Social Memory and History
Anthropological Perspectives
Contributions by Robert R. Archibald, Adina Cimet, Jacob Climo, Marilyn Cohen, Carole L. Crumley, Doris Francis, Leonie Kellaher, Luke Eric Lassiter, Cheryl Natzmer, Georgina Neophytou, Larry Nesper Edited by Jacob J. Climo, Maria G. Cattell
Publication date:
23 October 2002Length of book:
252 pagesPublisher
AltaMira PressISBN-13: 9780759101777
In Social Memory and History, a group of anthropologists, sociologists, social linguists, gerontologists, and historians explore the ways in which memory reconstructs the past and constructs the present. A substantial introduction by the editors outlines the key issues in the understanding of social memory: its nature and process, its personal and political implications, the crisis in memory, and the relationship between social and individual memory. Ten cross-cultural case studies—groups ranging from Kiowa songsters, Burgundian farmers, elderly Phildelaphia whites, Chilean political activists, American immigrants to Israel, and Irish working class women—then explore how social memory transmits culture or contests it at the individual, community, and national levels in both tangible and symbolic spheres.
Reviewing the connection between memory, history, and meaning, this volume is well researched, detailed, and thoughtful. It stresses the anthropological perspective that memory is dependent on culture and context. It is an excellent précis of how memory is constructed, how it works or does not work, and how individuals and different groups of people view it.