Appearance as cultural and historical phenomenon

Abstract

The article is dedicated to theoretical analysis of the appearance as cultural and historical phenomenon, the author envisages cultural, historical and ethnographical researches, concerning the appearance. There are conclusions that, the appearance is included into certain historically and culturally determined perspective, socio-cultural diversity of the representations about man’s appearance, its expressive symbol, and the transformation of the functions of different elements of the appearance in the course of historical development are shown. The deduction, that the appearance is involved into socio-cultural stratification, is the important element of 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. It is underlined, that the appearance is a complicated and historically changeable socio-cultural construct, culture and ethnos build forms of its perception as well as ways of its representations.