Collective Memory and Cultural Memory: The Family between Antiquity and the Early Modern Period

Abstract

This chapter presents a very rapid survey of the forms of family memory by underlining the importance of elements like function, tradition, and selection (memory vs. forgetfulness) to an understanding of the phenomenon. It then shows that important interpretive keys of a similar cultural attitude should be looked for in the comparison and reconstruction of its evolutive phenomena. The chapter mentions many of the examples that take us ideally back to one starting point (from ancient to ancient, so to speak) in showing that the recurrences, in the sense of conscious reproduction of influences from the past, play a not-secondary role in the production of the forms of memory tied to the family. It is necessary to try to reconstruct such a role precisely if one is to understand completely their significance.Keywords: collective memory; cultural memory; family memory; German Egyptologist