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Appearance as cultural and historical phenomenon

In the frame of the psychology of the expressive behavior [15] there is the tendency to consider the appearance as a “systematic” entity, representing not only psychological and socio-psychological, but a complicated socio-cultural phenomenon, having historical origin and nature. In this connection the aim of this article is to consider the appearance as a cultural and historical phenomenon, which makes us to address to cultural, historical and ethnographic researches, touching upon the appearance.

The concept of the appearance in our work we formulated according to representations about nature and functions of the external Self of the personality [15]. The external Self is regarded as a form of the objectification of the inner world of personality, representations of the subject identity outwardly. The appearance is a dynamic, variable, constructible ensemble of the three interrelated subsystems: static (physiognomy, individual and constitutional characteristics of the person), average dynamic (appearance styling: clothes, hair style, cosmetics, decorations, artificial smells (perfumes), accessories) and dynamic parameters of expressiveness (expressive, nonverbal behavior). Appearance functions in the communication context because it is necessary to present oneself to the Other, to build oneself. It consists of cultural and historic, socio-symbolic, situational and antisituational components, having different degree of awareness, intentionality, purposefulness. Appearance as a construct, as a complicated pattern of behavior is a polysemic, value-oriented entity; its interpretation depends on the whole complex of characteristics of communication context, built into the certain socio-cultural context.

The logic of our analysis is made according to the structure of the appearance - its static, average dynamic and dynamic components.

The analysis of static components of exterior image makes us address to the body category, its studies in socio-cultural and historical contexts are connected to the description of the certain cultural and historical types of corporeity, to researches of dynamics of body patterns as a result of «awareness of some components of the corporeity being» [11, p. 256] in some cultural and historical space. In this connection, they formulate the idea, that individual body perception, as well as the ways of its representation, depend on appropriate to the culture body pattern, including typical interdictions, taboos, norms of pudency, historical evolution of which changes forms of perception and corporeity representation [10]. In S.N. Yaremenko's opinion, «body image is a criterion of different periods. The exterior body image is the important trait of the time physiognomy along with the art, religion, science… The body image and its understanding are on the cultural and historical turns…» [27, p.13].

Ethno cultural particularities of the body images are fixed in the ethnographic researches, reconstructing world pictures existing in different ethnos, in connection with different peoples' traditional beliefs about body build and human organism development. Somatic representations, ethnic symbols of the body, reflected in different beliefs, customs, folk texts are transformed into popular concepts of the human body, ethnic body images [18, 25, 27].

Corporeity representations and images aren't only exposed to historical transformation. In the context of the ideas of social reality building, the scholars emphasize socio-cultural determination of the organismic man's development and flexibility of his biological constitution [2]. The evidences of this point of view exist in each culture, different forms of sexuality and other physiological needs, specific patterns of sexual and alimentary behavior, empiric relativity and diversity of which point out , that they must be «a product of created by the mankind” socio-cultural forms, than biological human nature» [2, p. 84].

Cultural and historical context of researches of average dynamic components of the appearance - elements of its decoration - fixes dynamic of the man's attitude to clothes, hair style, decorations, artificial smells, their changes under influence of different cultural and historical factors.

In the history of the mankind clothes destined first of all to protect human body from unfavorable climate conditions, soon acquire socio-symbolic status, and turn into «vessel of social contexts» [27, p. 32]. In many primitive and ancient societies, as herbert Spenser intimated [cited by 7], relying upon large ethnographic material, clothes deprivation, their absence becomes a distinctive cue of the prisoner, which will be turned into a slave later; in the contrary, presence of clothes, and their big quantity, - an attribute of the conquerors, nobility. Researchers of clothes history [3, 6, 8, 21, 23] established a lot of clothes functions: function of the adaptation to climate conditions, function of protection; function of decorations; morality demonstrations; the function of the age, sex, national, social identification; esthetic function; function of self-expression.

As I.S. Siromyatnikova, the historian of the hair style, noted [23], that the hairdo appeared in primitive society before than clothes, and changed together with human society evolution. In a large study, dedicated to the main kinds and forms of hair style, headdresses, decorations and cosmetics of different peoples from ancient times up to XX century, I.S. Siromyatnikova [23] traces back their evolution in relation to climate conditions, historical events, religious convictions, esthetic regards.

Carried out by V.A. Labounskaya and O.V. Guerasimova [14] cultural and historical analysis of the changes of the attitudes towards perfumes, allowed them to conclude that the functions of the artificial smells in man's life have being changing over the period of the mankind history under the influence of religious prejudices, attitudes and society stereotypes, its social and hierarch structure, the level of economic development.

In the studies of clothes history [3, 6, 8, 21, 23], together with the emphasis to cultural and historical variability of his functions, decoration of the appearance are studied as the elements of some historical period, as a reflection of moral and esthetic beliefs at each historical stage. Besides, they analyze appearance decoration as the object of social and gender stratification [7, 8, 10, 27].

Some authors analyze particularities of historical clothes transformation, which follow shifts in representations about femininity and masculinity [5, 8, 10]. For example, historical changes in the female fashion in the context of sexual and erotic symbols of clothes explains G. S. Fluguel [cited by 8] in accordance with the theory of « changes of erogenous zone», it stipulates that in every historical period the mode «exploited» different parts of female body as the erogenous zone, calling them into play by the denudation or using lean fit. I. Kon [10] also describes historical changes of male clothes from the point of view of erotic symbols, evolution of patterns of male beauty.

In the ethnographic and ethno psychological works they discovered national specific features of the appearance, their link with national and psychological characteristics. Address to clothes studies of different peoples reveals national and cultural particularities of popular clothes, as well as a certain tradition in clothes, the ways to wear clothes in different situations, color preferences [3, 6, 12].

The appearance occupies a particular place in the researches of age symbolism, age customs and rituals. They highlight, that the human body is the object of the manipulations to symbolize age transition, for instance, in the rituals of the initiation [9, 27]. Transformation of the appearance decoration became an important sign of changes of age status of the man. Symbolic transition of the man into new age group was accompanied by changing clothes, hair style changes (having the hair cut, making plaits, head covering), making marks on the body (tattoos) [3, 4, 6, 12].

In each culture there is a system of age symbolism, the important part of which is age patterns of the appearance. The life stages are conceived from the point of view of the growth, development and the organism ageing - the human body image of the definite age is considered to be the index of life force, health-illness [18]. In the ethnographic studies they also describe traditional age «norms» of the appearance decoration [4, 6]. So, for example, in the popular culture of the Slavs parents have never cut the hair or nails of baby until he reached the age of one year, children clothes have no sex differences (boys and girls were wearing ample shirts). When they were introduced into social and labor life of community (6-8 years old) they had to put on trousers and skirts. During adolescent period youths and young girls «prepared» for themselves «adult» clothing assembly, which they could only wear after being married, it symbolized adulthood. In the traditional Slavic culture there were rules how to look like for the middle-aged people and the old ones. Middle-aged people were not wearing any decorations. The old people, as a rule, were wearing dark or white clothes, they had no right to put on new clothes or to wear clothes of impropriate to their age cut. In whole, clothes of the old person were similar to children clothes according to some characteristics, they haven't got any sex differences, even during holidays it was forbidden for them to put on new clothes, there weren't any decorations, trousers were not obligatory (for men).

The existence of age patterns of the appearance decoration in modern culture is strengthened by studies, dedicated to the clothes history [5, 8, 13, 22, 27], fashion phenomenon [1, 7, 8, 17, 24], image psychology [20, 26]. Age characteristics of the appearance decoration are fixed in the following parameters: the degree of sex attributes, length of clothes, particularities of the cut, the degree of the openness of different parts of the body, colour range of the clothes, the quantity of the cosmetics, decorations.

Age aspect of appearance decoration is also fixed by the studies of historical differentiation of age periods, by the emergence in cultural and historical perspective of «new ages». So, for example, Ph. Ariиs [ cited by 19], runs back the historical dynamics of notion “childhood”, he underlined, that the important symbol of changes towards childhood served clothes. In the middle Ages, as soon as the child left napkins, he or she was immediately dressed into clothes, complete copies of the adults' ones relevant to his (her) social status in the society. Only in 16-17 centuries special clothes, which signalized difference between children and adults, were designed for children. From the viewpoint of Ph. Ariиs, the appearance of children costume became the externalization of the deep inner changes in the attitude towards children in the society. The same tendency was reported by А.B. hoffman [7] towards young people's clothes, appeared in the XX th century because young people turned into a specific category with their own values, particular self-consciousness and own subculture.

Socio-cultural variability of the dynamic components of the appearance is emphasized in many national and foreign ethnographic, ethno-psychological, cross-cultural studies [3, 6, 12, 16, 18]. For example, expressive movements are analyzed from the point of view of their particularities in different types of the culture - individual and collectivist ones. I. Altman and M. Govein [ cited by 16] proposed «dialectic theory of nonverbal environment», including 4 dimensions of processes of nonverbal communication: individuality-community and openness -closedness, it permitted to distinguish 4 main cultural styles of nonverbal communication: individual-open, individualclosed (these two styles are typical for individual cultures, where nonverbal behavior supports Self-identity and communal-open and communal-closed styles (typical for collectivist cultures, where non-verbal behavior supports and preserves group norms, public «face» or We-identity). In national and foreign works there are comparative researches of different elements of expressive behavior (gestures, face expressiveness, posture, tactile interaction, proxemics), typical for representatives of different cultures [12, 15, 16], they analyze ethnic particularities of non-verbal behavior and non-verbal interactions as the elements of norm behavior, traditions, rituals, socioaffected norms of behavior [15, 16]. The results of studies in the field of this trend in V.A. Labounskaya's opinion, testify that, «it is necessary to reject naпve ideas about universal usage of nonverbal components to express emotions, feelings, attitudes and to treat nonverbal patterns as dynamic forms, which are affected by socio-cultural variables» [15, p. 39]. Cultural and non-verbal analysis of the non-verbal behavior let V.A. Labounskaya say that people of the same time, of the same circle, of the same level of culture have forms of behavior (algorithms of «patterns»), where are mixed individual, personal forms of behavior with group, socio-cultural ones [15].

Thus, the analysis of the researches dedicated to the appearance in cultorology, history and ethnography, shows its involvement into the certain historically and culturally determined perspective, it testifies about socio-cultural variability of representations of the appearance, its exterior expression, transformation of functions of the different elements of the appearance in the course of the historical development. The appearance is involved into age socio-cultural stratification, it is the important element of the system of the age symbolism, it plays the role of the symbol of historical transformation of age categories, historical differentiation of age periods, it is fixed in the prototype age representations of the appearance.

If we consider the appearance as cultural and historical phenomenon, it suggests that, the appearance is a complicated and historically changeable socio-cultural construct, culture and ethnos build forms of its perception as well as the ways of its representation.

The Literature

appearance socio cultural construct

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