Gurevich, P. S. Discovery of Human Through Cultural Artifacts

Abstract: Generally speaking, cultural anthropology is the knowledge about human as a creator and culture-bearer. Human is viewed as a biological creature whose nature has been transformed and defined by culture. Cultural anthropology synthesizes data from natural science, psychology, philosophy and humanitarian sciences such as history, ethnography, ethnology, art studies, religious studies and etc. It is assumed that cultural data collected by ethnographers and cultural experts tells us about the nature of human because human reveals himself through the culture he has created. At the same time, it would also appropriate to try to understand how knowledge accumulated by philosophical anthropology can be used for interpreting cultural phenomena and their mystic and often paradoxical meaning. Analyzing Ya.Chesnov’s book, Pavel Gurevich uses different methodological approaches and bases his research on the philosophical and anthropological knowledge. He also appeals to the cultural philosophical paradigm and studies hermeneutics of the text and the researcher’s position. The novelty of analyzing Ya. Chesnov’s book ‘People’s Culture. Philosophical and Anthropological Approach’ (published in Moscow in 2014) is in the attempt to try and evaluate the monograph work from the point of view of philosophical anthropology. The phenomenon of people’s culture is being analyzed other than within the framework of ethnography or cultural studies. The phenomenon is directly related to the philosophical concept of human.

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