The birth of religion and art. The emergence of religion and art in primitive society

The concepts of religion and art have always been closely interconnected. A person very often embodies his spiritual enlightenment in the material world by creating objects of art.

It happens, on the contrary: through art one comes to religion. Both religion and art elevate a person’s soul, help him get closer to spiritual world, to feel the essence of existence. Religion and art – two the most important factors in the development of any civilization. They are very organically woven into the structure of society and are its main regulatory component.

The birth of religion and art coincided with the completion of the physical and mental formation of Homo Sapiens (intelligent man), in the late Paleolithic era 35-11 thousand years ago.

How did religion appear?

First religion existed in the form of animism and fetishism. Ancient people could not find an explanation for such simple natural phenomena as rain, thunder, lightning, wind, snow. This gave rise to a belief in an otherworldly world of spirits that control the nature around them. To appease the spirits of nature, people began to make sacrifices to them and perform certain shamanic rituals. During the Neanderthal period, belief in the human soul and its life after death appeared.

Neanderthals believed that the spirits of their deceased ancestors were watching over their lives. Animism was replaced by fetishism. Ancient people filled a material thing with magical meaning, and believed that it would bring them good luck and protect them from evil forces. They believed that the objects that surrounded them carried supernatural powers. Later Magi appeared I, thanks to whom people reached a new stage of religious development. They not only protected themselves from negative factors, but for the first time tried to influence the events that took place in their lives with the help of magical rituals.

How did art come about?

Gradually, ancient people, using natural paints (coal, clay, stones) started drawing animals and plants on the walls of their caves. This is how it appeared first art. The first drawings of ancient people have survived to this day in Russia and Europe. They amaze with their accuracy of observation of the world around them. Images of mammoths, bison, and scenes of everyday life became the first manifestations of human creativity. This speaks of spiritual growth of ancient people, because it was no longer enough for them to simply get their own food and have a home, they needed a sublime expression of their feelings, which was reflected in drawing.

Later, ancient people began to make figurines from wood and mammoth tusks. This is how the first sculpture was born. In the spiritual development of the primitive world, art played the same significant role, like the invention of the first tools for field work. The emergence of religion and art is closely connected with the expansion of the perception of the world of consciousness of the first people. After all, these are those integral things that are inherent in the life of every person. Thanks to their origin, a peculiar line was drawn that divided the development of man, brought him out of animal needs and made him a full-fledged personality.

1.ensure that students understand the concepts of “religion”, “art”, the reasons for their appearance

2.continue to develop the skills to reason, think logically, and simply analyze historical facts;

3. cultivate a sense of beauty.

Lesson type: lesson on learning new material

Equipment: textbook, presentation “The Emergence of Art and Religious Beliefs”, workbook on the history of the ancient world issue 1.

During the classes

I. Organizing time

2. Repetition of covered material.

Over the course of several lessons, we have studied the life of primitive man. Let's

Let's remember what we learned. Now, to get ready for the next lesson, we

Let's play a little.

1. Warm-up game. I will ask you questions and we will see who is more competent and complete

will give answers.

Slide 2

1.Testing

2. Prepare a detailed answer to the question “What helped primitive people survive in new natural conditions?” To do this, remember:

What natural changes occurred on earth approximately 100,000 years ago?

How has the animal world changed?

What new tools and weapons did man invent?

What is a clan community called?

Draw a conclusion.

■ Approximate student answer: About 100 thousand years ago, a strong event happened on earth

cold snap. A glacier was advancing from the north into the territory of Europe and Asia. In these new

in natural conditions, man survived because he learned to use fire, dig

dugouts, mastered the caves, began to sew clothes. The animal world has changed too. Appeared

smaller animals that were more difficult to hunt. That's why the man came up with

Bow and arrows. And also people became tribal communities, i.e. groups of relatives,

having everything in common.

3. Solving creative problems with the class

Slide 3 Algorithm for solving creative problems .

Task No. 1

During archaeological excavations, 339 stone tools were found in the Teshik-Tash grotto

and over 10,000 fragments of animal bones. Of the total number of bones it was possible

establish the identity of 938. Of these, horses - 2, bears - 2, mountain goats - 767,

leopard - 1.

Determine the main occupation of the inhabitants of the Teshik-Tash grotto?

Answer: Hunting.

The task can also be formulated as follows: “What conclusions can be drawn based on these

archaeological data?

Answer: People hunted, caught more mountain goats, fewer horses,

bears and leopards.

Task No.

A. Describe the ancient tools from the drawings.

B. Which archaeological finds indicate habitats of ape-men, and which indicate

Stone Age sites?

Answer: The first sign of an ancient human site is traces of a fire, debris is good

processed stone tools (for the ape-men, split pebbles).

III. Transition to studying a new topic

Slide6

And now we will get acquainted with new material,today in class we will get into

The most interesting and fascinating world is the world of ancient man.

Slide 7

Let's penetrate into the mysterious, hard-to-reach caves where ancient people hid from natural disasters, lived and kept their deepest secrets. The purpose of our lesson: to find out what types of art appeared in primitive society How did religious beliefs arise, how was this expressed?

Slide 8

Lesson plan:

1. Reasons for the emergence of religion

2. The emergence of art

Slide 9

Ancient people knew a lot, but they did not know the true causes of natural phenomena. They were afraid of thunder, lightning, hurricanes, floods, fires, and considered the sun, moon, stars, trees, rivers, and stones to be alive. Everything in nature had its own spirit. Spirits in relation to people could be both good and evil. To appease the spirits of nature, people made sacrifices to them and performed special rituals in their honor.

They believed in an afterlife. Ancient people believed that every person has a soul. The soul is an incorporeal principle that makes a person a living and thinking being.

When a person sleeps, he does not notice or hear anything. This means his soul has left his body. It is impossible to wake a person abruptly: the soul will not have time to return.

People believed that when the soul leaves the body, the person physically dies, but his soul continues to live.

People believed that the souls of their ancestors moved to the distant “land of the dead.”

Slide 10

In caves and special structures, archaeologists find burials of ancient people.

2.Work with additional literature.

A short text is quoted.

“...They decided to clear one grave. The first burial and quite rich. It turned out

female. At the head there was a birch bark box with temple decorations

pendants, beads. Archaeologists call such boxes with gifts sacrificial.

complexes. Most often these are small birch bark containers, tightly closed with a lid.

Sometimes there were two or even three sacrificial complexes in the grave. Moreover, the number of things

exceeded twenty copies. The men's graves were much poorer. In them

iron knives, arrow and spear tips, quiver hooks, swords, parts were found

horse harness, bits, stone grinders and the like..."

Goldina R. D. “Silhouettes of melted times.” - Izhevsk, 1996. P. 131,134.

3. Conversation on questions about the text.

- Why do archaeologists dig up people's graves? (To get real

monuments, and therefore information.)

- How do they define a female or male burial? (According to finds.)

- Why did people put different things in their graves? (They believed that all this would be useful to them in

land of the dead, they believed in an afterlife.)

The souls of ancestors could, according to ancient people, interfere in the affairs of the living and help them

or harm. Witchcraft, magic, belief in spirits, in the existence of the soul testify to

the emergence of religious beliefs among ancient people. As primitive people developed

Their religious ideas also became more complex. People believed that nature and life

They are controlled by special higher beings who are more powerful and perfect. Their

represented either in the form of animals or in images similar to humans. So among the primitives

people began to believe in gods, religion

Slide 11

Scientists have noticed that primitive people often portrayed themselves as mortally wounded

animals.Why do you think?

Hunters were afraid that there would be fewer animals in the forests, and that fish would disappear from lakes and rivers.

They believed that by drawing animals in the cave, they would be enchanted and not

will leave the area. And the image of a wounded animal will lead to a successful hunt.

Before the hunt, hunters performed a witchcraft ritual, striking the drawn picture with their spears.

animal on the sand. Observations of tribes in Australia helped scientists find out.

made nowadays

Slide12

How did a man bewitch the beast? Who are werewolves? Independent work with the textbook

p.15 &3 p. 3

Attempts to influence the future and natural phenomena through rituals or

witchcraft remedies led to the emergence of magic. Sorcerers and magicians used great

respect among primitive people. Often they led the community. The magic is near

magic. It uses spells, magical actions, enchantments. Magic helps

to perform miracles - this is what ancient people believed.

These were the first religious beliefs

So, we can conclude that in ancient times primitive religious

erogation. What kind of beliefs are these? Let's read the definition in the textbook on page 18: “Beliefs

into witchcraft, into werewolves, into the soul, into life after death are called religious.

4. Work on a new concept.

Slide 13.

Religion - this is belief in the supernatural (gods, spirits, souls, idols) and worship of them.

The term is on the slide, students write it down in their notebooks

What conclusion can we draw, why did they arise?religious beliefs?

1.from the powerlessness of man before the power of nature; from the inability to explain many of its phenomena.

2. They arose with the advent of Homo sapiens, capable of not only taking care of his immediate needs, but also reflecting on himself, his past and future.

3.Religious beliefs were manifested in the performance of special rituals associated with important events in life.

2. The emergence of art

Children love to draw. Ancient people were direct in their relationship to the world

and look like children.

Amazing messages came to us from the past, 35-30 thousand years distant from us.

Ancient people left images of their palms on the walls of caves. One day a man

put his hand to the wall and then traced it with colored earth. The result is an image of a hand.

Remember how you sent a letter to your grandparents when you were very small and

They didn’t know how to write, so they traced their palms with a pencil. Possibly the oldest images of hands

the walls of the famous Altamira cave in northern Spain reflect the desire of the ancient

a person to leave the imprint of his own life forever.

Slide14

This was the first manifestation of human creativity. This is how it began

art.

Slide 15

Let's watch a video about ancient painting.

Slide 16
What do ancient drawings represent? Describe the image, Do you like it and, if so, why? The answers are summarized (“the deer eats or drinks, he has a beautiful head and antlers”)

Slide17

What was the skill of the first artists? The most ancient artists managed to convey not only the appearance but also the character of the animals they hunted - bison, bears, rhinoceroses. They portrayed deer as sensitive and wary. The horses are fast and swift. Mammoths are massive and heavy.

In 1959, remarkable monuments of ancient history were discovered in the Kalova Cave in the Urals.

art. Mammoths, rhinoceroses and horses were painted in red paint on the walls of the cave. The animal figures are depicted with great conviction. They resemble images in the ancient caves of Europe, which testifies to the unity of the art of primitive people.

Slide18

Our ideas about

ancient people. Drawings became the first way of transmission from person to person

information – his “letter”. This is evidenced by the recording of the ancient Indians about the conditions

exchanging 30 killed beavers for an otter and a sheep.

5. Work on a new concept.

Painting is the creation of images on a plane using paints.

Rock symbolism.

The first drawings werepictograms - symbolic signs. The very first symbol and drawing of a person was the imprint of a person’s hand or foot - which can probably be compared with the modern inscription “I was here!” Particularly popular were signs depicting the sun and moon, the so-called solar signs, which were drawn in the form of circles with diverging rays. After all, already in ancient times, people wondered what gives warmth, why day follows night. Why does one luminary, the sun, come to replace another is the moon. Especially many such signs were discovered in Western European countries.

Petroglyphs (writings or rock carvings) - carved images on a stone base (from ancient Greek πέτρος - stone and γλυφή - carving

Ancient people deserve the credit for creating painting, which has become the property of world spiritual culture.

Slide 22

The birth of sculptureThe earliest people were the first sculptors: in stone

and in clay they recreated the world they knew well.

If these were animals, then they were certainly strong and powerful, sometimes pierced by arrows, often wounded or dying. Female figurines were especially peculiar, since it was believed that a woman was the perpetrator of the family. Therefore, she was depicted as pregnant: with large breasts, a thick belly, and short plump legs. Only such a woman could survive in those cruel times and give the world another hunter or fisherman. The sculptures of men looked thin and agile. They had to feed the family.
Also among the sculptural works were found figures of people imitating ritual dances and ceremonies.)

Slide 23

Conclusion

Ancient man - Homo sapiens, created painting and sculpture even before the advent of agriculture
and cattle breeding, before he invented writing, he built cities. Such was his need for creativity

And now we will have a physical education session.

It's time to work on the creative activities in the workbook.

Students complete assignmentsworkbook ( issue 1) Task 9, p. eleven.

Let's summarize the lesson.

Answer the questions:

What word can replace the following expressions;

Belief in gods and spirits -_______________ (religion).

Images of revered gods and spirits -_____________________ (painting).

Gifts to gods and spirits -____________________ (sacrifice).

A painted animal being defeated by spears is ________________ (witchcraft ritual).

Creatures that were the fantasy of ancient people - ____________ (werewolves).

1.Who was the first to discover and announce to the world about the cave paintings of primitive man? Who was it and where?

about the life of primitive man they could get there?

3.What forms of religious beliefs did Stone Age people have?

4.What types of primitive art do you know?

5.What colors did primitive artists use?

6.What did primitive artists most often depict?

Self-study assignment

2. Prepare a detailed answer to the question “Why did religion and art appear?” Be able to explain these concepts.

3. creative task: draw scenes of hunting, fishing, religious dances or rituals of primitive people, make a model of a primitive man’s dwelling with landscape elements.

References:

1. Vigasin A.A., Goder G.I., Sventsitskaya I.S. Ancient world history. Textbook for 5th grade of general education institutions. M., 2007

2. World history: in 24 volumes. Vol. 1 Stone Age / A.N. Badak, I.E. Voynich and others - Mn.: Literature, 1998

3. GoderG.I. workbook on the history of the ancient world. 5th grade. A manual for students of general education institutions in 2 editions. Issue 1M, 2007

4.O. A. Severina History of the ancient world, grade 5 (in two parts). Lesson plans for the textbook “HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT WORLD, 5th grade” Publishing house "Teacher - AST" Volgograd 2002

5.Electronic library "Enlightenment". ANCIENT WORLD HISTORY. 5th grade Format: PC CD_ROM 6. educational electronic publication “General History” - history of the Ancient World PC CD_ROM

7. Delivered within the framework of the federal target program “Development of a unified educational information environment (2001 – 2005)” THE BIG ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CYRILL AND MEFODIUS" Cyril and Methodius", 2002

8.Interactive book in Russian. Delivered within the framework of the federal target program “Development of a unified educational information environment (2001 – 2005)” MYTHS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD. ENCYCLOPEDIA IN RUSSIAN LANGUAGE

9. . ART OF ANCIENT EGYPT

10 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MATERIAL CULTURE. ORNAMENT DirectMediaPublishing. Moscow TheYorckProjectGmbH. Berlin

Subject: « The emergence of art and religious beliefs" 5th grade.

Target: identify the constituent elements of primitive art and religious beliefs; analyze the cause-and-effect relationship in the formation of the worldview of primitive man.

Planned results:

subject: learn to use the techniques of historical analysis to reveal the essence and meaning of art and religion for primitive man; explain the reasons for the emergence and development of the foundations of spiritual culture in primitive society; study and systematize information based on various historical sources;

meta-subject UUD: form your own point of view; listen and hear each other; independently formulate an educational problem; find ways to solve problems; give definitions of concepts; be able to extract information from texts different types;

personal UUD : to form personal motivation to study new material; realize the importance of cultural and moral heritage for modern people and society as a whole.

Basic concepts: werewolves, soul, religious beliefs, cave painting, “land of the dead,” witchcraft, art.

Equipment : a textbook on the history of the Ancient World, a multimedia board, ½ A4 sheet and pencils of three colors - black, red, brown.

Lesson type: lesson in solving particular problems using the open method.

I. Organizational moment

II. Updating of reference knowledge

Frontal survey (conversation)

The dates are written on the board:2 million l. n., 100 thousand l. n., 40 thousand l. n.

What events relate to the indicated dates?

– Why didn't ancient people die during the cold snap on Earth? List the main reasons.

– Why could only a close-knit group of people succeed in hunting large animals?

– What characteristics of a tribal community does the word “community” express? What characteristics does the word “generic” express?

III . Formation of an educational problem.

The teacher draws students' attention to the topic of the lesson, and on its basis the formation of a learning task occurs.

Lesson topic

"The Emergence of Art and Religious Beliefs"

The teacher highlights the words"art" And"belief"

How do you understand the words “art” and “belief”?

Students give their answers, which the teacher records on the board. From the listed associations we form the main task of the lesson -“To determine the cause-and-effect relationship in the formation of the spiritual life of primitive man”

IV. Learning new material

Cave painting. Mysteries of an ancient drawing

Working with text, reading, conversation, working with illustrations(time, strictly controlled by the teacher, allotted for familiarization with the text).

paragraphs 1, 2 § 3 – independent work with the text.

Conversation on questions:

– How was cave painting discovered?

– Why did primitive artists depict humans poorly and convey the appearance and character of animals well?

– Why did primitive artists depict mammoths, bison, deer, and horses? What role did these animals play in people's lives?

A man “bewitches” the beast. Religious

beliefs.

Teacher's story based on illustrations and creation of a supporting diagram.

In the Paleolithic era, drawings were created depicting people in strange clothes (Appendix 1); according to most scientists, they were sorcerers.(here you can work with the class - Who is a sorcerer?)

Ancient man was powerless in the face of natural phenomena - wind, storm, thunder, lightning, etc. - he feared and worshiped the natural elements. A stable concept is being formed that in order for natural forces to be favorable to a person, one must make a sacrifice to them. This is how paganism arises - the deification of the forces of nature. At the same time, a funeral cult appeared, that is, various rituals and beliefs associated with the burial of the dead.

Other forms of beliefs arise and develop in primitive society:

Totemism is the belief in the mysterious connection of the human race (tribe) with certain animals or plants;

Animism – belief in invisible “spirits” or “souls” that were endowed with animate and inanimate objects;

Magic - witchcraft

Ancient people believed that supernatural forces determined whether a hunt would be successful. Therefore, figures of animals pierced with spears and arrows were painted on the walls of caves (Appendix 2). Some tribes drew a picture of the intended victim on the ground and pierced the drawing with spears during a ritual dance.

Man imagined supernatural forces and deities in different ways - in the form of people, animals, or fantastic creatures. He carved their images from available materials (wood, bone, stone) and worshiped them. In ancient times, even human sacrifices were made to idols.

As religious ideas develop and become more complex, former sorcerers become professional servants of the gods. Gradually they become a special grouppriests , who lived off offerings and passed on their profession by inheritance.

The beliefs that emerged among primitive people - in witchcraft, in the soul, in life after death - are called religious.

V. Consolidation of the studied material

Each student has on his desk ½ A4 sheet and pencils of three colors - black, red, brown.

Exercise:

Draw on a piece of paper a scene from your everyday life, taking into account the basic rules: 1 – you are a primitive person; 2 – we use only three colors (black, red, brown – minimal paint); 3 – features of the rock painting technique (a person is depicted schematically); 4 – limited time (10-15 min.)

VI. Reflection

– What goal and tasks were set before us at the beginning of the lesson?

– Were you able to achieve them?

– What skills and abilities did you acquire in the lesson? Will they be useful to you in everyday life? Can they be used in other lessons?

– What did you hear in class that you would like to think about further? Why do you think this is significant?

VII . Homework

§ 3, task 2 p.20

The teacher announces the task and shows the accompanying image (Appendix 3 )

Why did primitive artists sometimes depict a hand on the body of an animal drawn in a cave?

Annex 1

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

At the initial stages of development, people had no religion. For a long period in the history of human life there was no religion. The beginnings of religion appear only among paleoanthropes - ancient people who lived 80-50 thousand years ago. These people lived during the Ice Age, in harsh climatic conditions. Their main occupation was hunting large animals: mammoths, rhinoceroses, cave bears, wild horses. Paleoanthropes hunted in groups, since it was impossible to defeat a large beast alone. Weapons were made from stone, bone and wood. Animal skins served as clothing, providing good protection from wind and cold. Speaking about the beginnings of religion, scientists point to their burials, which were located in caves and also served as housing. For example, in the Kiik-Koba and Teshik-Tash caves, small depressions were found, which were burial places. The skeletons in them lay in an unusual position: on their sides with their knees slightly bent. Meanwhile, it is known that some tribes of the globe (for example, the Papuans of the Maclay Coast in New Guinea) buried their dead tied: the hands and feet of the deceased were tied with a vine to the body, and then placed in a small wicker basket. In a similar way, people wanted to protect themselves from the dead. The top of the burial was covered with earth and stones. In the Teshik-Tash cave, the skull of a Neanderthal boy was surrounded by ten goat horns stuck into the ground. In the Peterschele cave (Germany), bear skulls were found in special boxes made of stone slabs. Apparently, by preserving bear skulls, people believed that this would allow the killed animals to come back to life. This custom (preserving the bones of killed animals) existed for a long time among the peoples of the North and Siberia.

During the Late Stone Age (40-10 thousand years ago), society became more developed, and religious ideas became more complex. Not only remains were found in Cro-Magnon burials, but also tools and household items. The dead were rubbed with ocher and jewelry was put on them - this suggests that the Cro-Magnons had a belief in the afterlife. Everything that a person used on earth and that they believed would be useful in the afterlife was placed in the grave. Thus, a funeral cult arose in the ancient world.

Man's life was spent in a stubborn struggle with the surrounding nature, before which he felt powerless and fearful. The powerlessness of primitive man is the reason that gave birth to religion.

Man did not know the true causes of the phenomena of the surrounding nature, and everything in it seemed mysterious and enigmatic to him - thunder, earthquake, forest fire and torrential rain. He was constantly threatened by various disasters: cold, hunger, attacks by predatory animals. He felt like a weak and defenseless creature, completely dependent on the world around him. Epidemics carried away many of his relatives every year, but he did not know the cause of their death. The hunt was successful and unsuccessful, but he did not know why. He developed a feeling of anxiety and fear.

Consequently, religion arose because primitive man was powerless over nature. But the most ancient people were even more helpless. Why didn't they have a religion? The fact is that religion could not arise before human consciousness had reached a certain level of development.

There has long been a dispute between scientists and theologians about what early religious rituals were. Theologians say that man has had faith in God from the very beginning. They declare monotheism (monotheism) to be the first, earliest form of religion. Scientists say the opposite. Let us turn to the facts created on the basis of excavations and the study of ancient manuscripts.

Primitive art- art of the era of primitive society. Having emerged in the late Paleolithic around 33 thousand years BC. e., it reflected the views, conditions and lifestyle of primitive hunters (primitive dwellings, cave images of animals, female figurines). Experts believe that the genres of primitive art arose approximately in the following sequence: stone sculpture; rock art; clay dishes. Neolithic and Chalcolithic farmers and herders developed communal settlements, megaliths, and pile buildings; images began to convey abstract concepts, and the art of ornament developed.

Anthropologists associate the true emergence of art with the appearance of homo sapiens, who is otherwise called Cro-Magnon man. Cro-Magnons (these people were named after the place where their remains were first found - the Cro-Magnon grotto in the south of France), who appeared from 40 to 35 thousand years ago, were tall people (1.70-1.80 m), slender, strong physique. They had an elongated, narrow skull and a distinct, slightly pointed chin, which gave the lower part of the face a triangular shape. In almost every way they resembled modern humans and became famous as excellent hunters. They had well-developed speech, so they could coordinate their actions. They skillfully made all kinds of tools for different occasions: sharp spear tips, stone knives, bone harpoons with teeth, excellent choppers, axes, etc.

The technique of making tools and some of its secrets were passed down from generation to generation (for example, the fact that stone heated over a fire is easier to process after cooling). Excavations at sites of Upper Paleolithic people indicate the development of primitive hunting beliefs and witchcraft among them. They made figurines of wild animals from clay and pierced them with darts, imagining that they were killing real predators. They also left hundreds of carved or painted images of animals on the walls and vaults of caves. Archaeologists have proven that monuments of art appeared immeasurably later than tools - almost a million years.

In ancient times, people used materials at hand for art - stone, wood, bone. Much later, namely in the era of agriculture, he discovered the first artificial material- fireproof clay - and began to actively use it for making dishes and sculptures. Wandering hunters and gatherers used wicker baskets because they were easier to carry. Pottery is a sign of permanent agricultural settlements.

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Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation

Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education

"Chuvash State Pedagogical University

them. AND I. Yakovlev"

Department of National and Regional History

on the topic: “Religion and art of the ancient and ancient world”

Completed by: 1st year student of ChSPU

group I-1 Lvova Oksana Olegovna

Checked by: Sergeev T.S.

Cheboksary 2012

Introduction

2. Primitive art

3. The beginning of religion

3.1 Matriarchy, patriarchy

3.2 Fetishism

3.3 Totemism

4. Art of the Ancient World

5. Religion of the Ancient World

5.1 History of the study of religion

5.2 Emergence and early forms of religion: Judaism

5.5 Brahmanism

5.6 Jainism

5.7 Buddhism in India

5.8 Hinduism

5.9 Religion in Ancient China

5.10 Confucius and Confucianism

5.11 Taoism

5.12 Chinese Buddhism

5.14 Lamaism

Conclusion

List of used literature

Introduction

The oldest surviving works of art were created in the primitive era, approximately sixty thousand years ago.

Primitive (or, in other words, primitive) art geographically covers all continents except Antarctica, and in time - the entire era of human existence, preserved by some peoples living in remote corners of the planet to this day.

The appeal of primitive people to a new type of activity for them - art - is one of greatest events in the history of mankind. Primitive art reflected man’s first ideas about the world around him; thanks to it, knowledge and skills were preserved and passed on, and people communicated with each other. In the spiritual culture of the primitive world, art began to play the same universal role that a pointed stone played in labor activity.

Until recently, scientists adhered to two opposing views on the history of primitive art. Some experts considered cave naturalistic painting and sculpture to be the most ancient, while others considered schematic signs and geometric figures. Now most researchers express the opinion that both forms appeared at approximately the same time. For example, among the most ancient images on the walls of caves of the Paleolithic era are imprints of a person’s hand, and random interweaving of wavy lines pressed into damp clay by the fingers of the same hand.

The history of the discovery of primitive art answers these and many other questions.

1. History of the discovery of primitive art

Primitive art originated in Europe during the Late Paleolithic, approximately 30 thousand years BC. We are talking primarily about rock carvings - ancient drawings on cave walls, on open stone surfaces and on individual stones. Rock painting reached its peak in the fifteenth - thirteenth millennia BC. It was during this era of the so-called Würm glaciation that ancient people began to cover the walls and vaults of caves with real picturesque “canvases” that well conveyed the shape, proportions, color and volume of the depicted objects. The most striking examples of such primitive art were discovered in caves in southern France and northern Spain. They were included in the World Heritage List in the first place.

Primitive art is only a part of primitive culture, which, in addition to art, includes religious beliefs and cults, special traditions and rituals.

Primitive art is the art of the era of primitive society. It arose in the late Paleolithic around 30 thousand years BC. e., reflected the views, conditions and lifestyle of primitive hunters (primitive dwellings, cave images of animals, female figurines). Neolithic and Chalcolithic farmers and herders developed communal settlements, megaliths, and pile buildings; images began to convey abstract concepts, and the art of ornament developed. In the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Ages, the tribes of Egypt, India, Western, Central and Minor Asia, China, Southern and Southeastern Europe developed art associated with agricultural mythology (ornamented ceramics, sculpture). Northern forest hunters and fishermen had rock paintings and realistic animal figurines. The pastoral steppe tribes of Eastern Europe and Asia at the turn of the Bronze and Iron Ages created the animal style.

2. Primitive art

The first works of art of the Stone (primitive) age were created around the 25th millennium BC. These are primitive human figurines, mostly female, carved from mammoth ivory or soft stone. Often their surface is dotted with indentations, which probably signified fur clothing.

Works of art from the Early Stone Age, or Paleolithic, are characterized by simplicity of shapes and colors. Rock paintings are, as a rule, the outlines of animal figures, made with bright paint - red or yellow, and occasionally - filled with round spots or completely painted over. Such “pictures” were clearly visible in the twilight of the caves, illuminated only by torches or the fire of a smoky fire.

In the initial stage of development, primitive fine art did not know the laws of space and perspective, as well as composition, i.e. intentional distribution of individual figures on a plane, between which there is necessarily a semantic connection.

The first images of rock art are paintings in the Altamira cave (Spain), dating back to approximately the 12th century BC. - were discovered in 1875, and by the beginning of the First World War there were about 40 similar “art galleries” in Spain and France.

The drawings are well preserved due to the special microclimate of the caves. As a rule, they are located on walls away from the entrance. For example, to see the paintings in the Niau Cave (France, around the 12th millennium BC), you need to cover a distance of 800m. Sometimes they made their way into the cave “galleries” through narrow wells and crevices, often crawling and swimming across underground rivers and lakes.

Gradually, man not only mastered new methods of processing soft stone and bone, which contributed to the development of sculpture and carving, but also began to widely use bright natural mineral paints. Ancient masters learned to convey the volume and shape of an object, used paint of varying thickness, and changed the saturation of tone.

At first, the animals in the drawings looked motionless, but later the primitive “artists” learned to convey movement. Animal figures full of life appeared in the cave paintings: deer running in panic, horses racing in a “flying gallop” (the front legs are tucked in, the hind legs are thrown forward). The boar is scary in its rage: it gallops, baring its fangs and bristling.

Cave paintings had a ritual purpose - when going hunting, primitive man painted a mammoth, wild boar or horse so that the hunt would be successful and the prey would be easy. This is confirmed by the characteristic overlap of some drawings with others, as well as their large number. So image large quantity The bulls in Altamira's paintings are not some kind of artistic technique, but simply the result of repeated drawing of the figures.

At the same time, already at that time, the first signs of narrative appeared in the rock “paintings” - ground images of animals, meaning a herd or herd. For example, horses galloping one after another in the drawings in the Lascaux cave (around the 15th millennium BC, France).

The most striking examples of Middle Stone Age, or Mesolithic, painting are rock paintings on the eastern and southern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula, in Spain (between the 8th and 5th millennium BC). They are located not in the dark, inaccessible depths of caves, but in small rocky niches and grottoes. Currently, about 40 such places are known, including at least 70 separate groups of images.

These paintings differ from the images characteristic of the Paleolithic. Large drawings where animals are represented in life size, were replaced by miniature ones: for example, the length of the rhinoceroses depicted in the Minapida grotto is about 14 cm, and the height of the human figures is on average only 5-10 cm.

"Artists" usually used black or red paint. Sometimes they used both colors: for example, they painted the upper part of a person’s torso red and the legs black.

A characteristic feature of rock art is the unique representation of individual parts of the human body. Exorbitantly long and narrow body, looking like a straight or slightly curved rod; as if intercepted at the waist; the legs are disproportionately massive, with convex calves; the head is large and round, with carefully reproduced details of the headdress.

Like the images found earlier in Spain and France, the paintings of the Mesolithic period are full of vitality: animals do not just run, but seem to fly through the air.

The people depicted on the light gray background of the rocks are also full of rapid energy. Their naked figures are outlined with the same graceful clarity as the silhouettes of animals. The artists of this period achieved true mastery in group images. In this they are significantly superior to cave “painters”. In rock paintings, multi-figure compositions appear, mainly of a narrative nature: each drawing is truly a story in color.

A masterpiece of rock art from the Mesolithic period can be called a drawing in the Gasulha gorge (Spanish province of Castellon). On it are two red figures of shooters aiming at a mountain goat that is jumping from above. The pose of the people is very expressive: they stand leaning on the knee of one leg, stretching the other back and bending their torso towards the animal.

Stone Age art had a huge positive value for the history of ancient humanity. By consolidating his life experience and worldview in visible images, primitive man deepened and expanded his ideas about reality and enriched his spiritual world.

Experts believe that the genres of primitive art arose approximately in the following time sequence: 1. stone sculpture;

2. rock art

3. pottery

In ancient times, people used materials at hand for art - stone, wood, bone. Much later, namely in the era of agriculture, he discovered the first artificial material - refractory clay - and began to actively use it for the manufacture of dishes and sculptures. Wandering hunters and gatherers used wicker baskets because they were easier to carry. Pottery is a sign of permanent agricultural settlements.

It is difficult for us to imagine the music of the primitives; of people. After all, at that time there was no written language and no one knew how to write down either the words of songs or their music. We can get the most general idea of this music partly from the preserved traces of the life of people of those distant times (for example, from rock and cave paintings), and partly from observations of the life of some modern peoples who have preserved the primitive way of life. This is how we learn that even at the dawn of human society, music played an important role in people's lives.

Mothers hummed and rocked their children to sleep; warriors inspired themselves before the battle and frightened their enemies with warlike songs - cries; the shepherds gathered their flocks with drawn-out words; and when people gathered together for some work, measured shouts helped them unite their efforts and cope with the work more easily. When someone from the primitive community died, his relatives expressed their grief in lamenting songs. This is how the most ancient forms of musical art arose: lullabies, military songs, shepherd songs, work songs, funeral laments. These ancient forms continued to develop and have survived even to this day, although, of course, they have changed very much. After all, the art of music is constantly developing, like human society itself, reflecting all the diversity of a person’s feelings and thoughts, his attitude to the life around him. This main feature real art.

Music was an integral part of the games of primitive people. She was inseparable from the words of the songs, from the movements, from the dancing. In the games of primitive people, the rudiments of various types of art - poetry, music, dance, theatrical performance - were merged into one whole, which subsequently became isolated and began to develop independently. Such an undifferentiated (syncretistic) art, more like a game, has been preserved to this day among tribes living in conditions of a primitive communal system.

In ancient music there was a lot of imitation of the sounds of surrounding life. Gradually, people learned to select musical sounds from a huge number of sounds and noises, learned to recognize their relationship in pitch and duration, their connection with each other.

Rhythm was developed in primitive musical art before other musical elements. And there is nothing surprising here, because rhythm is inherent in human nature itself. Primitive music helped people find rhythm in their work. Melodically monotonous and simple, this music was at the same time surprisingly complex and varied rhythmically. Singers emphasized rhythm by clapping or stamping their feet: this is the oldest form of accompanied singing. Compared to the music of primitive society, the music of ancient civilizations stood immeasurably higher. high level development. Bas-reliefs on the ruins of Assyrian temples, Egyptian frescoes and other monuments of distant times have preserved images of musicians for us. But what exactly the musicians played, what the singers sang about, we can only guess.

Much more important for subsequent times the music of Ancient Greece had. It was then heard in theatrical performances, where recitation was replaced by choir singing, and at folk festivals, and in everyday life. Greek poets did not recite their poems, but sang them, accompanying themselves on the lyre or cithara. The Greeks' dances were accompanied by playing the aulos, a wind instrument.

And yet our modern musical culture owes very great values to antiquity. Ancient myths, legends, and tragedies have been a source of inspiration for musicians for many centuries. The plots of the first operas created in Italy at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries were based on Greek myths, and since then composers have returned countless times to the poetic legends of the ancient Greek people. The myth of the singer Orpheus, whose singing made stones cry, pacified wild animals and even helped the singer penetrate the “kingdom of the dead,” gave rise to Gluck’s opera, Liszt’s symphonic poem, and Stravinsky’s ballet.

But it is not only the subjects and images of ancient art that we inherited from the Greeks. Greek scientists paid great attention laws of musical art, its theory. Pythagoras, the famous philosopher and mathematician, laid the foundation for a special science - musical acoustics. Until now, music science uses many terms and concepts that originate from Greek music theory. The words “harmony”, “gamma”, the names of some musical modes (for example, Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian) came to us from Ancient Greece, where they were associated with the names of the tribes that inhabited it.

3. The beginning of religion

In ancient times, man did not even think of separating himself from nature, but this does not mean that he did not strive to understand and explain the world in which he lived. Apparently, one of the first methods of such an explanation was the transference by a person of his own properties and sensations to the entire the world. Thus was born the belief that nature is alive. Stones, trees, rivers, clouds - all these are living creatures, only they are unlike humans, just as a tiger, an elephant, and a bear are unlike him. And those that differ too much from a person may also have completely special properties that are incomprehensible and inaccessible to people. Fire burns, lightning kills, thunder thunders beyond the power of any human being to shout.

People watched as sprouts appeared from the ground, grew stronger, and became trees, which means that someone cared about growing for them edible fruits, someone populated the lands, waters and skies with animals, fish, birds. Someone finally gave birth to the man himself. A sensitive, wary, attentive man of ancient times simply could not help but feel the invisibly present force in the world, on which both life and death depended. Often, when studying primitive beliefs, scientists encounter veneration of this force in the person of matriarchy.

3.1 Matriarchy, patriarchy

Profound changes in the Neolithic era affected not only forms of economic activity, but also religion, which was undoubtedly reflected in art. In pagan religion, two fundamentally different types of beliefs were formed.

Nomadic shepherds worshiped the masculine principle - a god who embodied the powers of a male animal, most often in the form of a bull. They moved from one pasture to another, and their only permanent place there were burials, which they designated with conventional signs. Huge boulders (menhirs) indicated places of cult veneration of ancestors.

Farmers, on the contrary, had permanent housing, and land and livestock constituted their property. Home, hearth, seeds and fertile soil were identified with fertility in the image of a woman. The main symbols of a woman as a bearer of life were the geometry of space, divided into four cardinal directions, and the cycles of the Moon and water. Instead of beliefs in a male god, ideas about the Great Mother appeared. In Mesopotamia it was Innin-Ishtar, and in Egypt it was Isis. Figurines of the Great Mother stood in all the dwellings of farmers. However, as they further developed, all ancient Eastern civilizations moved away from the feminine principle in culture. He was supplanted by the masculine principle. Anthropologists firmly associate the concept of patriarchy with the ancient Eastern civilizations of the mature period.

The era of patriarchy is the time of the decomposition of primitive society and the formation of early states. In other words, the phenomenon of the state and the phenomenon of patriarchy are so closely interconnected that it is simply impossible to separate them from each other. And both of them became the forerunners of the emergence of culture and civilization in the modern sense.

3.2 Fetishism

When the first Portuguese sailors in the 15th century. landed on the coast of West Africa, they encountered a complex and unfamiliar world of ideas of dark-skinned natives. Attempts to convert them to the “true faith” failed, since the local population had their own faith, and the Portuguese were forced to study it. The further they moved into the depths of the African continent, the more they were amazed at the widespread custom among local tribes of worshiping various objects to which supernatural properties were attributed. The Portuguese called them fetishes. This form of religion was later called fetishism. Apparently, it is one of the earliest forms known to all peoples of our planet. Any object that for some reason captured a person’s imagination could become a fetish: a stone of an unusual shape, a piece of wood, parts of an animal’s body (teeth, fangs, pieces of skin, dried paws, bones, etc.). Later, figurines made of stone, bone, wood, and metal appeared. Often a randomly chosen object turned out to be a fetish, and if its owner was lucky, it means that the fetish has magical powers. Otherwise, it was replaced by another. Some peoples had a custom of thanking and sometimes punishing fetishes.

A special group of fetishes is associated with the cult of ancestors, widespread among many peoples of the world. Their images become fetishes that are worshiped. Sometimes these are idols - humanoid figures made of wood, stone, clay, and sometimes the ancestor is represented by a special sign, as was customary, for example, in China.

A striking example of a fetish associated with the cult of ancestors are the Alels of the Yenisei Kets. Alel - wooden doll with big head, with arms, legs, eyes made of beads or buttons, dressed in traditional Ket clothes made of cloth and deer skins. Usually the dolls depict old women who are called upon to help the family in all its affairs. They guard the house, watch over children and livestock - deer, dogs. Alels pass from parents to children. When migrating, they are carried in a special birch bark container. According to the Kets, a person must take care of them, feed them, clothe them, and treat them respectfully. Otherwise, family members risk death.

3.3 Totemism

Fetishism is closely intertwined with other forms of belief, primarily with totemism.

Totemism (“from-otem” in the language of the North American Indians means “his clan”) is a system of religious ideas about the kinship between a group of people (usually a clan) and a totem - a mythical ancestor, most often an animal or plant. The totem was treated as a kind and caring ancestor and patron who protects people - his relatives - from hunger, cold, disease and death. Initially, only a real animal, bird, insect or plant was considered a totem. Then a more or less realistic image of them was enough, and later the totem could be designated by any symbol, word or sound.

Each clan bore the name of its totem, but there could also be more “specialized” totems. For example, all the men of the tribe considered one animal or plant their ancestor, while the women had a different totem.

The choice of totems is often related to the physical and geographical nature of the area. For example, many tribes of Australia have the common totems of the kangaroo, emu, opossum (large pouched rat), wild dog, lizard, raven, bat. At the same time, in desert or semi-desert areas of the country, where natural conditions and fauna are scarce, various insects and plants that are not found in this capacity anywhere else become totems.

Totemism is the religion of an early tribal society, where consanguineous ties are the most important between people. Man sees similar connections in the world around him; he endows all of nature with family relationships. Animals and plants, which form the basis of the life of a hunter and gatherer, become the subject of his religious feelings.

Totemism was once widespread in India. To this day, Indian tribes, living isolated in mountainous and forest areas and not affiliated with Hinduism, maintain a division into genera bearing the names of plants and animals.

Totemic features are clearly visible in the images of gods and heroes in the beliefs of the indigenous people of Central and South America. These are Huitzilopochtli - the hummingbird - the supreme deity of the Aztecs, Quetzalcoatl (Serpent covered with green feathers) - one of the main deities of the Indians, the creator of the world, the creator of man, the lord of the elements.

In the religious ideas of the ancient Greeks, traces of totemism are preserved by myths about centaurs, and frequent motifs of the transformation of people into animals and plants (for example, the myth of Narcissus).

4. Art of the Ancient World

The art of primitive society in the late period of its development approached the development of composition, the creation of monumental architecture and sculpture. In the ancient world, art for the first time achieved integrity, unity, completeness and synthesis of all forms, serving as an expression of large, comprehensive ideas: all works of art that had a social character bear the imprint of epicness, special significance and solemnity. These qualities attracted attention after generations. Even when deep contradictions led to the destruction of the ancient world.

The slave system, which replaced the communal-tribal one, was historically natural and had, in comparison with the previous era, a progressive meaning. It became the basis for the further growth of productive forces and culture. The exploitation of slaves gave rise to the division of physical and mental labor, which created the basis for the development various forms spiritual creativity, including art. From the nameless circle of artisans, great architects, sculptors, carvers, foundries, painters, etc. emerge.

If in pre-class society art was part of human material and labor activity, then with the emergence of the class state it became a unique form of consciousness and acquired importance in social life and class struggle. Artistic creativity at its core retained a folk character, being formed in the sphere of mythological thinking. The increasing complexity of social life contributed to the expansion of the figurative and cognitive range of art. Magical rites and funeral rituals of primitive man were transformed into solemn ceremonies. Funeral mounds were replaced by tombs, arks by temples, tents by palaces, magical rock paintings by pictorial cycles that decorated temples and tombs; they told fascinating stories about the lives of people of the ancient world, and kept folk legends, tales and myths frozen in stone. Instead of naive ritual figurines, monumental, sometimes gigantic statues and reliefs appeared, immortalizing the images of earthly rulers and heroes. Different kinds arts: architecture, sculpture, painting, applied art entered into a commonwealth with each other. The synthesis of arts is the most important achievement of the artistic culture of the ancient world.

In the execution of the work, the difference between craft and art begins to show itself. Perfection of form, sophistication in ornament, grace in the processing of wood, stone, metal, precious stones, etc. are achieved. The artist’s keen observation is now combined with the ability to think in generalized concepts, which is reflected in the emergence of constant types, in strengthening the sense of artistic order, strict laws of rhythm. Artistic creativity in this period, in comparison with pre-class society, becomes more holistic, it is united by common principles and ideas of the era. Large monumental styles emerge.

In religion, complex processes of transition from the worship of the beast to ideas about gods similar to man are carried out. At the same time, in art the image of man is increasingly established, his active power, his ability to perform heroic deeds are glorified.

With all the diversity in the historical development of slave-holding societies of the ancient world, they were characterized by two forms.

The first is the eastern one, where the communal system with its patriarchal foundations was preserved for a long time. Here slavery developed at a slow pace; The burden of exploitation fell on both the slaves and the majority of the free population. Slave-owning despotic states arise between 5 and 4 thousand BC. e. in the valleys and deltas of large rivers - the Nile (Egypt), Tigris and Euphrates (the most ancient states of Mesopotamia), etc. The ideological content of the art of ancient despotism was determined mainly by the requirement to glorify the power of gods, legendary heroes, kings, and perpetuate the social hierarchy. The artists also drew themes from modern life, paying special attention to scenes of collective labor, hunting, and festivals; (Egypt), military historical events (Forward Asia), reproduced in a monumental-epic way. The long-term preservation of communal relations hampered the development of interest in the individual and his personal qualities. The art of Western Asia emphasized common generic principles in the image of a person, sometimes sharpening ethnic features. In Egypt, where a person’s personality acquired great importance, the portrait for the first time in history received a perfect artistic embodiment, largely determining the path of further development of this genre. In the art of ancient Eastern despotism, live observation of nature is combined with folk artistic fantasy or convention, emphasizing the social significance of the depicted character. This convention was slowly overcome in the history of the development of ancient Eastern culture. Art was still not completely separated from craft; creativity remained for the most part nameless. However, in the art of ancient Eastern states, the aspiration for the significant and perfect is already clearly expressed.

The second form of slave society - ancient - is characterized by the rapid replacement of primitive exploitation by developed, the displacement of despotism by Greek city-states, and the social activity of the free population engaged in labor. The relatively democratic character of ancient states, the flourishing of personality, and the trends of harmonious development determined the citizenship and humanity of ancient art. Developing on the basis of mythology, closely connected with all aspects of social life, Greek art was the most striking manifestation of realism in ancient history. The universe ceased to be for Greek thinkers something unknown, subject to irresistible forces. The horror of formidable deities was replaced by the desire to comprehend nature and use it for the benefit of man. The art of Ancient Greece embodied the ideal of beauty of a harmoniously developed personality, which affirmed the ethical and aesthetic superiority of man over the elemental forces of nature. Antique art During its heyday in Greece and Rome, it addressed the masses of free citizens, expressing the basic civic, aesthetic and ethical ideas of society.

In the Hellenistic era - the next stage in the development of ancient artistic culture - art was enriched with new and diverse aspects of the perception of life. It became emotionally intense, imbued with drama and dynamics, but lost its harmonic clarity. At the last stage of its development, during the era of the Roman Republic and Empire, ancient art came to affirm the importance of an individually unique personality. The art of the era of the late empire - the era of the decline of ancient culture - contained in the embryo what would bear fruit later. Thinkers and artists turned to inner world man, outlining the development of European art of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

The historically determined limitations of ancient art lay in the fact that it ignored social life and social contradictions. Ancient art addressed itself mainly to free citizens.

5. Religion of the Ancient World

5.1 History of the study of religion

art Christianity Buddhism Shintoism Lamaism

The first attempts to understand the essence of religion and the reasons for its emergence date back to ancient times. Back in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. Greek philosophers were among the first to draw attention to the fact that religious ideas are not immanently inherent in man, that people invented their gods. Ancient philosophers believed that this was done to instill fear in people, to force them to obey the laws. Fear of menacing natural phenomena, as Democritus believed, lies at the basis of religion.

One of the first to shake blind faith in church dogma at the turn of the 17th century was F. Bacon, who compared the human mind to a distorting mirror that distorts reality, and thereby gave impetus to direct criticism of religion. Bacon's compatriot, the Englishman T. Hobbes, stated that it is the fear of an invisible force, imagined on the basis of inventions made by the state, that is called religion. Ignorance and fear gave birth to religion.

The Dutch philosopher B. Spinoza attacked religion even more harshly. Spinoza saw the origins of religion in man's lack of confidence in his abilities, in his constant oscillations between hope and fear.

The ideas of the 17th century prepared the way for the flowering of even more revealing criticism of religion in the 18th century. P. Halbach considered religion to be a fiction created by human imagination. P.S. Marechal compared religion to a drug, to opium, while drawing attention to the power of religious tradition.

It is religion and the tradition sanctioned by it that largely determines the appearance of a particular civilization. In the life of society, in the history and culture of the people, it played a high role: Christianity, Islam, Indo-Buddhism, and Confucianism - all these doctrines, coupled with local religions such as Taoism, Shintoism, Jainism, so clearly defined the face of civilization that they can be considered her “calling card”. This especially applies to the religions and civilizations of the East.

5.2 Emergence and early forms of religion

The origins of the first religious ideas of the ancestors of modern man are closely connected with the emergence of their early forms of spiritual life. It is possible that even before the completion of the process of “rationality” over thousands of years, the accumulated practice of hunting or burying the dead had already formed norms of behavior among members of the primitive herd.

Firstly, burial practices. The caveman “reasonable” man buried his loved ones in special burials; the dead went through a ritual of certain preparation for their afterlife: their body was covered with a layer of red ocher, household items, jewelry, utensils, etc. were placed next to them. This means that the group that buried their dead already had rudimentary ideas about the afterlife.

Secondly, the practice of magical images in cave painting. Overwhelming majority known to science Cave paintings are scenes of hunting, images of people and animals, or people dressed up as animals.

Totemism arose from the belief of one or another group of people in their kinship with a certain type of animal or plant. Gradually it turned into the main form of religious ideas of the emerging kind. Members of the clan group believed that they descended from ancestors who combined the characteristics of people and their totem.

Animism is the belief in the existence of spirits, the spiritualization of the forces of nature, animals, plants and inanimate objects, attributing intelligence and supernatural power to them.

Monotheistic religions: Judaism

All three monotheistic religious systems, known to the history of world culture, are closely related to each other and flow from one another. The first and oldest of them is Judaism, the religion of the ancient Jews.

The history of the ancient Jews and the process of formation of their religion are known mainly from the materials of the Bible, more precisely, from its ancient part - the Old Testament. At the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. Jews were polytheists, that is, they believed in various gods and spirits, in the existence of the soul. Each more or less large ethnic community had its own main god, to whom they appealed first. Yahweh was one of these kinds of deities - the patron and divine ancestor of one and the tribes of the Jewish people. Later, the cult of Yahweh began to take first place, pushing aside others. Yahweh protects his people and opens all paths for them.

So, the quintessence of the Old Testament is in the idea of God's chosenness. God is one for all - the great Yahweh. But the almighty Yahweh singled out one of all nations - the Jewish.

Judaism not only sharply opposed polytheism and superstition, but was also a religion that did not tolerate the existence of any other gods or spirits along with the great and one God. The distinctive feature of Judaism was expressed in its exclusive belief in the omnipotence of Yahweh.

Judaism of Diaspora Jews. The destruction of the temple (7th year) and the destruction of Jerusalem (133rd year) put an end to the existence of the ancient Jewish state and, with it, ancient Judaism. Another religious organization arose in the diaspora - the synagogue. A synagogue is a house of prayer, a kind of religious and social center of the Jewish community, where rabbis and other Torah scholars interpret sacred texts and pray to Yahweh.

In the Judaism of Diaspora Jews, much attention was paid to the rituals of circumcision, ablutions, fasting, and strict observance of rituals and holidays. A devout Jew must consume only kosher meat (not pork). During the Passover holidays, people were supposed to eat matzah - unleavened flatbread without yeast or salt. Jews celebrated the holiday doomsday, iam-kinur (autumn).

Judaism played a certain role in the history of culture, in particular of Eastern cultures. Through Christianity and Islam, the principles of monotheism began to spread widely in the East. Countries and peoples of the East, especially the Middle East, are closely connected with Judaism by common roots and cultural and genetic affinity. Judaism had a direct influence through the Jews of the Diaspora. Judaism became widespread among some of the mountaineers of the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Ethiopia.

Over time, he became more and more isolated within the framework of his communities and isolated himself from the religions around him. Existing mainly in a Christian or Islamic environment, Judaism practically turned out to be only the earliest version of the dominant religion.

5.3 Christianity in the East

Christianity is the most widespread and one of the most developed religious systems in the world. This is, first of all, the religion of the West. But Christianity is closely connected with the East and its culture. It has many roots in the culture of the ancient East, from where it drew its rich mythopoetic and ritual-dogmatic potential.

How religion appeared relatively late, in an already developed society with acute social, economic and political contradictions.

The main idea of Christianity is the idea of sin and human salvation. People are sinners before God, and this is what makes them all equal.

Besides Russian, the rest orthodox churches, who found themselves in the sphere of domination of the Islamic world, did not receive widespread influence. Only the Greeks, part of the South Slavs, and Romanians were under their spiritual influence.

The Coptic Monophysite Church developed in Egypt - insisted on the single divine essence of Christ. The Armenian-Gregorian is close to the Greek-Byzantine Orthodoxy, the Victorians - followers of the Bishop of Constantinople Nestorius - are the original forerunners of Orthodoxy. The Roman Catholic Church is associated with the East at a relatively late date and comes down to the missionary movement (Asia, Africa, Oceania).

In general, Christianity, represented by various churches and sects, is perhaps the most widespread world religion, dominant in Europe and America, with significant positions in America and Oceania, as well as in a number of regions of Asia. However, it is in Asia, that is, in the East, that Christianity is least widespread.

Islam is the third and last of the developed monotheistic religions. It also originated in the Middle East, had its roots in the same soil, was nourished by the same ideas, and was based on the same cultural traditions as Christianity and Judaism. This religious system developed on the basis of its two predecessors. The holy book of Muslims is the Koran.

Islam played a huge role in the history and culture of not only the Arabs, its first adherents, but also all the peoples of the Middle Eastern region, as well as Iranians, Turks, Indians, Indonesians, many peoples of Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Volga region, the Balkans, and part of the population of Africa. Islam originated among the Arabs, the indigenous inhabitants of Arabia.

The cornerstone of the religious theory of Muslims, the main credo of Islam is the well-known phrase: “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet.” There is only one Allah here - the only and faceless God, the highest and omnipotent, the creator of all things and its supreme judge. The role of Muhammad in the emergence of Islam is difficult to overestimate. It was he who was the founder of the new religion, determined its main parameters, formulated the essence of its principles and gave it its unique specificity.

5.5 Brahmanism

Brahmanism as a system of religious and philosophical views and ritual and cult practice is a direct descendant of Vedic culture. However, Brahmanism is a phenomenon of a new era. Estates appeared - varnas of Brahmans (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (farmers, traders) and Shudras (slaves). The priestly class occupied leading positions: Brahmin priests made sacrifices to the gods, performed rituals, and held a monopoly on literacy, sacred texts, and knowledge.

Through the efforts of the Brahman priests, the so-called Brahmans - prose texts - were compiled.

So, the Brahman priests, the emerging ideas of the supreme Brahman-Absolute - all this led to the formation of Brahmanism - the religion of the ancient Brahmans. The formation of this religion was accompanied by a sharp increase in the status of the Brahmans themselves. Brahmins received payment for the sacrificial rituals they performed: it was believed that without this the sacrifice was useless. According to the Brahmana commentaries, there were 4 forms of payment: gold, bulls, horses and clothes.

5.6 Jainism

Jainism played a significant role in the history and culture of India. The emergence of this teaching is associated with the name of Mahavira Jina, who lived in the 6th century BC. In the beginning, Jina's followers were only ascetics who renounced everything material for the great goal of salvation, liberation from karma. All members of the early Jain community - laymen, priests, ascetic monks, men and women - were subject to certain general laws, observed certain norms of behavior and prohibitions.

The teachings of the Jains proceeded from the fact that the spirit, the soul of a person is higher than his material shell. The soul can achieve salvation and complete liberation if it frees itself from everything material. The world consists of two eternal uncreated categories: jiva (soul) and ajiva (non-living, material principle).

The Jain doctrine is introvertive, that is, it is focused on the individual search for salvation for each individual.

5.7 Buddhism in India

Buddhism as a religious system is incomparably more significant than Jainism. Legend associates its appearance with the name of Gautama Shakyamuni, known world under the name of Buddha, the enlightened one.

Buddha's Teachings. Life is suffering. Birth and aging, illness and death, etc. - all this is suffering. It comes from the thirst for existence, creation, power, eternal life. To destroy this insatiable thirst, to renounce desires - this is the path to the destruction of suffering. The Buddha developed a detailed eight-fold path, a method for realizing truth and approaching nirvana.

In the first centuries of our era, Mahaena Buddhism spread quite quickly in Central Asia, penetrated into China, and through it into Korea and Japan, even in Vietnam. In some of these countries Buddhism began to play a very important role, in others it became the state religion. In India, by the end of the 1st millennium, Buddhism practically ceased to play any noticeable role in its history and culture, in the life of its people. It was replaced by Hinduism.

5.8 Hinduism

In the process of competition between Buddhism and Brahmanism, Hinduism arose as a result of the continuation. At the highest level of the religious system of Hinduism, learned brahmins, ascetics, monks, and yogis preserved and developed the secret meaning of their doctrines. Folk Hinduism adopted and preserved ancient ideas about karma with its ethical basis, and the holiness of the Vedas. In Hinduism simplified and reworked for the needs of the broad masses, new deities, new hypostases of the ancient gods came to the fore.

The three most important gods of Hinduism are Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu. They seemed to divide among themselves the main inherent supreme god functions - creative, destructive and protective.

The priests of Hinduism, the bearers of the foundations of its religious culture and ritual rites, were members of the Brahman castes. In both the Hindu system and the socio-political structure of India, Brahmins continued to occupy a prominent place. From among them, the kings chose advisers and officials. Brahmins were house priests in wealthy families.

During the rituals, the home Brahmin priest performs all the necessary ritual actions right in the house.

The wedding ceremony is the most solemn: the newlyweds walk around the sacrificial fire into which they throw various products, and only after this the marriage is considered concluded. The funeral ritual also differs in its features. There are no cemeteries in India - only sacred places.

5.9 Religion in Ancient China

If India is a kingdom of religions, then China is a civilization of a different type. A true Chinese valued above all else the material shell, that is, his life. The greatest and generally recognized prophets here were considered, first of all, those who taught to live with dignity and in accordance with the accepted norm, to live for the sake of life.

In China, too, there is a higher divine principle - Heaven. But Chinese Heaven is not Yahweh, not Jesus, not Allah, not Buddha. This is the highest supreme universality, strict and indifferent to man. You cannot love her, you cannot merge with her, you cannot imitate her. In the system of Chinese thought, in addition to Heaven, both Buddha and Tao existed.

Ancient China did not know priests. The duties of the high priest in the rituals were performed by the ruler himself, and the functions of the priests assisting him were performed by the officials who served the ruler. These priest-officials were primarily officials of the state apparatus, assistants to the ruler. They usually performed priestly functions on the days of rituals and sacrifices.

5.10 Confucius and Confucianism

Confucius (551-479 BC) was born and lived in an era of great social and political upheaval, when China was in a state of severe internal crisis. Having criticized his own century and highly valued the past centuries, Confucius, on the basis of this opposition, created his ideal of a perfect man - Junzi. A highly moral Junzi had to have two of the most important virtues in his mind: humanity and a sense of duty. The true Zunzi is indifferent to food, wealth, life's comforts and material gain.

“The Noble Man” of Confucius is a speculative social ideal, an edifying set of virtues. Society must consist of two main categories: the top and the bottom - those who think and rule, and those who work and obey. Confucius and the second founder of Confucianism, Mencius, considered such a social order to be eternal and unchanging.

The success of Confucianism was greatly facilitated by the fact that this teaching was based on slightly modified ancient traditions, on the usual norms of ethics and cult.

While not a religion in the full sense of the word, Confucianism became more than just a religion. Confucianism is also politics and administrative system, and the supreme regulator of economic and social processes is the basis of the entire Chinese way of life. For more than two thousand years, Confucianism shaped the minds and feelings of the Chinese, influencing their beliefs, psychology, behavior, thinking, and speech.

5.11 Taoism

Taoism arose in China almost simultaneously with the teachings of Confucius in the form of an independent philosophical doctrine. The founder of Taoist philosophy is considered to be the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu. At the center of the doctrine is the doctrine of the great Tao, universal law and the Absolute. Tao dominates everywhere and in everything, always and limitlessly. Nobody created him, but everything comes from him. To know the Tao, to follow it, to merge with it - this is the meaning, purpose and happiness of life.

5.12 Chinese Buddhism

Buddhism entered China from India. As Buddhism spread and strengthened, it underwent significant Sinicization. Already in the 4th century, Chinese Buddhists tried to prove that Buddha is the embodiment of Tao. Dao-an is the first known Chinese patriarch of Buddhism. He introduced the Shi family sign for Chinese Buddhist monks. The second authority of Chinese Buddhists after Dao-an was Hui-yuan. The Sinicization of Buddhism in its activities was manifested in the establishment of the cult of the Buddha of the West - Amitaba. Buddhism existed in China for almost 2 millennia. He had a huge impact on traditional Chinese culture(art, literature, architecture).

5.13 Buddhism and Shintoism in Japan

Having penetrated Japan in the middle of the 6th century, the teachings of the Buddha turned out to be a weapon in the acute political struggle of noble families for power. By the end of the 6th century, this struggle was won by those who relied on Buddhism. Buddhism spread to Japan in the form of Mahayana and did a lot there for the formation and simplification of a developed culture and statehood. Already from the 8th century, the influence of Buddhism became decisive in the political life of the country. The number of Buddhist temples grew rapidly: in 623 there were 46 of them. Many schools-sects of Buddhism found their second home in Japan.

The complex process of cultural synthesis of local tribes with newcomers laid the foundations of Japanese culture proper, the religious and cult aspect, which was called Shintoism. Shinto (“the way of spirits”) is a designation for the supernatural world, gods and spirits. The origins of Shinto go back to ancient times and include all the forms of beliefs and cults inherent in primitive peoples - totemism, animism, magic, the cult of the dead, the cult of leaders. Ancient Shinto myths retained their own, actually Japanese, version of ideas about the creation of the world. So, originally there were two gods: a god and a goddess. A Shinto shrine is divided into 2 parts: an inner and a closed one, where the kami symbol (shintai) is usually kept, and an outer hall for prayers.

5.14 Lamaism

In the late Middle Ages, in the region of Tibet, a unique form of world religion arose - Lamaism. The doctrinal basis of Lamaism (from Tib. “Lama” - the highest, that is, adept of the teaching, monk) is Buddhism. The new modification of Buddhism - Lamaism - has absorbed a lot from the original source. Lamaism was a kind of synthesis of almost all its main directions. The teachings of Darani - Tantrism, played a significant role in the formation of Lamaism, since almost all the specifics of Lamaism, many of its cults and rituals arose primarily on the basis of Buddhist Tantrism. The foundations of the theory of Lamaism were laid by Tsonghava. Lamaism pushed nirvana into the background as the highest goal of salvation, replacing it with cosmology. Its pinnacle is the Buddha Buddha Adibuddha, the ruler of all worlds.

Conclusion

Primitive art played an important role in the history and culture of ancient humanity. Having learned to create images (sculptural, graphic, painting), man acquired some power over time. The human imagination has been embodied in a new form of existence - artistic, the development of which can be traced through the history of art.

Religion sanctioned and illuminated political power, contributed to the deification of the ruler, turning him into a divine symbol, the connecting unity of a given community. In addition, religion, closely connected with the conservative tradition and consolidating its mechanism, illuminating its norms, has always stood guard over the inviolability of social culture. In other words, in relation to the state and society, religion was the centering basis. It is known that different religious systems did not strengthen the traditional social structure or existing political power to the same extent. Where the religious system weakly supported the state, the government and with it society perished more easily, as can be seen in the example of the ancient Middle Eastern empires, be it Persian, Assyrian or any other. Where it functioned normally, optimally, the result was different. Thus, in China, the religious system energetically illuminated the political structure, which contributed to its preservation for thousands of years in an almost unchanged form. In India, religion was indifferent to the state - and states there easily arose and died, they were fragile and unstable. But in relation to the social structure, religion acted actively and effectively, and this led to the fact that, despite the frequent and easy change of political power, the structure with its castes as the leading force has remained in India almost unchanged to this day.

How did religion appear?

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