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Presentations of Readings

Presentations of Readings. Precursors & Classics (Continued) Bloch pp.150-155 Bastide, Warner pp. 157-167. Evans-Pritchard, Lévi-Strauss, pp. 168-176 History, Memory, Identity Assmann, Berger 207-220 Zerubavel, Olick, Bellah et al. 221-231 Zerubavel, Schwartz, pp.237-247 . Marc Bloch.

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Presentations of Readings

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  1. Presentations of Readings • Precursors & Classics (Continued) • Bloch pp.150-155 • Bastide, Warner pp. 157-167. • Evans-Pritchard, Lévi-Strauss, pp. 168-176 • History, Memory, Identity • Assmann, Berger 207-220 • Zerubavel, Olick, Bellah et al. 221-231 • Zerubavel, Schwartz, pp.237-247

  2. Marc Bloch • Memory work as process • How are memories passed from generation to generation? • Central role of memory as communication between individuals • Questions about fit between ritual & stories • Importance of questioning errors in collective memory narratives

  3. Bastide • Analysis of book on African descended Brasilians (Arthur Ramos) • Religion & myths as tradition • Survival of memory • Loss as a product of social change • functionalist & psychoanalytical approaches point to importance of social frameworks for memories to survive • Social continuity depends on structural continuity • Localization of memories in objects, places • Motor memory, intellectual memory • Importance of social structures (sect, sacred space, secrets)

  4. W. Lloyd Warner • Symbolic life of Americans—analysis of Memorial Day in US • Cults & importance of remembrance rituals commemorating the dead for ideas about living & the future • Social rituals as present expressions that are evocative & non-rational

  5. Evans-Pritchard • Oecology- ”environmental spacing and interdependence of people and institutions, as in rural or in urban settings” • Time reckoning of Nuer –cyclical but events not evenly distributed • Steps in lineages—limits to notion of historical time • Time a way of structuring relationships between people (past and present)

  6. Lévi-Strauss • Notion of distinction between ‘savage’ or primative & civilized peoples • links between ‘totemic’ myths & contemporary archives or cultural heritage institutions • Ways of inserting irrationality into systems that grant physical traces the power to keep some of history to survive

  7. Assmann • Communicative vs cultural memory • Mnemohistory—how the past is remembered • Not about truth but identity • ’concretization of identity’ • Reconstruction within contemporary frame of reference (establishes a horizon) • Institutionalized heritage • Organization (cultivation) • Obligation (formative & normative)d • Reflexivity

  8. Peter Berger • Phenomenological approach • Consciousness • Movement through different social worlds • Changes in meaning systems linked to changes in social relationships, changes in consciousness

  9. E. Zerubavel • More on his methodology in second part of class • Mnemonic communities & traditions • Sociolobriographical memory

  10. Olick: • Collected vs. Collective traditions • individualistic theories, social groups • Collectivist challenges to idea of individual memory (groups constituted through memory)

  11. Habits of the Heart • Practices of commitment to ‘futures of hope’ • Importance for social solidarity

  12. Yael Zerubavel • Master commemorative narratives • Distinctive social identity • Historical development • Transformation of historical time into commemorative time • Events as turning points • Tensions—memory as dynamic cultural force

  13. Barry Schwartz • Study of historical reputations • Not just present politics • Memory studies not just about why but how collective memory is constructed • Need to theorize on both variations & explain persistence

  14. Time Maps & Framing/Containing Memory origin prehistory history

  15. Today’s Class • Lecture & Discussion Themes • Time Maps & Collective Memory • If time: begin thinking about Collected Personal Memories vs. Collective Memory • Film Screening

  16. Time Frames in Collective Memory Studies • Assumptions about mnemonic traces • Cognitive vs. unconscious processes • History vs. representations of the past • “mental” structures Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory, 1931

  17. Processes & Forms for Framing Memory in time • “Sociomental” topography of how communitiesrememberthe past • Unconventional approach to links between conventional ideas of ‘history’ & public/collecctive memory • mnemonic traditions • “recalling the past together” & synchronizing attention on particular moments • social norms of remembering • Mnemonic transitivity (allows memory to pass from one person to another even when there is no directe contact)

  18. Communication of memories • Mnemonic “go-betweens” (ex. Old people) • Oral or written accounts • visual resources (ex. Photo albums, books) • Material culture (monuments, Halls of Fame, artifacts, art, other artifacts, i.e. licence plates) • Practices (pageants, anniversaries) • Laws

  19. “Triggers”, memory retrieval (Mnemonic devices) • Words, facts, skills, events • Ideals, goals, intentions, promises • Feelings, states-of-mind, earlier selves etc… • Things, odours, ex. Madeleine (Marcel Proust, Remembrance of things past, triggered by smell and taste of Madeleines, a style of French cake)

  20. “Time Maps” & the Social Shaping of Memory (E. Zerubavel) • Questions of relevance • Long and short term • Eventful and uneventful periods • Connections • Discontinuities

  21. Analyzing the Structures of Socio-Mental memory traditions • conventional ways of stringing memories together into culturally-meaningful narratives • strategies to create the illusion of historical continuity (bridges) • genealogical structures of ancestry & descent • “watersheds” that separate one period from the next & inflating mental divides • The social construction of “beginnings” (origin “myths” and the legitimation of claims about the past)

  22. Establish connections in narratives, scenarios, plotlines Mental historical outlooks, Selective use of history, Often anticipate future Progress narratives (1)Plotlines & Narrative Forms

  23. Decline narratives Both imply single direction Plotlines & Narrative Forms

  24. Zigzag Narratives • Conversion • Recovery • Rise & fall

  25. Evolutionary narratives • Unilinear (deterministic) • Multilinear (ex. Cladograms--branching)

  26. Circles (Cycles), • recurrence

  27. Cycles (Rhymes)

  28. Zodiac & Lunar Calendar (Chinese & Western Calendar approximations)

  29. Western (Solar-Lunar combo.) Calendar Systems • Combination of Bablyonian & Greco-Roman astrological & astronomical theories & myths • 24 hour day & 7 day week • nomenclature based on cycle named for 7 heavenly bodies (visible with ancient technologies) & associations with deities in Greco-Roman & other pantheons • Sunday (heavenly body ascendant in first hour of first day--Sun) • Monday (moon) • Tuesday (Mars—God of War) • Wednesday (Mercury) • Thursday (Jupiter) • Friday (Venus) • Saturday (Saturn)

  30. Density Variations --Mountains and valleys • eventful vs. uneventful moments in the past • Unevenly distributed

  31. Commemgram example • Eventful times, • Multiple pasts

  32. Tasbaski Preparations-Senegal Tabaski (Wolof) –l Aïd-el-Kebir

  33. 2-Creating Historical Continuity by bridging gaps • Linking noncontiguous points in time or place to establish continuity • Same place • Same things (relics & memorabilia) • Imitation of the past (ex. Courtroom etiquette religious ritual) • “same” time (commemorative holidays, reenactments, seasonal identity

  34. Musical terms Legato (connected) Staccato (breaks) Historical “Phrasing” in Narratives

  35. 3--Mapping connections with the past through ancestry & descent (models for contact chains) • Not always based on consanguinity • historical contact chains • continuous structures

  36. Mnemonic pasting

  37. Interconnectedness • Genealogical Distance (consanguinity) • Ancestral depth (# of generations)

  38. Phylogenetic Tree

  39. Time and Social Distance Not just people Can be practices, things, events

  40. Cousinhood & Ancestral Depth

  41. Monogenist & Polygenist Models of Human Descent • Socio-mnemonic dimensions of ancestry

  42. Another look at Phylogeny

  43. Divergence Modelling

  44. 4-Discontinuities: Mnemonic Cutting & Shaping Memory • Conceptualizing Discontinuities (breaks)

  45. Assimilation & Difference • Periods, epochs as mnemonic transformation of historical continuum

  46. History & Prehistory in Mnemonic Traditions--decapitation

  47. History & Prehistory in Mnemonic Traditions • Example: Pre-contact and Post contact history of N. America

  48. Lumping & Splitting in Narratives

  49. 5-Beginnings and Claims based on the Past

  50. Film Clip Screening:

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