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2. Subculture as a special field of culture and its types
The term "counterculture" is closely linked to another, namely, the
"subculture", which allows differentiating the culture into it, so to speak, on the
internal level. Subculture is a set of norms, values, ideals, symbols of a certain
social group, which exists regardless of the culture of society as a whole.
In other words, the subculture is a special sphere of culture, a sovereign,
holistic formation in the midst of a prevailing culture that has its own value,
customs, and norms. The culture of any era is distinguished by its relative integrity,
but in itself is not homogeneous. In the middle of a particular culture, the urban
environment differs from rural, official from casual, aristocratic from democratic,
Christian from pagan, etc. That is why a cultural-historical era appears as a
complex spectrum of cultural trends, styles, traditions. We can recall examples
from ancient culture, which seemed to many people to be holistic and monolithic.
F. Nietzsche saw the confrontation between the Apollonian and the Dionysian
primordials, which represented not the fruit of mythological fantasies, but "two
centres of one being," which led to the rise and decline of the flow of life.
In society, any community is a carrier of a particular subculture. In
particular, there is difference between urban and rural subcultures, youth
subcultures, children's subcultures, subcultures of the elderly, professional
subcultures, etc.
The isolation of the concept of subculture has an important methodological
significance. First of all, it emphasizes the internal differentiation of culture. It
reflects the need for cultural differentiation and self-identification of people as
members of a well-defined social groups. Each group has specific features that can
be summarized by the concept of "way" and "style" of life. Subculture as a
methodological category also allows to distinguish socially acceptable forms of
socio-cultural differentiation (professional, youth, scientific, religious subcultures,
subcultures of national minorities) from anti-social (subculture of fascist
movements, terrorist groups, criminal groups, etc.).
Characteristic features of subcultures are "styles". A style characterizes the
depth of entry into a subculture. There are three main elements of a style: 1) an
image the elements of which are a costume, hair style, cosmetics, jewellery; 2) a
manner of behaviour that is the features of a non-verbal component of
communication (facial expression, pantomime, stroke); 3) slang – a specific
vocabulary that is in use. It is a creative process to invent a style. It is created on
the basis of elements already existing, but by assigning a new specific value to
them.
In youth subcultures, the choice of certain objects used to create a style is
determined by peculiar similarity, correspondence between the meanings of
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