The Analysis of Music as a Form of Anthropotechnics
D.A. Yarochkin · Pushkin Leningrad State University Journal · 2024
Introduction. The article is devoted to the analysis of music as a form of anthropotechnics. The author uses the concept of P. Sloterdike, according to which anthropotechnics is a method of mental and physical practice through which people from different cultures strive to optimize their behavior in the face of life risks and a sense of mortality. Music, occupying a special place in culture, is a kind of synthesis of both rational and irrational aspects of anthropotechnics. Content. In order to identify the universal and irrational features of music in the mythologized consciousness, the article compares the image of Odysseus in the Greek myth of the siren and the image of the shaman-kam in the Altai myths. The common and different features of these images are revealed. The motif of the journey is considered to be common to both images, and the background to both journeys is music. The difference is the nature of the relationship between the individual and the music. The shaman and Odysseus represent two strategies for interacting with the irrational element. Odysseus retains homeostasis, while the shaman dies and is reborn as another subject. In the first case, the individual remains unchanged, and anthropotechnics serves as a way of his self-improvement; in the second, the immutability of human nature is called into question. Conclusions. The examples of Odysseus and shaman-kam illustrate the dynamism and variability of anthropotechnics: from maintaining homeostasis and austerity, to losing one's self and ecstatic transformation - while musical means are used in the process of creating and transforming the image of a person, which emphasizes the variability of human nature.