Theories Of Collective Memory Research Articles

Collective (white) memories of Māori language loss (or not)

Language policies have a better chance of succeeding if they align with the persuasions of the polity, and this is only more pronounced in the case of endangered languages, such as Te Reo (the Māori language) in New Zealand. There, a comprehensive suite of laws, policies, and programmes are in place to acknowledge and reverse the linguistic consequences of British colonisation and previous laws of linguistic assimilation. However, this history and benevolent rationale are generally hidden in policy documents and only implied in public discourse. Drawing on the findings of a large-scale qualitative online survey that obtained folk linguistic knowledge and beliefs about language revitalisation in New Zealand, this paper identifies whether non-indigenous youth claim Te Reo is or is not endangered, and analyses the diachronic and synchronic sociolinguistic reasoning these youth use to arrive at their claims. In doing so, the paper also draws on collective memory theory in sociology to especially consider whether, and to what extent, the folk linguistic commentary of these non-indigenous youth sustains a collective memory of Te Reo language loss at the hands of colonial Pākeha forefathers.

The Function of Place Naming in 2 Samuel 5–6: A Study in Collective Memory

This article examines the function of place naming narratives in 2 Samuel 5–6 in light of collective memory theory. It investigates the interaction between the physical landscape and the text in Israel's memory of the consolidation of David's kingdom. Firstly, the function of the narratives as a ‘site of memory’ in the text is analysed. Place namings capture memories by using a concrete image to convey the abstract meaning of the surrounding text. Secondly, the site of memory in the text is a means of rehearsal for the site of memory in the physical landscape around Jerusalem, and vice versa. Finally, the place namings are written according to a ‘template’, which connects their meaning with other memories in Ancient Israel.

Rethinking slavery heritage tourism

This paper argues that the investigation of slavery heritage within a ‘thana’- or ‘dark’ tourism framework invariably fails to appreciate the subtleties, power relationships and various contestations that are at play in both the presentation and consumption of former Transatlantic Slave Trade (TAST) sites. Instead, the authors argue that a combination of Halbwachs’ collective memory theory and Tunbridge and Ashworth's concept of dissonant heritage can provide a deeper understanding of tourism linked to such sites. A study of TAST sites in Ghana identified six key groups of stakeholders involved in the interpretation of slavery heritage, each with its own agenda, desire to remember or forget slave memories and desire to compose different narratives. By analysing collective slave memories, the study proposes a framework that demonstrates that tourism to TAST-related sites is complex and nuanced because it relates to the nature of the historic event itself, intrinsic qualities of TAST-related sites in terms of current relevance and the closeness of the event or site to each stakeholder.

Newspapers commemorate 11 September: A cross-cultural investigation

On 12 September 2001, as Hans-Peter Feldmann documented in his 2002 installation 9/12 Front Page, the front pages of newspapers from 151 countries showed similar photographs of a plane crashing into the World Trade Center. Despite this cross-cultural agreement on the most salient image at the time, in the decade since, distinct visual narratives of 9/11 have emerged in newspaper anniversary journalism.This paper examines how The New York Times (US) and Le Monde (France) have used photographs, advertisements, and editorial cartoons in 9/11 anniversary journalism. Using theories of collective memory and photography, along with demographic data of 9/11 victims, I examine how photographic representations of the victims have changed, offering a less complex story of events. I document the images that have been recirculated and discuss why the emergence of visual icons matters to our collective memory of 9/11. And I explore how the papers’ proximity to the events influenced their visual anniversary journalism.

Memory and Identity in Russian Noblewomen’s Francophone Travel Narratives (1790-­1842)

This article demonstrates the numerous ways in which recollective and habit memory are used by Russian no-­‐ blewomen as a device to shape social, cultural and national identity in their francophone travel narratives (1790-­‐1842). Practices of collective memory are closely implicated with those of travel in women’s leisured journeys to Western Europe and both memory and travel are allied with processes of personal and collective identity formation. Drawing on Maurice Halbwachs’s theory of collective memory, this article argues that the women use recollection to construct their identity as members of various social groups: trans-­European high society, family, nation and religious and school communities. They draw on memory in diverse ways in their texts and recollections are expressed in spatial, emotional, historical, social, cultural, religious and national terms. Remembrance offers resources for the women’s transformation from individuals into a group with a col-­‐ lective identity.

War Memories and Traditions of Generations Stylized Image -Based on Theories of collective memory and the generations-

War Memories and Traditions of Generations Stylized Image -Based on Theories of collective memory and the generations-

The Theory of Collective Memory and the 1953 Short Creek Arizona Polygamous Raid

A key question in collective memory research is how such memories are created and shared over time. This study consisted of a qualitative content analysis of documentary artifacts to determine whether there is a collective memory of the 1953 Arizona Short Creek Raid and, if so, how it developed and contributes to an ongoing sense of identity for some Fundamentalist Mormons. The study found the 1953 Short Creek Raid is the basis for a collective memory. That memory was solidified during a “myth-making” period and is reinforced through family and community activities to perpetuate a common group identity among some present-day Fundamentalist Mormons.

Editorial

The medium television has been accused of being amnesiac or a producer of forgetfulness. However, researchers have discovered the many ways the mass media, including television, transform memories and affect not only the way societies remember, but also the way memories must be studied and conceptualized. Collective memories are often seen as institutionalized memories, which we can analyse through official manifestations such as ceremonies, monuments, or even major television programmes. While the texts presented in this issue do not deal with the theory of collective memory, they will suggest various ways of conceptualizing memories, not at the stable, “hard” level of institutions, museums, monuments, but rather at the level of more dynamic memory practices that take place in the contemporary media landscape as an ongoing, active and performative engagement with the past.

Collective Memory in Contemporary Poland and Pre-Independence (1918) Warfare: An Early 21st Century Foreign Traveler's Observations concerning Polish Battlefield Memorials

This essay examines war memorials in contemporary Poland. The article also analyzes Polish historical memory through the prism of three theories of collective memory discussed by Nachman Ben-Yehuda. To the eye of a foreign observer, Polish memorialization of pre-1918 battle sites appears strange. Significant battlefields from the Seven Years War (1756-1763) and World War I are largely ignored in favor of emphasis on medieval battlefields. The author argues that this pattern reflects both Polish ethnocentric nationalism and a desire to forget the many years during which German-speaking peoples controlled portions of present-day Poland. The author maintains that Poland’s early Cold War-era policy of de-Germanization of cultural sites is no longer appropriate for contemporary Poland - a member of the European Union.

Memory, History and a Mother’s Resistant Mourning in Giuseppe Dessì’s <i>Il disertore</i>

This essay proposes a re-reading of Giuseppe Dessì’s Il disertore (1961) in the context of collective memory theory and postmodern concerns with mourning and melancholia. Through an examination of the way Dessì represents the interaction between individual memories and official memorialization in the post-WWI period, I argue that Dessì anticipates postmodern perspectives on commemoration. In particular, I look at the protagonist, Mariangela, both as a recuperation of the private and public anti-war activities of many Italian women, and as a melancholic mother whose refusal to obey normative modes of mourning results in a form of resistant mourning. Furthermore, it is precisely through Mariangela’s oppositional gaze that Dessì exposes the inadequacies of her town’s official receptacle of war memories, the monumento ai caduti, in order to interrogate the way collective—but also individual—memory is constructed.

Remembering the Roman Republic: Culture, Politics, and History under the Principate by Andrew B. Gallia (review)

Reviewed by: Remembering the Roman Republic: Culture, Politics, and History under the Principate by Andrew B. Gallia Katherine Liong Andrew B. Gallia. Remembering the Roman Republic: Culture, Politics, and History under the Principate. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Pp. xiv + 319. US $95. ISBN 9781107012608. Interest in applying social theories of memory to the study of the ancient world has gained pace steadily since Jan Assmann introduced the concept of kulturelle Gedächtnis to the field nearly 30 years ago.1 Andrew Gallia’s book, which is an expanded version of his doctoral dissertation (University of Pennsylvania, 2003), joins a growing body of work on public memory in Rome, including Alain Gowing’s similarly themed monograph Empire and Memory (2005).2 In contrast to Gowing’s focus on individual authors/texts and two architectural exemplars from the period ad 14–117, Gallia traces the mnemonic subtexts of architecture, coin types, literature, moral reforms, and rhetoric in the five decades following the overthrow of Nero. His efforts to understand “the interaction of social memory and cultural identity in the face of profound historical change” (7) yield a fascinating and provocative insight into Imperial Rome’s often uneasy relationship with its Republican heritage. The discussion consists of six case studies that represent the time period in question evenly (Gowing passes over Flavian Rome). An introduction describes the connection between cultural memory and a society’s understanding of its past. The methodological framework is provided by Maurice Halbwach’s theory of collective memory, Pierre Nora’s concept of lieux de mémoire, and Assmann’s model of cultural memory.3 Chapter 1, “Freedom,” examines the prominence of libertas as a political catchword in the turmoil of ad 68–69. Gallia demonstrates that the ideal of libertas both polarized the conflict by rousing culturally habituated opposition to slavery and tyranny and provided legitimacy to Vindex’s rebellion (and, subsequently, to Galba’s accession) by furnishing continuity with Republican libertas and the “restored” libertas first promoted by Augustus. Chapter 2, “Rebuilding,” concerns Vespasian’s reconstruction of the Capitoline temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus following the [End Page 263] fire of ad 69. Here the malleability of public memory is revealed by Vespasian’s successful downplaying of the temple’s association with Republican libertas in favour of Jupiter’s imperial attributes and the Flavians’ proven military prowess. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 explore the changing nature of the remembered Republic during the reigns of Domitian and Trajan, in the areas of religion/morality, oratory, and warfare, respectively. In Chapter 3, “Control,” Gallia evaluates Domitian’s controversial execution of the Vestal Virgin Cornelia for (alleged) incest. The analysis is framed by Pliny the Younger’s damning account of the incident in the Epistles (4.11), which places the episode in the broader context of Domitian’s unpopular moral reforms. Gallia’s rationalization of Domitian’s severitas steers his argument toward precedent rather than memory proper, but his observation of the competing traditions at stake—Domitian’s mandate as pontifex maximus, the sanctity of the Vestals, and the emperor’s supreme potestas— illustrates well how multiple memories could operate simultaneously. The state of the aristocratic tradition of oratory is the subject of Chapter 4, “Persuasion,” which surveys the attitudes expressed in Tacitus’ Dialogus de Oratoribus. This chapter is the only direct overlap with Gowing (Chapter 4), but whereas Gowing emphasizes how Cicero is remembered in the dialogue, Gallia is interested in how Maternus separates past and present. In addition to being the only interlocutor to view the Republic as a bygone era, Maternus consigns Republican-style oratory to the political upheaval of that period and proposes “nothing less than a new model for the Principate” (169). Gallia’s reading of Maternus’ retirement from oratory to poetry as a political act (in light of Tacitus’ association of libertas with the freedom to offend—see, for example, Dial. 10.8), is perceptive and shows how strongly the Imperial elite identity remained bound up in Republican customs and values, even after the traditional structures had lapsed. The literary theme continues into Chapter 5, “Inscription,” where Silius Italicus’ Punica and Frontinus’ Strategemata are examined as literary monuments to Republican warfare. Authorial memory...

Ritual, Memory and Writing in Early Christianity

The article examines ways in which the views of biblical scholars as to the transmission of early Christian traditions, especially the Jesus traditions, have been revolutionized by so-called orality/literacy studies since Werner Kelber’s seminal The Oral and the Written Gospel (1983). In the 2000s, an important turn in the study of orality and literacy in early Christianity took place with the discovery of memory. This has given rise to a focus on theories of collective memory and more recently on the cognitive aspects of individual memory, producing fresh new insights into the close intertwining of orality and literacy in ancient literary activity. The last part of the article brings up the role of ritual in the transmission of early Christian traditions, an aspect that has received less attention in the discussion. For purposes of further analysis, three perspectives on the role of ritual in the study of orality and textuality in early Christianity are highlighted and elaborated. The first underscores the need for a fresh analysis of the numerous liturgical passages in the New Testament identified by the generation of form critics. The second focuses on oral-aural (‘liturgical’) aspects of early Christian literature as part of the larger phenomenon of Greco-Roman literary culture, in which literacy was defined by public performance and recitation to a degree that differs substantially from the modern use of printed books. The last perspective highlights the important question of ritual’s capacity to function as an instrument of religious teaching and doctrinal consolidation.

Memory, collective memory, orality and the gospels

This article first explores individual memory as understood from the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans to modern-day neurology and psychology. The perspective is correlated with collective memory theory in the works of Halbwachs, Connerton, Gillis, Fentress and Wickham, Olick, Schwartz, Jan and Alida Assmann and Kirk and Thatcher. The relevance of ‘orality’ is highlighted in Kelber’s works, as well as in oral poetry performance by illiterate Yugoslavian bards, as discussed in studies by Parry, Lord and Havelock. Kelber’s challenge of Bultmann’s theory of oral tradition in the gospels is also covered. The article concludes with observations and reflections, opting for a position of moderate−to−strong constructionism.

Virtuality in systems of memory: Toward an ontology of collective memory, ritual,and the technological

In recent years, ‘collective memory’ has been used to describe the organization of a group identity that either supplements or replaces identity categories. Despite the apparent emphasis on the ‘collective’, most theories of collective memory rely explicitly on ontological models derived from modes of thought that privilege the psychic memory of individuals rather than collective phenomena. This article sketches the beginnings of an ontological model for collective memory that defines collective memory as an active process via which collectivities are produced through embodied movements that serve to differentiate entities from a larger environment. While not the only form of movement, the article examines the role of material technologies in the shaping and transformation of embodied rituals, consequently transforming how collectives are produced through memory as embodied actions.

The structure of mnemonic revolutions

Abstract This article proposes an evolutionary model of collective memory built on the concept of mnemonic revolution. It tries to go beyond the apparently mutual exclusive theories existing in sociological literature by integrating them into a comprehensive conceptualization. The first part of the study begins with the presentation of competing theories of collective memory developed over time. The second step presents the theoretical formula resulting from the adoption of a broader time frame (longue durée). This formula also takes into consideration the introduction of the concepts of mnemonic revolution and mnemonic reform. Mnemonic revolution is defined as a major break occurred in the structure of collective memory, which succeeds in a sociopolitical revolution, whereby the entire representation of the past is abandoned and the social labor of constructing a new retrospective vision of the past is initiated. Mnemonic reform includes the adjustable changes and the superficial reconfiguration through which the general image of the past that is incorporated into the collective memory is slightly calibrated depending on the evolution of the social system. The final part presents in a synthetic manner the way in which I sought the empirical validation of the notions developed in order to capture the dynamics of collective memory.

Norwegian Religious Education Workbooks after World War II: Exploring Teachers’ Workbook Constructions by Interpreting Traces of Textbooks and National Curricula

Twenty religious education (RE) workbooks covering half a century were examined in a search for RE teachers’ typical patterns of workbook construction. Three chronological main types were distinguished: “the biblical workbook,” “the workbook of Christian cultural nurture,” and “the RE workbook of diversity.” Of greater interest, however, were the particularities found in a few workbooks produced in the two interims between the chronological types. This article discusses—in the light of collective memory theory, social semiotics, and Norwegian RE history—the meaning of the teachers’ implicit contributions to the typical as well as the untypical workbook constructions. The concept of an “irreducible tension” between active agents and mediating means is found analytically fruitful. Religious education teachers are seen as cultural reproducers, interplaying with the central contextual curricular factors. In times of interlude and change, teachers have had other sets of contextual conditions and contingencies than in times of stability. The relatively quick implementation of a non‐confessional RE after the 1997 school reform is interpreted in line with economic priorities and with a curricular adjustment to the changed “spirit of the times.”

RITUAL REMAINS AND COLLECTIVE MEMORY: MAYA EXAMPLES FROM WEST CENTRAL BELIZE

AbstractThe idea of collective or social memory is explored in this paper as a way to understand ancient Maya ritual behavior. The theoretical characteristics of collective memory are defined and a strategy to operationalize the theory of collective memory using archaeological remains is presented. Two archaeological examples from the sites of Minanha and Zubin in west central Belize are discussed in terms of how they fit this new model. Finally, the social motivations that underlie this behavior are examined.

Martyrdom and Memory: Early Christian Culture Making (review)

Reviewed by: Martyrdom and Memory: Early Christian Culture Making Kristina Sessa Martyrdom and Memory: Early Christian Culture Making. By Elizabeth A. Castelli. [Gender, Theory, and Religion.] (New York: Columbia University Press. 2004. Pp. xx, 335. $25.50 paperback. ISBN 978-0-231-12987-9.) What is perhaps most gratifying about Elizabeth Castelli's rich study of martyrdom is the attention she pays not only to the parallels among constructions of the martyr in early Christian narratives but also to the ambivalences, to the places where Christians disagreed (sometimes even with themselves) over precisely what martyrdom meant and how the martyr should be remembered. Like many scholars who have embraced the cultural turn, Castelli explores this hoary topic not as a set of historical events or figures, but as a dynamic and sometimes paradoxical process of what she calls "memory making." Building [End Page 771] on theories of collective memory associated primarily with Maurice Halbwachs, Castelli argues that Christian authors between the second and fifth centuries contributed to the ethical and gendered constitution of early Christian culture through their representations of martyrs and martyrdoms. Martyrdom, she suggests, provided early Christians with a "useable past," which they (re)shaped into powerful discourses of authority. Through them, Christians not only contested hegemonic (Roman) structures and ideals but also asserted their own privileged status as members of the authoritative religion. Yet Castelli's study reaches beyond the chronological boundaries of late antiquity; she is fascinated by the enduring significance of martyrdom in contemporary society, although her fascination is tempered by a stated discomfort with the tendency of many modern Americans to (still) associate violence with truth. Discussing the depiction of Columbine victim Cassie Bernall as a martyr and American responses to September 11, 2001, Castelli suggests in the final chapter and epilogue that martyrdom and memory making remain ongoing cultural projects. Although Castelli explores some visual representations of martyrdom, the book primarily deals with literary constructions, with special attention given to ante-pacem texts. Following a lucid introductory chapter outlining collective memory as a theoretical model for the study of early Christian martyrdom, Castelli dedicates the next four chapters to rhetorical analyses of narratives, explaining how their authors variously appropriated past experiences of martyrdom for the purposes of defining Christian self-sacrifice, spectacle, and society. In chapter 2, for example, she shows how the writers of the pre-Decian martyr acta discursively exploited the fluid nature of the Roman legal system, while chapter 3 explores how three historical martyrs fashioned their own public personae as transformed athletes of Christ. Chapter 4 examines Christian responses to the arena and spectacle, with special attention given to gender (a major theme of the book). Chapter 5 looks at the commemorative reproduction of martyrdom through the lens of a single martyr:Thecla. Here Castelli explores the multiple "layers" of Thecla's life and martyrdom through a comparative discussion of the textual and visual representations of Thecla produced in the East between the second and seventh centuries. For scholars familiar with more positivist approaches to early Christian martyrdom, Castelli's study may seem jarring at first, since she expressly brackets questions regarding "what really happened." Although her rhetorical approach offers a fresh and innovative perspective on what is a seminal subject, she could perhaps have engaged more substantively with the historical communities that mediated these enduring discourses. Why, for example, was the fifth-century author of the Life of Thecla concerned to distinguish Thecla's miracles from magic? Why did many Egyptian artifacts bearing Thecla's image telescope her identity as a female martyr, eliding other facets of her history? Surely historical, geographical, and social location influenced the production of collective memories [End Page 772] of early Christian (and modern American) martyrdom. Such criticism, however, hardly negates this book's considerable achievements. Kristina Sessa The Ohio State University Copyright © 2008 The Catholic University of America Press

The development of collective remembering

This essay outlines a sociocultural, developmental approach to collective memory. This work is grounded in Halbwachs’ (1950/1980) theory of collective memory and in recent prospective studies of collective remembering within families from early childhood through adolescence. The claim is that the basic process of collective remembering is present from the earliest conversations about the past between parents and children, but it is not until adolescence that collective memory is informed by family stories and by history. There are both positive and negative consequences of collective remembering as a function of the nature of the collective. In conclusion, researchers are urged to broaden their view of the collective in their studies of autobiographical and collective memory.

The Mappe and the Bible: Nation, Empire and the Collective Memory of Jonah

AbstractThis article uses the work of the English cartographer John Speed as a way to explore the role of the collective memory of Jonah in social and political discourses during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The paper engages with debates concerning nationalism during the early modern period. Collective memory theory is also used to consider how Jonah became a reified site of memory. By placing Speed's writing alongside the works of his forebears and examining the function of the Jonah text within three sermons, the evolving collective memory of the biblical text, and its imagined attachment to national identity, is traced. It is suggested that Speed's cartographic selectivity in depicting biblical narratives can be seen in relation to the nascent nationalist and imperialist worldviews and ideologies of sixteenth and seventeenth century England.