Abstract
Sociocultural transformations of humanity. We will do this through the prism of the evolution of cultural practices, from primitive animistic systems to the modern challenges of the era of global digitalization and artificial intelligence. The material of the article is presented using a synthesis of methods of retrospective analysis, the historical-typological method and the semiotics of culture. This approach made it possible to trace the genesis of ethical regulators as complex sign-symbolic systems, and not only products of technological progress. The need to deconstruct the concept of primitiveness in relation to human communities of primitive culture is emphasized. It is argued that the cultural practices of that time, in particular rock painting and ritual actions, served as tools of ethical mediation with the environment. Under such circumstances, animals, plants and landscape elements were perceived as full-fledged subjects of interspecific cultural interaction. This worldview field, described through the prism of the “new animism”, allows us to consider primitiveness as a system of a different complexity, free from the rigid dualism of subject-object. Next, we focused on the analytical coverage of the “Neolithic revolution” and the emergence of the first ancient civilizations. It is noted that the transition to a reproducing economy, urban planning and monumental architecture marked the formation of qualitatively new social hierarchies. Writing, legal systems and specialization of labor appear as mechanisms for legitimizing the power of elites. At the same time, this led to the psychological alienation of man from nature and the formation of a technological veil of civilization. The paper substantiates the thesis about the inertia of civilizational progress. The modern crisis of trust in institutions, ecological degradation and moral vacuum in the field of artificial intelligence are direct consequences of the unconscious reproduction of Neolithic models of aggression. It is determined that overcoming modern value disorientation requires not only technological, but primarily ethical reflection. It should be based on the integration of historical experience of universal significance and empathy. Retrospective analysis of primitive taboos and rituals, considered as ancient mechanisms of responsibility towards non-human subjects, can serve as a source for the formulation of modern ethical guidelines.
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