8/2/2019 kolektif-sosyal hafıza ayrımı http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/kolektif-sosyal-hafiza-ayrimi 1/16 Social Thought & Commentary: The Abuses of Memory: Reflections on the Memory Boom in Anthropology Author(s): David Berliner Reviewed work(s): Source: Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 78, No. 1 (Winter, 2005), pp. 197-211 Published by: The George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic Research Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4150896 . Accessed: 18/03/2012 16:30 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic Research is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Anthropological Quarterly. http://www.jstor.org
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Social Thought & Commentary: The Abuses of Memory: Reflections on the Memory Boom inAnthropologyAuthor(s): David BerlinerReviewed work(s):Source: Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 78, No. 1 (Winter, 2005), pp. 197-211Published by: The George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic ResearchStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4150896 .
Accessed: 18/03/2012 16:30
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
The George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic Research is collaborating with JSTOR to
digitize, preserve and extend access to Anthropological Quarterly.
obsessionwithmemoryunder he term"mnemotropisme."ccordingo him,thismnemotropismes"aproblemnidentity ausedbyour ncapacityo mas-
ter theanxiety f loss" Candau998:104,mytranslation).nvadedby"apro-fuseproductionf information,magesandtraces"ibid:105,my ranslation).Candaurgues,oursociety s lesscapableof transmittingmemoryhanoth-
ers,and more obsessedwithit. In the samevein, Baxterunderlines,n the
Businessf Memory,hat"fetishizingmemorys manifestingtselfin a socie-
TheAbuses f Memory: eflectionsn theMemory oom nAnthropology
the PopularMemoryGrouplsoplayed crucial ole norientinghe attention
of scholarsowardshe "nature ndprocessesf remembering,s muchas the
contentsof the memories...]"(Thomson,risch nd Hamilton 994:34).It istemptingo understandhe success f memory monganthropologists
inthe lightof the postmodernisturnand the ragingmemory/historyebate
in the humanities, s theybothaffectedourdiscipline.Recent nthropologi-cal studieshave indeedabandonedhe suspicious ttitude owardmemorythatpreviouslyharacterized anyhistorieslike hoseof Vansina1980)or
example)ora morephenomenologicalpproach,whichconsists f capturing
the way people perceive:hey remember,orgetand reinterpretheirown
pasts.This ocuson historyas it is lived,on the remembrancesharedandtransmitted ysocialgroupshasshown hatpeopleexperience ndinterpret
theirpasts roma multiplicityf viewpoints. ucha perspective, hichdocu-
mentsthe existenceof multipleand sometimesantagonisticisionsof the
pastwithin he samesociety,hasbeencopiouslydevelopednanthropologi-cal studiessince the 1980s.A bouquetof writings pringso mind,such as
those,amongmanyothers,of Appadurai1981),Bloch 1998),Boyarin1991),Cohn 1995),Cole 2001),Dakhlia1990),Hastrup1992),Herzfeld1991), ing
(1996),Kilani1992),Lapierre2001),Rappaport1990),Rosaldo1980),Stolerand Strassler2000)and Tonkin 1992).Furthermore,ome of these recent
workshavebeguntreatinghe bodyas a "vital ite of memory,"Strathern1996:29)such as those colonialmemories xploredbyBloch n Madagascar
(1998)and Stollern Niger 1995).Anotherpateof writings n memory nd
its relationshipo places Feldand Basso1996)andobjects Radley 990) s
persistwithinus, as the transmissionnd persistence f cultural lements
throughhegenerations.Memorys not theseseriesof recalledmental mages,buta synonymorculturaltorage fthepast: t is thereproductionf thepastin the present,hisaccumulatedastwhichacts on us and makesus act.As
PierreNoraputit,"Collectiveemorys whatremainsrom he past ngroups'
life,orwhatgroups o with hepast"Nora 972:398,my ranslation).
For nstance,hisis particularlylear n the powerful ookbyJunJingTheTemplef Memories,here heauthor mployheword"memory"o refero the
"meticulousemembrancef pasteventsand persons"romthe Communist
political ersecutionra(Jing 996:17)aswellas to describehecontemporary
"resurgencef popular eligion"ibid:173) n the Chinese illageof Dachuan.
Thenotionof memoryhelpsJing,nstead f mourninghe passing f tradition-
alsociety,othinkhroughhepersistencef hisobject fstudy,hat s therepro-duction f Kongocietyhroughimedespitedramatichangesncontext:
"Thetoryof Dachuannd its Confuciusemple,"ewrites, ...] "isone
of proud ndinnovative eople ryingo rebuildheir ifeaftergrievousassaultson their culturaldentity,ense of history, ndreligiousaith"
(ibid: 2).
Itis as if,afterhavingbeen uncertain bouthowpracticesouldbe transmit-
ted in such tormentedmodernworldswhere"savages" ere supposed o
"vanish,"nthropologistsealized hat the pastdoes notevaporate,butper-sists nmultipleways.Here,"collectivememory"eferso the memoryof the
society,tsability o reproducetselfthroughime.
Tothe best of my knowledge,he contemporarynthropologicalse of
memorys hoveringbetweenhistory s it is livedby peopleand those issues
of culturalpersistence.As Battagliaput it, "thestudyof "socialmemory"
addressesproblemsn the "livinghistory"ndongoing ulturalraditionsfcollectivities
f persons"Battaglia992:
14, myemphasis).Atthe sametime
the term stands n for remembrancef pastevents and experiences nd a
"past"ransmittedand stored (like in a computer,without meaningor
remembering).Indeed, byvirtue of its semantic multidimensionality,memo-
ryis an expansive label that seems to migrateinto different places. Infact, as
fusionof the problem f memorynto thegeneralprocess f culture.
Tosuggestwhat I havein mind,let me offerone illuminatingxample
from he recentbookeditedbyClimo ndCattell, ocialMemoryndHistory:
Anthropologicalpproaches.n her contributiono the volume,"ExploringVenuesof SocialMemory,"aroleCrumley eginsbyasking wo questions:"One earnsculture,but how?Which lementsand events of everydayife
generations ...] Touse an analogy romphysics, ocialmemoryacts
likea carrierwave,transmittingnformation vergenerations egard-lessof the degreeto whichparticipantsreawareof their roles n the
process"ibid:40).
Accordingly,ocial memorycorrespondso those "community ercep-
tions, attitudes, behaviors,values and institutions"hat "aretransmitted
acrossgenerations"ibid:40).Thethingto noteaboutCrumley'sext is that
itsdefinitionof memorys so broad hat it becomes ncreasinglympossibleto discern he boundaries f the notion.Indeed,whatis notmemoryhen?
Besides, f memorys howthe past persistsnand invests he present,being
everythingndeverywhere,f it is definedas"thepattern-maintenanceunc-
tionof societyor as socialreproduction erse"(Olick&Robbins 998:112),then isn'tmemoryhe process f culture tself?Isthat notwhat he conceptof culture s all about?
called he presentist malleability"f the past,andthe"bricolage"imension
of ourrelationshipoward t. However,he initialemphasisntheirworksasin the works f Halbwachs)son the continuance nd transmissionfsociety.Howpractices e-enact,modifyand conserve"pastness"hroughime is the
mainanthropologicalssue hattheyweredealingwith.Insofars it is defined
as a faculty hat sustainscontinuity,he notionof memoryhelpedthemto
think hroughhose issuesof cultural onservationnd socialcontinuity. or
Connerton,whose work (like Halbwachs')as been highlyinfluential n
anthropology,memory s alsoan idealentrypointto engagewithissuesof
cultural ontinuity:
"Whereasome dominantcontemporaryrends in socialtheory,"he
writes,"areoften criticized n theground hattheydo notaddress, r
"Oneof the challengesof the next decade or so is to tryto drawtogeth-
er some of these disparatestrands of interest and enthusiasm through
a more rigorousand tightlyarguedset of propositionsabout what exact-
ly memory is and what has been in the past. [...]" (Winter 000: 13).
Inthe same vein as Todorovwarningagainst the abuses of memory in the
political sphere, Ricoeur invited us to look for what he calls "une memoire
juste"(Ricoeur2001). I haveargued in this essay,that in anthropologyas well,
it is time for a more matured use of this notion.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thispiecewas writtenat HarvardUniversitywhile a recipientof a PostdoctoralFellowshipof the BelgianAmericanEducational oundation. am verygrateful o MichaelHerzfeld,RandyMatory,DebboraBattaglia nd Lauren hweder or theirinsightful ommentson mywork.For nspiringdiscussions, want to thank RamonSarro.Ashortenedversion of this
essaywas deliveredat the 8th EuropeanAssociation f SocialAnthropologistsonferenceheld in Vienna, September2004. I wish to thank the convenorsof the lively panel"Anthropologicalpproaches n SocialMemory,"haronMacDonald,HelenaJermanandPetriHautaniemi.Finally, wasmuchhelped bythe editorialcommentsof RichardGrinker,MeliGlennandJenHuiBonHoa.
ENDNOTES
11borrowedhe title from the bookLesabusde la memoirebyTvetzanTodorov1995).Inthistext,he denounces he exploitation f the notionof memorynthe contemporary olit-icalsphere.
2Thoughignoreduntilrecently,Halbwachs'lassics,LesCadresociauxde la memoire 1994[1925]) nd Lamemoire ollective1997[1950]),havenowbeen re-discovered. ince he 80s,
anthropologists ave been reading he colossalLesLieux e la memoirepublishedbyhisto-rianPierreNora 1989),while HowSocietiesRemember1989)byConnerton, escribedas "atouchstone or recentstudiesof memory,"Sutton2001: 10)has become an anthropologi-cal must-read.
31should mentionthat these reflectionshavearisenout of fieldwork onducted n Guinea-
Conakry,WestAfrica.As memory s a key-wordn the social sciencestoday,the attitudetoward he pastand its transmission re a hot topic in Africanocietiesas well.Alongwith
"identity,"memorys at presenta globalizednotion,and the concept s nowlargelyusedbyAfrican oliticians nd local elites. Idon't have time here to deepenthis point,but we def-
initelylive in a time when memory s globalized,an historicalmomentthat Nora ermed
convincinglyhe moment-memoire.
4Somescholarsusedangerouslyhe notion of "remembering"n reference o collectiveenti-ties. For nstance, n the introduction f her TangledMemories,turken sks"What oes it
mean fora culture o remember?"Sturken 997:1). In the samevein, MaryDouglascon-siders that institutionscan "Rememberand Forget" Douglas1986). Connerton'sHowSocietiesRememberonstitutesanother amousexampleof this imprudent emanticexten-
TheAbuses f Memory: eflectionsn theMemory oomnAnthropology
sion. However, s Funkenstein bserves,"consciousness nd memorycan only be realized
byan individualwhoacts, is aware,and remembers. ustas a nationcannoteat ordance,neither can it speak or remember.Rememberings a mental act, and therefore it is
absolutelyandcompletelypersonal"Funkenstein989:6).Fora criticalookat this misuse
of "remembering,"ee also Kansteiner2002).5"Vicarious emories" ccurwhen someone"remembers"vents that havenot been per-sonallyexperiencedbyher/him Teski nd Climo1995).In herMemoriesf the SlaveTrade,RosalindShaweloquentlycapturescontemporarymemoriesof the Atlantic lave tradeinTemneritualpracticesSierraLeone).However, eruseof "remembering"eems hazardousto me. For nstance, he proposes o explore he way"inwhichthe slave tradeis forgottenas historybut remembered s spirits"Shaw 002:9). But,can we really"remember"ome-
thingthatwe did not experience?Can omeone"remember"he slave trade?
6Handlerhowedeffectively hatthe conceptof identity annot"beappliedunthinkinglyoother placesandtimes" Handler 994:27).Thesame remains o be verified or the notion
of memory.7In the samevein,one mightbe intriguedbythe resemblances etweencertainapproach-es to traditionand so-called "culturalmemory."Consider,or instance,the definitionof"tradition" roposed by Shils(1983),and see how it overlapswith the semantic field of
memory.Following hils,"Memoryeavesan objectivedepositin tradition.Thepastdoesnot have to be rememberedbyall who reenact t. [...] But to become a tradition,and toremaina tradition,a patternof assertionoraction musthave enteredintomemory"Shils1983:167).What re then the conceptual imitsbetween he notionsof memoryandtradi-tion?Istradition he "presence f the pastin society"ibid:162) or is that memory?
8For n exception, ee Bourguet,Valensiand Wachtel1990).
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