Theories Of Collective Memory Research Articles

Recalibrating Christian Ethics at Corinth: Paul’s Use of Jesus the Prototype and Collective Remembrance to Provide Spiritual Guidance on Weaker Brothers and Food Offered to Idols

Social identity theory has provided a fresh lens that can be used to look at Paul’s letters. Prototypes provide a helpful means to examine social identity and ethics in communities, as suggested by Warren Carter. In 1 Corinthians, Jesus Christ is presented as a prototype, although the Corinthians did not meet him. Collective memory theory has also provided a means to look at recollections of the person of Jesus recorded in the New Testament. While the number of recollections of Jesus that his recipients had is still open to question, this study finds Bauckham’s approach to the memory of Jesus in Paul to be the most sustainable. Studies by Dale Alison and Richard Burridge provide a general picture of ideas in the Synoptic tradition. When the fruits of prototype studies are combined with the collective memory of Jesus, it provides fresh insight into Paul’s commandment to imitate Jesus Christ, which was issued in 1 Cor 11:1. The fruits of these combined methods reveal the influence of the life of Jesus in the commands to look after the weak brother, abstain from idol feasts, and to do everything to God’s glory. Through the recollection of the lifestyle of Jesus, Paul recalibrates the Corinthian behavior so that it agrees with the prototype.

Living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus: Memories of Elderly People

Living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus: Memories of Elderly People

More than a Feeling: Storytelling, Memory and National Myths at Dark Events

Dark events are frequently analysed in terms of their social and political contexts and this is especially true in the case of dark commemorative events, linked to national tragedies, wars and other conflicts. Countries stage national commemorative events to create and sustain national myths. The way that these are designed and held, combining multiple elements into a narrative form, can be understood as a process of nationalist storytelling. This research note argues that whilst previous research into these events has drawn on theories of collective memory, viewing them from a storytelling perspective suggests that alternative approaches of competitive or multi-directional memory can provide insightful explanations of the often-contested role they play in national myths and contemporary social and political conflicts.

What value in preserving a fragment of building? A sociological enquiry into the museum preservation of Robin Hood Gardens

ABSTRACT There continues to be much debate as to whether to preserve buildings, and this is particularly pertinent to post-war architecture, especially in the UK. This paper further explores the issue by concentrating on the acquisition of a fragment of Robin Hood Gardens by the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Smithsons’ key work was deemed a failed social experiment in its listing verdict, and the acquisition of the fragment during demolition sparked controversy when exhibited at the 2018 Venice Biennale. Devoid of its context in an exhibition setting, the fragment of building questions the applicability of traditional conservation values, particularly those relating to age or architectural value. This paper aims to demonstrate the value of taking a more sociological approach to this dilemma. It uses theories of collective memory, specifically Halbwachs and Bachelard’s variations, to explore multiple interpretations of the fragment’s physicality. Three frameworks have been chosen for analysis: the changing social housing rhetoric, its listing campaign, and finally the present, a speculative section on what the current interpretations of the past indicate for the future. Through this chronological analysis it is concluded that the Estate’s physicality is reduced to a semantic contribution, representative of our current crisis of collective memory.

Mediating Unresolved Conflict Through Dominant News Discourse

Particularly in coverage of unresolved conflicts, mass media news of both the one-to-many broadcast era and the new networked era are not guaranteed to sufficiently provide the historical and analytical depth required for publics to understand these infinitely complex tensions in their respective cultural and temporal context. Mass media news coverage of the day, however, does perpetuate mediated images that seek to affect how publics contextualize and collectively remember simmering cultural conflicts into the future, afar and close to home. This article conducts a small-scale theoretical review of the theories of collective memory and agenda-setting, complemented by an analysis of mass media news coverage and literature on unresolved conflicts concerning the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) and “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland. This interrogation, in light of theoretical conceptions of dominant news discourses, offers an explanation as to how publics may come to understand ongoing conflicts in the external world. In shaping understandings of unresolved conflicts by publics, mass media news can play a biased role in making certain political tensions affectively salient for the preservation of a nation’s collective past by attempting to influence how compassion is evoked from publics in the present and even into the future. While certainly historically and geopolitically situated, a commonality exists between the unresolved conflicts of the FLQ terrorist attacks in Québec, Canada and the Troubles in Northern Ireland: nationalist cultural tensions, ones that simmer cyclically until discontent erupts between players on opposing sides. Although apparent collectives can seek out countless contemporary alternative sources of information in the digital era of abundance, this paper argues that collective memory remains significant in the context of scrutinizing how mass media news problematically sets biased agendas, which then promotes quite different historical worldviews of deeply complex conflicts.

Social representations of elderly people about living with HIV/AIDS

Objective: This study aims to understand the social representations of elderly people about living with HIV/AIDS. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, descriptive-analytical, with a qualitative approach and theoretical and methodological support from the Collective Memory Theory and the Social Representations Theory. Conducted with 38 elderly people. It used a questionnaire with sociodemographic data, health conditions, and a script for a semi-structured interview. The data analysis with the support of the QRS NVivo® Software and in the light of Bardin’s Content Analysis. Results: The social representations of elderly persons, about living with HIV were: ruptures, living with treatment and coping with prejudice and the struggle for (over)living: the fear of dying and the spread of the diagnosis. Conclusion: Social representations of the elderly about living with HIV/AIDS are about living with drug treatment, with the disruptions in their lives, health care, self-care, and pain of social arising from prejudice.

April 9, 1989 as a Paradigmatic Event: “The Time We Live in Now Started That Night”

The events of the late 1980s-early 1990s played a key role in the history of Georgia. April 9, 1989, was one of the most important events in this respect. It defined the shared identity and memory for a long time and determined future developments in the country. April 9 proved to be a paradigmatic event in the recent history of Georgia. The narrative of trauma and triumph was formed, being reflected in historical, literary and documentary texts, as well as in different sites of memory. Two years later, at the very place of the tragedy, the restoration of independence of Georgia was declared. The paper deals with the process of the crystallization of April 9 as a paradigmatic event. Cultural patterns that played a crucial role in the establishment of the traumatic-triumphal narrative of April 9, 1989, and in the thirty-year dynamics of the attitudes towards this event are explored. The study presents how April 9 and its resonance influenced the perception of the past, as well as further developments. Theories of collective memory and cultural trauma serve as the theoretical framework for the research, while official documents, memoirs, literary texts and various types of media sources form its empirical basis

The sleeping soul doctrine of metaphysical anthropology in the Javanese death tradition

The doctrine of the sleeping soul is a doctrine developed to accommodate local wisdom in Indonesia. This doctrine describes the metaphysical part of man after death. A local pearl of wisdom discussed is the Javanese death slametan tradition. The purpose of this article is to develop the doctrine of the sleeping soul according to the narrative of Jesus’ words in Mark 5:35–42 and the Prophet Daniel in Daniel 12:1–3 in representing the metaphysical anthropological view of the Javanese death slametan tradition in terms of the theory of collective memory. The descriptions of the sleeping soul doctrine in the Javanese death slametan tradition are as follows: Firstly, there is a collective memory in giving appreciation to the metaphysical side of humans after death. Secondly, the sleeping soul doctrine is developed from the collective memory of the Javanese death slametan tradition and the Hebrew view. Thirdly, the sleeping soul doctrine is a contextualisation doctrine of the Javanese death slametan tradition.Contribution: The implications of this research give birth to the doctrine of the sleeping soul in the framework of the preservation of Javanese culture, especially in the Javanese culture of death [slametan]. This study proves that Christianity has contributed to caring for culture rather than alienating it.

Memory, Meaning, and Monuments: An Ethnographic Study of Tsunami Memorialization in Aceh

The Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004, left an impact on Aceh, Indonesia, prompting the establishment of tsunami memorials to preserve collective memories. This study examines how individuals and communities interact with tsunami memorials in Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar. It seeks to understand the dynamic intersection between individual, community, and tsunami memorials using collective memory theory. Findings reveal that memorials serve as spaces of recollection, fostering connections with lost loved ones and reinforcing disaster resilience. However, memory erosion occurs over time due to generational shifts and social dynamic changes. Collective memory theory elucidates memorials' broader societal roles, promoting disaster education and empathy. Beyond commemorations, memorials become cultural symbols shaping memories, meanings, identities, and narratives. This research highlights the importance of nuanced memorialization strategies to sustain engagement, foster disaster risk reduction strategies, and honor collective memory.

Contested Heritage or Cancel Culture? The Case of Ivan Meštrović’s Public Sculptures in Chicago

Social conflicts and political pressures represent a specific man-made hazard for heritage protection and result in contested heritage. One of the recent cases, Equestrian Indians publicly displayed in Chicago, was the subject of contestation following the Black Lives Matter protests. The aim of this paper was to critically assess heritage contestation in this case study, also demonstrating other factors influencing heritage contestation than those so far detected in theory, and to find possible coping strategies. Qualitative mixed methods were applied: desk research, critical instance case study, and unstructured interviews. Analysis was completed in line with four theories (international relations theory, collective memory theory, social movement theory and cancel culture) and the results showed: (a) that the case had no greater effect on international relations of the USA and Croatia; (b) a new type of dissonance: a reversed contestation based on a distorted narrative; (c) illusory resistance in the social movement theory; (d) a new theory termed “cancel heritage”, denoting the cancel culture features a spill-over to a collective memory. Possible coping strategies for heritage protection point to the need for a more nuanced participatory approach while forgetting, but possibly the most effective method leading to a collective psychological liberation is hardly achievable.

The Phenomenon of Mimicry and Collective Memory in Dutch East Indies Soldier Batik Motifs

Batik motifs are a medium for perpetuating collective memory based on the creator’s point of view of social, cultural, and political conditions of the time. There are differences in meaning and ideology in batik motifs made during colonial and post-colonial era. Using the theory of collective memory and postcolonial mimicry, we want to reveal the differences in meaning and ideology between batik made during the colonial era and after independence. The method in this study is descriptive analysis, using a purposive sample of batik motifs of Dutch East Indies soldiers made by Indo-European, Indo-Arab, Chinese Peranakan, and Bumiputera entrepreneurs. The results show that the Javanese and Lombok War Batiks made during the colonial era are a medium to documentthe collective memory of the colonial community with the ideology that the Dutch East Indies soldiers were brave and great protagonists. Batik Kompeni, contrastingly, is a documentation of the collective memory of the colonized people with the ideology that the Dutch East Indies soldiers were the cruel antagonists. The findings reveal that batik is a medium of collective memory; its creation is closely related to the ideology of the batik creator.

Investigating collective memory in the enactment of Māori leadership identities Ko te kōputu pūmahara hei whakatinana i ngā tuakiri hautū

This article is based on research investigating collective memory in the enactment of leadership identities. The context is derived from a study of Māori leadership and decision-making. The methodology is qualitative and underpinned by Kaupapa Māori research. Methods include pūrākau – Māori epistemology in the form of storytelling. Data is sourced from digital archives in the form of documentaries capturing a rich array of Māori leadership in ritual, ceremonies and interviews with leaders in multiple settings. The process of wānanga (collaborative interactive learning) was required for translation of material from Te Reo Māori into English. As a central feature of a Māori collective memory paradigm, words act as a key, unlocking insight and deeper levels of understanding inherent in Māori epistemology, mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) and ontology. We employ whakapapa, a framework for understanding cultural identity and layering of relationships to inform analysis by offering a new concept to the literature; pūmahara, a generative collective memory code. This highlights continuity in the enactment of Māori leadership identities and values which signal social affiliation, self-affirmation and belonging. In terms of contributions, first, the study confirms that as repositories for social and collective memory, digital archives offer a potent opportunity to investigate collective memory in the enactment of leadership identities. Second, a new way of analysing the data through culturally derived methods including wānanga, pūrākau and whakapapa is offered. Third, a distinctive contribution to leadership identity research via a conceptual model highlighting interactions between cognitive, affective, relational, material and cultural values is detailed. Finally, we conclude by offering further avenues of research aimed to advance leadership identity research. In summary, this article offers a distinctive contribution to leadership identity research drawing on collective memory theory.

Strings of Memory: Memory Transfer and Moral Accountability through Strings in Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated

Abstract This essay explores the unavoidable transfer of ethical accountability to Holocaust perpetrator descendants, as seen in Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated. Building upon Maurice Halbwachs’s theory of collective memory and Marianne Hirsch’s theory of postmemory, this essay hypothesizes that Foer uses physical, metaphorical, and structural strings to transfer memories across generations and transmit repercussions such as judgment, guilt, and accountability to perpetrator descendants, a group frequently neglected in Holocaust research. This analysis expands the current scholarly conversation regarding post-Holocaust moral responsibility and demonstrates its transmission to later generations.

Colonial statues as memorial contact zones: Macdonald, Cornwallis and statue removal in Canada

In recent years the negative experiences of colonization endured by Indigenous peoples in Canada have gained greater public awareness. As a result, narratives celebrating Canada’s colonial history have been disrupted, and the appropriateness of public statuary honouring figures associated with colonialism is now contested. Drawing on theories of collective memory and Mary Louise Pratt’s concept of the ‘contact zone’, this article examines two statues that were removed from public spaces in 2018: J.A. Macdonald (1982) in Victoria, British Columbia, and Edward Cornwallis (1931) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The removals occurred in the context of municipal efforts towards reconciliation with Indigenous peoples and represented deeply negative re-evaluations of the legacies of the men depicted. In this article, each statue is examined at three levels of history and memory: the historical basis for honouring Sir John A. Macdonald and Edward Cornwallis as ‘founders’, the conception and commissioning of their statues to embody these positive memories, and the more recent developments that have brought the negative memories of these men held by members of Indigenous communities into wider public knowledge, resulting in the removal of their statues. These removals represent a moderated form of iconoclasm, arising from a long-standing divergence in collective memories that has been given voice in the debate and dialogue in the contact zones that have formed around the statues.

Wege zur Toleranz – Überlegungen zur Beschreibung ihrer Geschichte

In this paper, I will discuss how the history of the development that led to ‚tolerance’ in the sense of the Enlightenment, can be told as a European story. The topic ‚tolerance’ has to be integrated into the life-worlds with their specific epistemological views. This requires transforming life-worldly discourses into the rational discourses dominant in ‚expert worlds’. How this could be achieved will be shown on the one hand by analysing the novel Joseph und seine Brüder by Thomas Mann, on the other hand with Jan Assman’s theory on collective memory. Conclusively, I advocate the insight that telling the story of ‚tolerance’ requires in itself a tolerant form. In a scientific narrative this form arises from the ethnic implications, that are fundamentally immanent to any argumentative discourse. Keywords: tolerance, live worlds – expert worlds, ethics, history on European culture, theory of collective memory

The Phenomenon of Memory from a Sociological Standpoint: An Ontological Approach in the Light of Maurice Halbwachs’ Work

The article explores the main concepts and ontological status of memory within Social Sciences. Firstly, we highlight the main insights and contributions of Maurice Halbwachs’ theory of collective memory and, secondly, we draw the further developments by the Memory Studies. We point out some conceptual issues within these works regarding memory’s ontological status. Finally, we suggest a new avenue of interpretation for the phenomenon of memory from a sociological standpoint by (i) considering Cognitive Sciences contributions on the definition of “memory” and (ii) devising a proper social ontology for this kind of definition.

Filmic Therapeutic Encounters and Resistance: Silence, Forgetting, and Guilt in the Face of Historical Violence

Mental disorder and therapeutic encounters are central aspects of three films that were groundbreaking in addressing collective trauma in the aftermath of slavery, colonialism, or genocide: Peele’s GET OUT (USA), Ruhorahoza’s GREY MATTER (Rwanda) and Mhando and Mulvihill’s MAANGAMIZI—THE ANCIENT ONE (Tanzania/USA). Recurring to theories of collective memory and trauma, the article assumes that asymmetric historical violence causes a crisis of reason among the victims, and that the affective dream-like technique of film has the potential to make unutterable mental conditions explicit and relatable without trivializing their complexities. Oppression is usually perpetuated by an alliance of domination with forgetting, silencing, and a sense of guilt, inflicted on the victims who are thereupon labeled as overly sensitive, moronic, or insane. The films depict mental conditions caused by collective trauma which are expressed by haunting memories, ancestral visions, or victims being possessed by their oppressors. A central element is the depiction of problematic therapeutic encounters which may be abusive, manipulative or turn the patient–therapist relation upside down. By challenging notions of therapy and critically addressing its potential embeddedness in power relations, it is argued, the films themselves serve as a form of postcolonial therapy and empowerment.

Come From Away에서 외부의 집단기억을 통해 회고된 9/11

This paper explores 9/11 and collective memory from abroad in Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s musical, Come From Away (2013). As a musical written in a verbatim style, it stresses its distinct feature of being based on the true story of people who experienced 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland. Sankoff and Hein edited, rearranged, combined, and recontextualized the interviews, which they collected in 2011, and used them to create a moving communal story with verbatim spoken text and music. In this process, the selected interviewees’ individual stories are staged from multiple perspectives and then merged into a communal experience, creating emotional support. Through Avishai Margalit’s collective memory theory, this paper examines how individual memories based on fear from terrorism turn into collective memory with humanistic caring. Using an examination of the universal trauma spread through the media during 9/11, this article traces individual traumas of the American come-from-aways by focusing on how their private and fragmentary memories represent the voices of a particular group of people in America and analyzes the screech-in ritual that motivates people to create collective memories and shared strength to overcome trauma. Focusing on the come-from-aways’ traumas and collective memories of the 9/11 attacks and how these memories are recreated through the authors, I argue that Come From Away stresses that solidarity beyond nationality can overcome terrorism through humanism.

Examining intercultural transition and history through service learning

This paper documents a half-semester service-learning teaching activity for engaging students to think critically about intercultural communication theory. In collaboration with a community partner, students in my intercultural communication class researched the influence of the Great Migration on U.S. society, producing five books summarizing academic research and interviews students conducted with community members who had migrated to the Kansas City area during this time period. The students presented their work to the community at the end of the semester. Variations of this assignment are also proposed for instructors who might want to do something similar in their classes. Courses Intercultural Communication. Objectives: (1) Apply, analyze, and evaluate cultural transition and collective memory theory. (2) Produce an original work on a topic of interest to a community partner.

The Temporal Articulations of Memory and of History: An Interpretation of Collective Memory in Debate with the Work of Reinhart Koselleck

In his later word, notably in the posthumously published essays in his book V om Sinn und Unsinn der Geschichte (On the Sense and Non-Sense of History, 2010), the historian Reinhart Koselleck firmly rejected the concept of “collective memory.” Memory, as he stated, belongs to individuals and not to collectivities. This article, while recognizing the originary status of personal memory and the fact that groups as such do not remember, no more than they have an autonomous, substantial existence, interprets the nebulous concept of collective memory that Koselleck so harshly criticized. Through close examination of the grounds of Koselleck’s critique of this concept, and of the theory of historical time he elaborated, I aim to delineate, through interpretation of the symbol and of the public scope of symbolic interaction, the specific domain in which collective memory comes to expression. I undertake this task by referring to the work of Maurice Halbwachs who initially introduced the term and the concept of “collective memory” in his writings in the 1920s and in his posthumously published book, Collective Memory . As I note, Koselleck subjected this work to harsh criticism in his later essays, for he doubted that the concept of collective memory Halbwachs introduced was anything more than an artificial construction. The response I provide to Koselleck’s objections extrapolates from the interpretation of collective memory I present in my recently published work Collective Memory and the Historical Past (2016). According to my argument, while Halbwachs was concerned with collective memory above all as it is retained by small groups and families, a modified theory of collective memory that focuses on shared memory retained by large groups in the public sphere provides us with the key for responding to Koselleck’s critique. In the framework of my interpretation, symbols are grasped not as isolated signs, but in the broadest sense, as ways of configuring the spatiotemporal and conceptual meaning through language, styles, and gestures that make possible the communication of experience in the public sphere. Symbols in this broad sense underlie experience and memory that lend publicly identifiable significance to political, religious, aesthetic, and other facets of our everyday world. If we apply this conception of collective memory to the work of Koselleck himself, I argue that it closely corresponds to a view of iconographical symbols, and of the changes they undergo among different generations over time, which Koselleck himself advanced in his pioneering writings on monuments and war memorials.