How Societies Remember [Paperback]

This book provides an account of how bodily (or incorporated) practices are transmitted in, and as, traditions.An essential aspect of social memory, until now badly neglected, is stressed in this study of memory that concentrates on incorporated practices and provides an account of how they are transmitted in and as traditions.An essential aspect of social memory, until now badly neglected, is stressed in this study of memory that concentrates on incorporated practices and provides an account of how they are transmitted in and as traditions.Most studies of memory as a cultural faculty focus on written practices and how they are transmitted. This study concentrates on incorporated practices and provides an account of how these things are transmitted in and as traditions. The author argues that images and recollected knowledge of the past are conveyed and sustained by ritual performances, and that performative memory is bodily. This is an essential aspect of social memory that until now has been badly neglected.Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Social memory; 2. Commemorative ceremonies; 3. Bodily practices; Notes; Index.