Gurevich, P. S., Shazhinbatyn, A. The Cult of Spirit

Abstract: The review of Ruth Benedict’s book ‘The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture’ provides an analysis of her conception of cultural diversity in the world. This book is published as a part of the program that has being implemented by a famous cultural scientist and editor Svetlana Yakovlevna Levit for many years. Thanks to her, we get to know how culture influences personality and how different values develop in history. An Antique person, for example, was used to spending his earnings on his needs. The more you make, the more benefits and goods you get. He would be certainly puzzled by the idea to put aside money for the ‘black day’. The ones who did put aside money felt rather uncomfortable and experience a neurotic situation. Lenders constantly felt the influence of general cultural traditions of those times that disapproved of ‘thinking life ahead’. However, today a young person would feel nervous just for the opposite reasons. Would we consider someone normal if he says he feels the appearance of an animal and even show certain signs on his body proving it? However, it is quite natural in bushman’s culture, although a European would certainly feel neurotic in such a situation. For Japanese men the tradition of harakari is an affair of honor. The one who could not do it, would be scorned. But in Orthodox culture such a deed would be considered as a death of one’s soul. Marriage agreements became quite popular in the West but they are still not that adopted in Russia. The thought of concluding a marriage contract when having a church marriage is believed to be blasphemous. An Archaic man taking to his deceased grandfather would seem a psychotic to modern people. But it was considered to be the norm in ancient cultures. A Jewish would feel joyful about lending money at a big interest rage, while a Russian would only fee sorrow and remorseful about it. This is the cultural diversity Svetlana Yakovlevna Levit’s editor’s program is telling us about.

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