4. Cucuteni-Trypillian culture: main characteristics

Cucuteni-Trypillian culture was the first civilization on the territory of Ukraine, discovered at the Romanian village Cucuteni and at Ukrainian Trypillia near Kiev in 1884 and 1896, correspondently The Cucuteni-Trypillian culture, also known as Cucuteni culture (from Romanian), Trypillian culture (from Ukrainian) or Tripolie culture (from Russian).

It was the culture of hunters and food-gatherers with elements of agriculture and domestic livestock, and rudimentary gift economy. Social hierarchy was almost absent. Archeological remains testify the existence of religious cults of totemism and fetishism. Excavated elements of two-storey houses are covered with ornaments. Archeologists found different artifacts, like clay figurines, pottery, weapons, tools, jewelry.

6. Forms of culture: material and spiritual culture

Culture is a single process that can be divided into two areas: material and spiritual.

Material culture is taken to include society's productive forces and everything linked with them, while spiritual culture includes art, religion, science, and philosophy. If we were to attempt to formulate the principle on the basis of which this distinction is made, the following would probably be the best way: materialculture is called upon to satisfy those needs which are common to humans and animals (material needs), while spiritualculture satisfies needs which, we think, are specifically human (spiritual needs). Clearly this distinction does not coincide with the distinction between material and spiritual on the philosophical level.

7. Functions of culture

• It fulfils a boundary-defining role; that is, it creates distinctions between one organisation and another.

• It conveys a sense of identity for members of the organisation.

• It facilitates the generation of commitment to something larger than one's individual self-interest.

• It enhances the stability of the organisation's social system.

• It provides 'standards' for what employees should say and do.

• It defines the 'rules of the game'.

8. Scythian culture

The Scythians or Scyths^[1]

Scythian culture is culture, primarily decorative objects, such as jewelry produced by the nomadic tribes in the area known classically as Scythia, which was centred on the Pontic-Caspian steppe and ranged from modern Kazakhstan to the Baltic coast of modern Poland and to Georgia. This art is also known as steppes art and was produced in a period from 7th-3rd century BC to the period when the Scythians were gradually displaced by the Sarmatians in a lengthy process lasting from 4th century BC to 2nd century BC. As the Scythians came in contact with the Greeks, their artwork influenced Greek art, and was influenced by it; also many pieces were made by Greek craftsmen 9.

Scythians, who settled in what is now southern Ukraine (in Crimea and along the Black Sea coast) in the seventh entury b.c.e . Some claim that the prophet Jeremiah refers to them as a “cruel and pitiless” people from a northern land that will “devour your harvest and bread” and “devour your sons and daughters.” In the fifth century b.c.e. , Herodotus, the Greek father of history, visited Scythia and described them as fierce, nomadic tribal people who ritually drank human blood, spoke a Persian language, and were ruled by a type of military aristocracy. In addition to war plunder, they traded with Greek colonies along the Black Sea coast.