Earth, a way to participate in the divine creation of the world. A person is obliged to work, and the purpose of work is to satisfy needs, eliminate idleness and do charity.

In a patriarchal system (traditional society), almost all norms of economic behavior, down to the quantitative parameters of production and distribution of specific goods, are almost unchanged. They are formed and exist literally as an integral part of the economic entity itself.

That is why the bazaar in traditional societies is not just a place of trade. First of all, it is a place of communication where not only transactions are concluded, but also interpersonal relationships are established.

The purpose of economic activity in traditional societies is not only to provide oneself with the necessary products, but also (at least at the level of normative ethics) moral improvement; the purpose of distribution is to maintain a stable social (divine) order. The same goal is achieved by exchange and consumption, which are largely of a status nature. It is not surprising that enterprise and economic activity are not values for this culture, since they undermine the order established by God, violate the foundations of order and justice http://www.ai08.org/index (Electronic resource). Large technical dictionary..

As we understand, traditional society is an agrarian society that is formed in agrarian-type states.

Moreover, such a society can be not only landowning, like the society of ancient Egypt, China or medieval Rus', but also based on cattle breeding, like all the nomadic steppe powers of Eurasia (Turkic and Khazar Khaganates, the empire of Genghis Khan, etc.). And even when fishing in the exceptionally fish-rich coastal waters of Southern Peru (in pre-Columbian America).

Characteristic of a pre-industrial traditional society is the dominance of redistributive relations (i.e. distribution in accordance with the social position of each), which can be expressed in the most different forms: centralized state economy of ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia, medieval China; Russian peasant community, where redistribution is expressed in regular redistribution of land according to the number of eaters, etc.

In the modern world, types of agrarian states are still preserved. The pre-industrial type of social organization dominates today in most African countries, a number of countries Latin America and South Asia.

In the next chapter we will look at agrarian society in the civilizational approach of the typology of states. The significance of the agricultural state in this approach.