How societies remember /

In treating memory as a cultural rather than an individual faculty, this book provides an account of how practices of a non-inscribed kind are transmitted in, and as, traditions. Most studies of memory as a cultural faculty focus on inscribed transmissions of memories. Connerton, on the other hand,...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Connerton, Paul
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Cambridge [England] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Series:Themes in the social sciences.
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Description
Summary:In treating memory as a cultural rather than an individual faculty, this book provides an account of how practices of a non-inscribed kind are transmitted in, and as, traditions. Most studies of memory as a cultural faculty focus on inscribed transmissions of memories. Connerton, on the other hand, concentrates on incorporated practices, and so questions the currently dominant idea that literary texts may be taken as a metaphor for social practices generally. The author argues that images of the past and recollected knowledge of the past are conveyed and sustained by ritual performances and that performative memory is bodily. Bodily social memory is an essential aspect of social memory, but it is an aspect which has up till now been badly neglected. An innovative study, this work should be of interest to researchers into social, political and anthropological thought as well as to graduate and undergraduate student. -- from back cover.
Physical Description:121 pages ; 24 cm.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (pages 105-115) and indexes.
ISBN:0521249481
9780521249485
0521270936
9780521270939
0521228425
9780521228428