Skin Remembers

Abstract

Of those things people tend to think of as “internal” mental processes, memory is one of the hardest to separate from their material experience in the physical world. The materiality of memory is recognized in many fields. Using as heuristics some seminal concepts from Henri Bergson and Walter Benjamin, this article offers a case study of the complex materiality of a particular “memory object.” The so-called Chadwick Ram is reputed to be the most perfect big game trophy in the history of North American hunting. It provides an occasion for exploring how memory as a life process ebbs and flows in the variable materiality of one object. In the perspective taken here, one may consider degrees or intensities of materiality, which are related to various mechanisms of memory. An analysis contrasting this modern hunting trophy with a premodern, trophy-like artifact from the realm of a heroic epic illustrates the complexities of material memory.