Syncretism is a combination (synkretismos - mixing, fusion) of heterogeneous elements. The concept of psychology, culture and art. Most often you can hear about the syncretism of children's, religious (and religious worship) and primitive thinking (and primitive culture).
Children's syncretism
In the psychology of preschool children, syncretism is the ability to integrated perception of various concepts and categories, which are not related to each other. For lack of information about the world around him, the child builds his own models. In these constructions, objective connections are replaced by subjective ones; instead of knowledge, impression is used. In the first years of life, the child is not yet accustomed to logical constructions, therefore his reasoning is sometimes illogical even for his own conceptual system.
Religious syncretism
With regard to religious (mythological) thinking, syncretism is the combination in one consciousness of dogmas (often mutually exclusive) from different religious schools, as well as objective representations of reality with a mythological description of the world. The teachings that have existed for centuries without extraneous influences are less syncretic. Christianity is synonymous, in which the Old and New Testaments are canonized on an equal footing . Russian Orthodoxy is even more syncretic, where Christianity is closely intertwined with pagan ideas. The mixture of peoples and, as a consequence of cultural traditions in the modern world, makes religious ideas more and more syncretic. The appearance in the last hundred years of a huge number of various sects, schools, and occult movements is partly due to the desire of religious people who are prone to reflection, to create a consistent logical description of the world and resolve the internal conflict.
Artistic syncretism
The fusion of cultures and traditions also gives rise to syncretism in art, which for many centuries has moved towards an increasingly narrow specialization. The contemporary artist / writer / musician is cramped with the framework of one form, one genre. New works are born at the junction of different cultures, different genres and types of art.
Primeval syncretism
It is not entirely right to liken primitive thinking to children's thinking. For the lack of objective knowledge, primitive man tends to mythologize reality, but otherwise his thinking is much more rational than that of many of our contemporaries. Otherwise, he simply will not survive. In primitive thinking, syncretism is an integral perception of the world in which the individual does not distinguish himself from either his own community or from nature in general. Hence the most ancient prototypes of religions - animism, totemism. Within the community there is practically no separation of functions, no professional specialization. Each is multifunctional. An illustration of this multifunctionality is the syncretism of primitive art: dance, singing, playing a musical instrument, religious drawings combined in a single ritual action that is performed by all the tribe, are inseparable from mythology and from solving practical problems (healing the patient, luck on the hunt, etc.) .