Noncontemporaneity, Asynchronicity and Divided Memories

Abstract

Three different paradigms of temporal inconsistency are distinguished. ‘Noncontemporaneity’ refers to the local and temporal coexistence of phenomena that are related to different historical periods or different stages of social evolution. This paradigm presupposes an encompassing unity of society and disregards the normality of hybridization and syncretism in real societies. The paradigm of ‘asynchronicity’ centres the differences of pace and rhythms between different social systems or institutional domains. Here the indispensability of temporal differences for the perception of time and change is frequently ignored. The third model is called ‘divided memories’. Divided memories are generated by different experiential backgrounds with respect to the perception of core events. Generations are presented as communities of experience that differ with respect to this experiential background. Most important in this respect are triumphant or traumatic experiences that devalue the experience of the parental generation and provide a frame for the collective identity of a generation. The authenticity of these experiences is rooted in corporal presence and bodily rituals. Recently public debates tend to construct generational differences in an inflationary manner. This public construction of generations contrasts to the blurring of generational differences on a microsocial level.