Social Memory (New Perspectives on the Past)

Social Memory (New Perspectives on the Past)

by JamesFentress (Editor), C . J . Wickham (Editor), C . J . Wickham (Editor), JamesFentress (Editor)

Synopsis

We remember the past in a number of different ways, some of which we can barely describe. But we talk about the past in more specific social contexts, at home, at work, in the bar, reminiscing about past experience or narrating past events with specific groups of family friends and colleagues. How people talk about the past helps define their identity. In this book the perspective, the philosophy and the psychology of remembering and the ways in which events are narrated are used to help work out how remembering and talking define societies in circumstances as diverse as medieval France and Iceland and contemporary Brazil and South Wales.

$13.91

Quantity

1 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Publisher: Wiley–Blackwell
Published: 30 Apr 1992

ISBN 10: 063116619X
ISBN 13: 9780631166191

Media Reviews
. .. this interesting and lively book demonstrates the important social place of memory. It sustains the argument that transmission and diffusion of memories cannot simply be dismissed as ideological or untrue, but that we must enter into dialogue with memory, examine its arguments and test its various claims. The Australian Journal of Anthropology

This is an accessible and attractive introduction to the study of the social production of historical memories. It deserves a prominent place on all reading-lists on 'anthropology and history.' Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford


.. . this interesting and lively book demonstrates the important social place of memory. It sustains the argument that transmission and diffusion of memories cannot simply be dismissed as ideological or untrue, but that we must enter into dialogue with memory, examine its arguments and test its various claims. The Australian Journal of Anthropology

This is an accessible and attractive introduction to the study of the social production of historical memories. It deserves a prominent place on all reading-lists on 'anthropology and history.' Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford

Author Bio
James Fentress studied philosophy at Princeton before taking a doctorate in anthropology at the University of Oxford. He now lives in Rome where he is completing a book on power, politics and violence in Western Sicily.

Chris Wickham is Reader in Early Medieval History at the University of Birmingham.