How Societies Remember

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How Societies Remember

• Presented by
• Sharon Kalman, Sacha Page and
• Jennifer Stevenson

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About the Author

• How Societies Remember by Paul Connerton
  published 1989.
• Dr Paul Connerton, a sociologist, teaches in the
  department of Social Anthropology at Cambridge
  University.
• Fellow of the Institute of Romance Studies at
  London College

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Social Memory Terminology

• Recollection
• Historical Reconstruction
• Social Memory
• Personal Memory
• Cognitive Memory
• Performative Actions
• Habit Memory
• Forgetting
• Social Persistence

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Social Memory

• Using Halbwachs as a starting point he asserts
  that memory is a socially constructed phenomena.
• Counters notions of memory that are purely
  psychological or purely constructed by social
  narrative.
• Instead argues that memory is embodied in social
  practice.
• Habit Memory is primarily expressed in actual
  body or physical movements of people and in
  ritual performance.

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Social Memory (continued)

• Social memory causes an inertia in social
  structures.
• An important part of understanding social
  structures and identity is an examination of
  habit, bodily practices and ritual.
• People create notions of themselves as they
  relate to their world and others in their society
• These interactions are at the base of identity
  creation and maintenance.

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Connertons Intellectual Antecedents

• Maurice Halbwachs La Memoire Collective
• Z. Bauman Memories of Class
• P. Nora Les lieux de la memoire
• D. Lowenthal The Past is a foreign country

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How Societies Remember Its Reception

• Very well received, not only in Memory Studies
  but also in the broad disciplinary fields of
  history, sociology and anthropology.
• His interpretations of social memory used in many
  interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary studies .
• Main criticisms are that his theory portrays
  social structures as too static and inert. Also
  his claim that his perspective is a new way to
  understand social memory, is not quite accurate
  because many anthropologists studied bodily
  practices.

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Commemorative Ceremonies
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Ritual

• Ritual
• Rule-governed activity of a symbolic character
  which draws the attention of its participants to
  objects of thought and feeling which they hold to
  be of special significance.
• Defined by Steven Lukes and adhered to by
  Connerton

• Ritual
• The prescribed order of a religious
  ceremony American Heritage Dictionary
• The prescribed form of conducting a formal
  secular ceremony American Heritage Dictionary
• Any act or practice regularly repeated in a set
  precise manner for relief of anxiety
  Merriam-Webster medical dictionary

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Ritual (continued)
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Rites

• Formalized acts that tend to be stylized,
  stereotyped, and repetitive. They are not
  spontaneous and are deliberately observed to
  denote feelings.
• (Dictionary definition A ceremonial act
  established by law or custom)

Hitler Youth march
Christian Confirmation
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Religion
Jesus
Mosque
Abraham
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Historyidentitycontinuitycommemoration
Passover Seder
The Crucifixion (el Greco)
Pilgrimage to Mecca
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Modern Invented Rites
Olympic Opening Ceremonies
Bastille Day
Jubilee Day
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Calendrical
Chinese New Year
Jewish New Year
New Years Eve Times Square
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Verbal
Hebrew
Latin
Sanskrit
Arabic
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Gestural
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Bodily Practices
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Incorporating Practices

• Information is taken from the action and
  interpreted based on various factors such as
  culture, religion or race.

• Living models help us learn these practices and
  the meaning is just understood but never directly
  discussed.

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Inscribing Practices

• Ways to provide information even after the
  informing system has stopped providing
  information.
• These must be taught in steps and explained in
  order to be understood but once they are
  understood they are with us forever.
• An example of this is learning the alphabet.

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What type of practice do you think this is? When
do we shake hands?
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What type of practice is this?
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The overlap between practices

• There is an overlap between incorporating
  practices and inscribing practices.
• Connerton claims that although the overlap exists
  there will always be a dominating factor.

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Gestures can also be

• Referential which means that it refers to means
  of a sign. (cultural)
• Notational which means that it provides support
  for the content of the conversation. (transcends
  culture)

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More signs. What do each of these mean ? how did
you learn their meanings?
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Lessons Learned

• Words, images bodily practices help us preserve
  the past.
• We are writing in an alphabet that is centuries
  old.
• We view artifacts that are centuries old.
• We are performing simple actions that have been
  done for centuries.
• Everything we do connects us to the past whether
  we realize it or not.