How Societies Remember

Themes in the Social Sciences

by Paul Connerton

In treating memory as a cultural rather than an individual faculty, this book provides an account of how bodily practices are transmitted in, and as, traditions. Most studies of memory as a cultural faculty focus on written, or inscribed transmissions of memories. Paul Connerton, on the other hand, concentrates on bodily (or 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 until 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 students.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Anthropology, Sociology, Theory, Academic, Cultural

130 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Paul Connerton was a British social anthropologist.

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first chapter takes some perseverance, but the second and third chapters are far easier to read and terribly interesting.

[Malcolm · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the foundational texts of much of my academic/scholarly work, brilliantly tracing the social processes building the ways we think about, define and assert our membership of the society/world in which we live. I cannot recommend it too highly.

[Nwaf · Rating 2 out of 5]

مترجم للعربية

كيف تتذكر المجتمعات - بول كورنورتن

محتوى الكتاب طويل وممل جدا ويستخدم مصطلحات معقدة كان من الممكن اختصار الكتاب في بضعة صفحات وتبسيطه للقارئ

[Ihor Horbach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Цікава монографія, часто написана аж занадто закручено (і часто це таки можна написати легше), але зі своєю задачею справляється. Втім, очікування були від книги були дещо інші, здавалось що предмет буде ширшим, але вона дуже зосереджена на тілесних практиких в ритуалах і специфічній суті останніх. Тому назва тут трошечки обманює)

[Iryna Kupchynska · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun and light summer reading!

[Olesia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Заскладно, задовго, заабстракно. Може, так було й тре

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An investigation into different practices of memory, with a particular focus on "incorporation practices," that is, practices of remembering that are learned, habitualized and de-theorized. Connerton deals with rituals of rememberance, ways in which the view of the past and societal memory has changed, bodily practices, types of memory (personal, cognitive, and habitual), and diacronic views of the past. At the end of the book he also discusses the developments of humanists and the advent of the modern era, conceiving of an historical break from classical time. I recommend this book to be read with Time Maps: Collective Memory and the Social Shape of the Past for a great (and very readable) intro to social memory.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was very interesting. I especially liked numerous examples given about theory. However, at times it seemed that it was boring. Perhaps some thought should have been given on how to interest the reader. In the end this book was as part of lecture, reading and I give it a solid four.

[Andreas Haraldstad · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting book and a "classic" within the field of memory studies. Connerton's main point is to show that, in addition to things like writing, orality and materiality, information from the past may also be transfered to the present through ceremonies and bodies and that these forms are more resistant to change.

Connerton's book is divided into three. In the first part, he spends time laying out the theory of social memory (what is also today often called collective memory or cultural memory) and how it operates. Then he goes on to look at how ceremonies and bodies can transfer such memories. Both encode information from the past and into the present. When it comes to ceremonies, he especially focuses on the importane of form over content. It is the very form of the ceremonies and their resistance to change that makes them such powerful vectors. When it comes to bodies, he looks specifically at habits, both personal, but also cultural/collective habits as a way of incorporating information rather than inscribing it. As an example, he points out modern western table manners which have a distinct historical origin in the 16th century, but which have been incorporated into western culture and western bodies so that we see them as natural. On a more banal level, every personal habit we have today is something we have picked up in the past and thus the past and its context incorporates itself into our bodies.

All in all this is a very interesting, but dense, book. At least the way I read him, Connerton's main thesis is quite simple and intuitive, but it is hidden in a very dense and opaque language, making the experience of reading him a long exercise in interpretation. This is both due to Connerton's way of using language, but also his way of writing. Connerton is very methodical, presenting and rebutting counterexamples and presenting his own interpretations. However, I cannot help but feel that his message, if I understood it correctly, could be presented in a more succinct and direct manner, without much actually being lost. That being said, it is still an enjoyable and interesting read and one I recommend to everyone interested in the topic of memory, history and the way the past is conveyed to the present.

[Medea · Rating 2 out of 5]

konusu ilgimi çektiği için almıştım bu kitabı. ancak üniversitede bellek ve bilişsel süreçler konusunda çok fazla ders gördüğüm için ilk yarısı bilmediğim bir şey anlatmadı.(ki bu dersleri doğru düzgün dinlememiştim bile) ikinci yarıda da lafı sürekli dolandırarak YİNE benim için yeni bir şey anlatmadı. bu konuda hiç bilgim olmasaydı ilgimi çekerdi belki ama bana hiçbir şey katmayan bir laf salatasıydı genellikle. yazarın iddiasının aksine çok yüzeysel ve derinliksiz bir anlatımı vardı. bir terim üretip onu edebiyat, sinema veya sanatla örneklendirince derinlikli bir anlatım olmuyor maalesef. biraz daha temele inebilir, özellikle de anma törenlerinin incelemesini detaylandırabilirdi. beğenmedim

[Ghala Anas · Rating 5 out of 5]

كيف تتذكر المجتمعات؟ - بول كونورتن \ ترجمة: متيم الضايع
كتابٌ مُهم في علم الاجتماع، وبخاصة في الكيفية التي يتشابك فيها علم النفس بعلم الاجتماع من حيث بناء الهوية والذاكرة والجسد.
أحببتُ الطريقة التي ربط بها هوية المرء بالذاكرة من حيث البناء لا مجرد الاسترجاع للصور، الأمر الذي تناولته بعض الفلسفات من قبل.
اللافت فيه طرحه حول "معرفة الجسد" التي ظلت أثيرية ورمزية ومُكنَّية طوال زمن طويل وربما إلى اليوم، وإشارته إلى ضرورة دراسة الجسد الإنساني من حيث هو لا من حيث كونه وسيلة أو "مرحلة انتقالية" أو موضوعاً خارجاً عن الإنسان يمكنه دراسته بالانفصال عن نفسه.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this to try to help me consider the intersection of fandom, athletics, culture, and memory, and it worked well for that purpose as it does focus on the role that culture plays in using memories to inform traditions and the value of what is preserved and what is forgotten. While this book is not about the problems of archives and memory intersections, I found much of its transferable for my purpose in considering how to critique and create a new idea of historiographical functions and creation.

[Melissa Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I agree with other reviewers, the content is great once I was able to extract it from the dense and unnecessarily long writing. I was board and interested at the same time. Save prose for fanciful writing and be more direct when you want to teach.

[amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't just look at inscription; performance, embodiment, and repertoire are memory practices too! Is this book in a nutshell.

[alzabo · Rating 4 out of 5]

appreciated his emphasis on embodied memory over rational/written stuff. and i appreciated his critique on the post modern view of language as the criteria for mind

[Cenken · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anlatım aşırı simgesel, aşırı karmaşık, örneklendirme az, kuramsal vurgulamalar ve terimler çeviri nedeniyle zor anlaşılır ve hatta anlaşılamaz durumda. Okuması zor, anlaması daha zor bir eser.

[Sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super interesting but lost me in the last chapter.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

When one thinks of a "ceremony", it's too easy to bring to mind the explicit ones with obvious, structured rituals. This work attempts to make one aware of the "bodily" rituals, too subtle and ingrained into a culture to be worth a mention on histories, but no less, or perhaps more so, revealing of the value and social systems of that culture. An interesting read.

[Yevhen Hulevych · Rating 4 out of 5]

every group will entrust to bodily automatisms the values and categories which they are most anxious to conserve. they will know how well the past can be kept in mind by a habitual memory sedimented in the body.

[Anders · Rating 5 out of 5]

fascinating. really gets you thinking about the nature of memory and how it is created and enforced. i read this for ed mathieu's "historiography workshop" and still can't stop thinking about it.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting but oddly pieced together. A neat if a bit roundabout introduction to studies of bodily performance.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great book about collective memory and how individuals and societies remember. It was a little too psychological for my liking, but still a great discussion starter.