Color categorization as a cultural schema

Nankevich Alena Anvarovna ORCID: 0000-0002-4261-4460 Assistant Professor; Department of Sociology and Philosophy; Smolensk State University 214000, Russia, Smolensk region, Smolensk, Przhevalsky str., 4 alena.nankevitch@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Introduction

As V. M. Rozin notes, the concept of "schemes" was first introduced into philosophical discourse by Plato ^[1]. According to A. F. Losev, the Platonic scheme is a quantitative and semantic construction that connects the individual parts together, which together form a new quality. According to A. F. Losev, the universal nature of the scheme is illustrated in Platonic descriptions of human behavior, understanding of prestige, law and government ^{[2, p. 633]}.

At the same time, according to V. M. Rozin, the concept of "schemes" is widely spread in philosophy thanks to I. Kant. I. Kant points out that pure concepts (categories) cannot be directly accessible in sensory experience, therefore an "intermediary" is needed in the form of a transcendental scheme – a sensory concept of an object that connects this an object and a category with the help of imagination. As an example, I. Kant cites the triangle scheme as a "rule of synthesis of imagination in relation to pure figures in space" ^{[3, p. 223]}.

The modern understanding of the scheme was largely influenced by the linguistic turn in humanitarian thought. In particular, E. M. Kovalenko notes that the emphasis on the problem of the correlation of language and thinking leads to the formation in the middle of the twentieth century of a cognitive approach to culture within the framework of the cultural philosophical paradigm ^{[4, p. 741]}. This approach is based on the achievements of cultural and historical studies of personality as a subject of cognition by L. S. Vygotsky ^[5], A. R. Luria ^[6], as well as linguistic studies by L. Wittgenstein ^[7], E. Sepir, B. Whorf [see e.g. 8]. Within the framework of this approach, culture and human physicality are understood as interdependent phenomena. According to M. V. Falikman, the sociocultural context provides both qualitative (related to cognitive development, evolution of the human genome) and quantitative (affecting brain morphology, biochemical processes) human changes ^[9].

In this regard, A. Peruzzi revises the Kantian understanding of the scheme as follows. According to the researcher, there are basic, schematic models of meaning rooted in the perception of geometric and dynamic relations ^{[10, p. 191]}. The author notes the importance of epistemic structures, but also emphasizes that such structures work on top of schemes that have always been the subject and source of mathematical thought, as can be seen from the example of I. Kant about the triangle.

Disagreeing with the strict separation of sensory experience and rational thinking, A. Peruzzi notes that concepts organized into judgments are a more or less stable and pure synthesis of experimental schemes. Moreover, this synthesis is only partially active, since its basic models are archetypal meaningful forms already embedded in the structure of consciousness and nature. Rational thinking is the result of the iterative transfer of schemas to any area of experience, including culture, through objectified categories of objects and actions consistently expressed in language. In general, according to A. Peruzzi, sensory experience and categories do not exist separately from schemes, and they can be isolated from each other only through analysis ^{[10, p. 236]}.

Analyzing the schemes, V. M. Rozin divides them into two groups. The first group consists of schemes that are represented as a visual image (graphic, drawing) or narrative. The second group includes conceptual schemes, for example, cognitive schemes and Piaget schemes ^{[1, pp. 11-12]}. Emphasizing the unequal status of cognitive schemas, representatives of cognitive anthropology distinguish the cultural schema into a separate group.

Within the framework of this study, it is proposed to consider the categorization of color from the point of view of a cognitive approach to culture, where culture is understood as a set of supra-biological and supra-individual regulators that ensure the interaction of a person and the surrounding world ^{[4, p. 743]}. These regulatives are systematized in the collective consciousness, which allows us to talk about the cognitive structure of culture ^[11], the basic level of which is formed by cultural schemes. The purpose of this study is to identify the characteristic features of color categorization as a cultural scheme. At the same time, color categorization is understood as a certain way of cultural classification of the color continuum into discrete areas endowed by society with cultural connotation. To achieve this goal, the concept of "cultural scheme" was analyzed, the structural features of the cultural scheme in relation to color categorization were considered, the mechanism of inheritance and the process of genesis of color categorization in culture were described. Consideration of the genesis of color categorization as a cultural scheme required an appeal to the ternary model of culture by A. V. Kostina and A. Ya. Flier ^{[12, 13]}.

The concept of a cultural scheme and the structure of color categorization

The term "cultural scheme" was first introduced into the scientific discourse by K. Wissler ^[14], who interpreted it as a set of fundamental common features inherent in different cultures. Under the influence of cognitive anthropology, this term has changed its meaning. For example, R. Casson understands by a cultural scheme a mental representation that is stored in the memory of representatives of a particular culture ^[15]. E. Ya. Rejabek reveals the meaning of this term in a behaviorist way, arguing that a cultural scheme is a conventional attitude of behavior that encompasses the bodily and mental experience of the subject ^[16]. However, as M. Cole notes, it is a mistake to consider the cultural scheme as a system of internal ideas, since it materializes in the cultural space in the form of social practices and generally accepted norms ^[17].

Analyzing the structure of the cultural scheme, R. D'Andrade notes that it includes a small number of conceptual objects due to the limited amount of short-term human memory ^[18]. This observation clarifies D. Dedrik's remark that in most modern studies, the basic elements of the taxonomy of color values are the primary colors of E. Goering (black, white, red, yellow, blue, green) ^[19].

According to N. Queen and D. Holland, hierarchy and nesting are also indicative structural characteristics of cultural schemes. Thanks to them, the cultural scheme allows you to organize knowledge about the world in such a way that it appears as a predictable sequence of events. This is achieved through the grouping of several schemes, the relationships between which are set by propositions and causal relationships. It is these "causal chains", according to N. Queen and D. Holland, that organize individual events into unfolding stories. As a result, the schemes greatly simplify the process of assimilation of cultural knowledge and act as an important part of the educational process ^[20].

Let's consider this feature of the cultural scheme using the example of color didactics. In didactic manuals on the early development of children, color categorization is one of the basic skills along with the formation of an understanding of various geometric shapes, quantitative relationships and the development of cognitive processes such as memory and attention. At the same time, acquaintance with color diversity begins with primary and secondary colors and, accordingly, the main color values, which are further complemented by mixed colors denoted through non-basic color values. As children master the ways of categorizing colors and grouping shades by similarity and difference, they gain an understanding of color relations, which are represented in language through synonymy, antonymy and homonymy of color meanings.

In addition, according to R. D'andreid, with the help of cultural schemes, a person learns socio-cultural norms and enriches his inner experience. At the same time, cultural schemes, according to the researcher, have an impact on the development of material production and the process of interpersonal communication of people, and they themselves change due to the previously indicated connection between culture, man and the surrounding world ^[18].

In the above example of children's assimilation of ways to categorize color, this thesis is revealed through a public request, which is implemented in a cultural scheme. The fact is that the number of color categories varies from culture to culture, so the cultural scheme reflects a greater or lesser need for knowledge about different colors and the cultural meanings attributed to them by society [see e.g.: 21, 22].

Thus, the categorization of color as a cultural scheme reflects the system of cause-and-effect relationships between different colors that society distinguishes as it interacts with the environment within the framework of cultural practices. Permeating different layers of cultural knowledge, the cultural scheme forms a stable connection between the collective idea of colors, the bodily experience of perceiving the color of an individual and the objective real world.

Cultural memory as a way of inheritance and preservation of color categorization

The very process of selecting colors and their cultural semantics is part of distributed cognition. According to E. Hutchins, distributed cognition is a complex of cognitive processes that unite people from different social groups ^[23]. In the light of this concept, the identification of the optimal way to differentiate the color space and its representation in language is a general cultural phenomenon not because of universal (cognitive or biological) mechanisms of human perception of color, but because of people's desire for communication and intercultural communication. In addition, the accumulation and materialization of partial solutions to color categorization in the form of color systems becomes a historically determined and geographically independent strategy for stabilizing knowledge about the color order. At the same time, social memory acts as a means of accumulation and storage of the cultural scheme as part of cultural knowledge ^[24], and in a broader context – cultural memory ^{[25, 26]}.

E. Durkheim made an important contribution to the development of the problem of social memory. E. Durkheim believed that in the form of myth, religion and law, people accumulate valuable social experience, the actualization of which mostly occurs in commemorative practices (rituals, customs, traditions). With their help, a person assimilates a set of ideas and behaviors that ensure the continuity of social memory, the stable nature of the transmission of cultural knowledge and the formation of cultural identity ^[27]. For this reason, a special semantics of color is formed in each culture, which permeates such artifacts as ritual attributes, folklore works, painting and architecture of sacred places, traditional clothing and its ornament. An example is the myth of a tribe from the Amazon. According to the myth, the gods molded people out of clay, sent them to a kiln, and then breathed life into the resulting figures. Thus, peoples with red, white and black skin appeared ^{[28, p. 70]}.

Developing the idea of social memory, E. Durkheim's student M. Halbwax introduces the concept of "collective memory". Collective memory is a social context that a person needs to communicate with others. Its "simple" elements, according to M. Halbwaks, are a scheme, a concept and a symbol ^{[29, p. 116]}. At the same time, the content of these elements is a dialectical process of correlation of collective and individual knowledge, which depends on the specific life experience and characteristics of the perceptual and cognitive systems of a person. In particular, empirical studies of color categorization and the ability to distinguish colors [see e.g.: 30-35] show how the specifics of neurophysiological, psychoemotional and psycholinguistic information processing affect the subjective color picture of the world. These features of color cognition are invariably reflected in the cultural color picture of the world ^[36]. The latter, of course, sets certain limits to acceptable variation and includes only the most important ideological meanings associated with color for a particular society. From which it can be concluded that the ratio of collective and subjective, general and private determines the dynamics of the transformation of social memory and its historical conditionality.

In this regard, the social stratification of people and the fixation of certain colors, depending on their origin and position, is indicative (see Fig. 1), an honorable position [see e.g.: 21, 37]. At the same time, the interaction of fixed color orders within a common cultural area generates a special color code. This is, in particular, political symbolism, where invariant attributes of power, for example, a flag, a coat of arms, a military uniform, acquire a specific "coloring" depending on the color semantics formed by the political conjuncture ^[38].

Fig. 1. Color categories of Japanese military collar insignia ^[37]

To describe the mechanism of inheritance of cultural knowledge, M. A. Rozov proposes a theory of social relay races ^[39]. Applying the metaphor of the wave to human activity, M. A. Rozov believes that it is realized according to a certain social program of behavior based on constantly changing material. At the same time, the process of transferring experience takes place within the framework of social relay races and consists in reproducing direct samples, which are also cultural schemes. The philosopher also notes that reproduction is not equivalent to simply copying a sample, and by changing its content, a person creates a new cultural product, which, in turn, changes the general context of social relay races. M. A. Rozov divides all relay structures into generative ones (for example, the nomination of color categories, the construction of color (see Fig. 2) in painting ^[40]) and technological (for example, the design of color systems, the use of a color scheme (see Fig. 3) in archaeology ^[41]).

Fig. 2. Color categories of A. Matisse's painting "Open Window in Collioure" (1905) ^[42]

Fig. 3. Categorization of soil color in the A. G. Mansell color atlas (URL: https://www.munsell.com )

The genesis of color categorization within the ternary model of culture

Cultural studies has accumulated some experience in analyzing and modeling culture. P. L. Berger, M. Douglas, M. S. Kagan, F. Nietzsche, P. A. Sorokin proposed their vision of culture as a system [see details: 43, 44]. In the framework of this study, the ternary model of culture by A. V. Kostina and A. Ya. Flier was chosen, since it allows us to visually describe the evolutionary nature of the genesis of color categorization through the dynamics of interaction of functional types of culture.

According to the authors, culture is formed as a result of the interaction of nature and society, where the main task of society is to survive under constantly changing environmental conditions. Consequently, a person builds a system of relationships (culture) that meets the task set by society and at the same time restricts human freedom. Asking about the development of culture, A.V. Kostina and A. Ya. Flier identify such a parameter as information and understand culture as a system of knowledge, the purpose of which is to inherit and transmit information in the process of human interaction ^[12].

Based on the idea that culture includes three functional types (consumer, traditional and creative), A.V. Kostina and A. Ya. Flier propose the following understanding of cultural genesis. According to the authors, this process begins with the passive consumption of the material goods of nature and the formation of consumer culture. This is followed by two completely different existential strategies: active adaptation (agricultural production) and mastering reality (industrial production), within the framework of traditional and creative cultures, respectively.

The categorization of color as a cultural scheme is closely related to the formation of the designated types of culture and the process of formation of color categories, the specificity of which allows us to distinguish two types of color categorization: natural and artificial. The first is the natural categorization of color. Its foundations are laid with the formation of consumer culture: through the experience of observing various shades of nature and their inclusion in cultural practices, some shades are isolated and others are ignored, which is reflected in the cultural scheme. Accordingly, the colors that are of the greatest importance to society tend to become cultural universals. For example, the famous triad "black–white–red" could be fixed as sacred colors in the consciousness of ancient man (see Fig. 4), because the most affordable dyes of that time were such natural dyes as soot, chalk and ochre ^[28].

Fig. 4. The color triad "black–white–red" of rock paintings in the cave of Altamira (ca. 40,000-10,000 BC) ^[28]

Further, within the framework of traditional culture, the cultural scheme is verbalized and represented in the language in the form of a system of basic color meanings. The subsequent development of the taxonomy of color values and the transformation of the cultural scheme is influenced by creative culture. Artifacts such as mass-consumption products and synthetic dyes created by creative culture contribute to the emergence of new color meanings, as well as the formation of new ways of categorizing color in the everyday human consciousness, for example, in design, art and architecture. The resulting cultural schemes, in fact, represent simplified or refracted through the individual consciousness of a person copies of professional schemes created in the process of artificial categorization of color (see Fig. 5). Examples of such cultural schemes are color in outsider (folk) art ^[45], as well as amateur design projects of residential premises. The latter are most susceptible to conceptual engineering in the field of marketing and fashion, the purpose of which is to create relevant color trends [see e.g.: 46].

Fig. 5. Color categorization of the plumage of birds of P. Saimaa (1821) ^[47]

Artificial categorization of color develops much later than natural in the framework of creative culture, the main function of which, according to A.V. Kostina and A. Ya. Flier, consists in structuring and regulating social existence ^[13]. The implementation of the designated function in relation to color leads to a purposeful differentiation of the color continuum into separate categories of color according to some rule dictated by a practical task. Therefore, artificial color categorization is the principle of ordering color relations and developing a certain model of color categories within the framework of production practice. As in the case of natural color categorization, traditional and consumer cultures are also involved in the process of artificial categorization, since any new knowledge involves the analysis of previous ideas and the transfer of accumulated experience to the next generation.

Conclusion

The analysis shows that the concept of "scheme", developed in cultural philosophical discourse, has a long history and acts as a convenient methodological tool for analyzing a number of cultural phenomena, including the categorization of color. The scheme acts as an ideal object, which is constructed by the subject to comprehend and explain the causal relationship between categories and objects of the real world.

The specificity of the cultural scheme is that it acts as part of a multi-level cultural system. In particular, a cultural scheme can be defined as a basic level unit that permeates and connects all elements of the cognitive structure of culture. The main condition for mediation between sensory experience and cultural categories is the hierarchical structure of the cultural scheme. In addition, cultural schemes can be grouped into complex complexes that define the form of organization of all cultural knowledge.

The creation of cultural schemes occurs as a result of social activity, when a certain model of behavior or mode of action (for example, differentiation and synthesis of shades into separate groups) is alienated from the subject of action and becomes a collective model of behavior fixed in norms and artifacts. The social context that arises in the process of such activity is also a means of socialization and inculturation of a person.

Through familiarization with social memory, the subject of sociality inherits cultural patterns and their socio-cultural representations. The socio-cultural representations of color categorization are visual models (color systems and schemes) and narratives (color designations and other textual descriptions). The inheritance of cultural schemes is a social relay race, in the process of which there is a direct reproduction of their certain pattern. The norms of naming colors and constructing the color order serve as examples of reproducing color categorization.

The categorization of color is not static, and its transformation takes place against the background of general cultural genesis. From the point of view of the ternary model of culture, the specificity of cultural genesis consists in the predominance of various existential strategies as society develops, which correspond to three functional types of culture: consumer, traditional and creative. First, a person adapts to natural and climatic conditions and consumes the gifts of nature. Further, with the advent of agriculture and the "cultivation" of plants and animals, a traditional culture develops, the purpose of which is to adapt naturally to the surrounding reality. Finally, with the formation of the first cities, the role of creative culture aimed at transforming social and natural space increases.

The presented specificity of cultural genesis allows us to distinguish two types of color categorization: natural and artificial. Natural categorization is formed within the framework of consumer and traditional cultures, when a person passively contemplates natural colors and gradually incorporates them into cultural practices and codes. With the advent of the language code, the cultural scheme is verbalized and the base of the taxonomic system of colors is laid in the form of basic color values. The transformative nature of creative culture leads to the emergence of new color referents and changes in existing or new cultural patterns.

Artificial color categorization appears in response to society's need for color management and standardization of mass production. Unlike natural color categorization, it is a fully controlled process that results in the establishment of color relationships between color categories and their visualization as color systems.