Martin J. Murray
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816682997
- eISBN:
- 9781452948607
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816682997.001.0001
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural History
The end of apartheid and the transition to parliamentary democracy brought to the surface a host of tensions that were long suppressed under white minority rule. Yet as the ‘new nation’ struggled to ...
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The end of apartheid and the transition to parliamentary democracy brought to the surface a host of tensions that were long suppressed under white minority rule. Yet as the ‘new nation’ struggled to establish a firm footing, the lingering ghosts of the past continued to haunt the present. The primary aim of this book is to explore how collective memory works, that is, how the historical past is made to matter in the ‘new South Africa’. A central concern is the question of representation, that is, how the historical past is made to appear in the present. How is the history of white minority rule represented, and thereby mediated, after the end of apartheid and the transition to parliamentary democracy? Addressing this question requires a critical examination of how the practice of commemoration inscribes collective memory in places, objects, and words, and conversely, how the stories attached to these mnemonic devices selectively recount the past in ways that sometimes sanitize, distort, embellish, compress, and even fabricate history in the service of ‘nation-building’. It begins with the premise that such seemingly disconnected are all vehicles for the storage and dissemination of collective memory. Far from operating as passive receptacles or neutral storehouses for holding onto the remembered past, these mnemonic devices are active agents in shaping the construction of a tenuous collective identity and shared meaning in the everyday lives of the South African citizenry.Less
The end of apartheid and the transition to parliamentary democracy brought to the surface a host of tensions that were long suppressed under white minority rule. Yet as the ‘new nation’ struggled to establish a firm footing, the lingering ghosts of the past continued to haunt the present. The primary aim of this book is to explore how collective memory works, that is, how the historical past is made to matter in the ‘new South Africa’. A central concern is the question of representation, that is, how the historical past is made to appear in the present. How is the history of white minority rule represented, and thereby mediated, after the end of apartheid and the transition to parliamentary democracy? Addressing this question requires a critical examination of how the practice of commemoration inscribes collective memory in places, objects, and words, and conversely, how the stories attached to these mnemonic devices selectively recount the past in ways that sometimes sanitize, distort, embellish, compress, and even fabricate history in the service of ‘nation-building’. It begins with the premise that such seemingly disconnected are all vehicles for the storage and dissemination of collective memory. Far from operating as passive receptacles or neutral storehouses for holding onto the remembered past, these mnemonic devices are active agents in shaping the construction of a tenuous collective identity and shared meaning in the everyday lives of the South African citizenry.
Martin J. Murray
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816682997
- eISBN:
- 9781452948607
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816682997.003.0002
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural History
In this chapter, I investigate how commemorative practices have always been deeply invested in the shaping of political and national identities, and the recasting of new memory-markers provides us ...
More
In this chapter, I investigate how commemorative practices have always been deeply invested in the shaping of political and national identities, and the recasting of new memory-markers provides us with significant clues as to the social stability of the ‘new South Africa’ after the end of apartheid and about the ways that the custodians of memory – both from the top down and from the bottom up – project its future. A close reading of the memorial landscapes that proliferated after the end of apartheid can reveal insights into the power of collective memory to shape national identity. Looking at the cultural politics of ‘nation-building’ through the lens of an assortment of mnemonic devices – such as monuments and memorials, museums, and autobiographical writing – enables us to grasp how the lingering, ghostly presence of the past, always contested and never stable, haunts the present. While the ‘new South Africa’ is located in the historical conjuncture that has been called “post-apartheid,” it must be recognized that the legacies and impositions of white minority rule are far from over, and that they have remained embedded and intertwined with, and imprinted upon, the here-and-now.Less
In this chapter, I investigate how commemorative practices have always been deeply invested in the shaping of political and national identities, and the recasting of new memory-markers provides us with significant clues as to the social stability of the ‘new South Africa’ after the end of apartheid and about the ways that the custodians of memory – both from the top down and from the bottom up – project its future. A close reading of the memorial landscapes that proliferated after the end of apartheid can reveal insights into the power of collective memory to shape national identity. Looking at the cultural politics of ‘nation-building’ through the lens of an assortment of mnemonic devices – such as monuments and memorials, museums, and autobiographical writing – enables us to grasp how the lingering, ghostly presence of the past, always contested and never stable, haunts the present. While the ‘new South Africa’ is located in the historical conjuncture that has been called “post-apartheid,” it must be recognized that the legacies and impositions of white minority rule are far from over, and that they have remained embedded and intertwined with, and imprinted upon, the here-and-now.
Robyn Autry
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780231177580
- eISBN:
- 9780231542517
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231177580.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Comparative and Historical Sociology
At the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, South Africa, visitors confront the past upon arrival. They must decide whether to enter the museum through a door marked "whites" or another marked ...
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At the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, South Africa, visitors confront the past upon arrival. They must decide whether to enter the museum through a door marked "whites" or another marked "non-whites." Inside, along with text, they encounter hanging nooses and other reminders of apartheid-era atrocities. In the United States, museum exhibitions about racial violence and segregation are mostly confined to black history museums, with national history museums sidelining such difficult material. Even the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture is dedicated not to violent histories of racial domination but to a more generalized narrative about black identity and culture. The scale at which violent racial pasts have been incorporated into South African national historical narratives is lacking in the U.S. Desegregating the Past considers why this is the case, tracking the production and display of historical representations of racial pasts at museums in both countries and what it reveals about underlying social anxieties, unsettled emotions, and aspirations surrounding contemporary social fault lines around race. Robyn Autry consults museum archives, conducts interviews with staff, and recounts the public and private battles fought over the creation and content of history museums. Despite vast differences in the development of South African and U.S. society, Autry finds a common set of ideological, political, economic, and institutional dilemmas arising out of the selective reconstruction of the past. Museums have played a major role in shaping public memory, at times recognizing and at other times blurring the ongoing influence of historical crimes. The narratives museums produce to engage with difficult, violent histories expose present anxieties concerning identity, (mis)recognition, and ongoing conflict.Less
At the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, South Africa, visitors confront the past upon arrival. They must decide whether to enter the museum through a door marked "whites" or another marked "non-whites." Inside, along with text, they encounter hanging nooses and other reminders of apartheid-era atrocities. In the United States, museum exhibitions about racial violence and segregation are mostly confined to black history museums, with national history museums sidelining such difficult material. Even the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture is dedicated not to violent histories of racial domination but to a more generalized narrative about black identity and culture. The scale at which violent racial pasts have been incorporated into South African national historical narratives is lacking in the U.S. Desegregating the Past considers why this is the case, tracking the production and display of historical representations of racial pasts at museums in both countries and what it reveals about underlying social anxieties, unsettled emotions, and aspirations surrounding contemporary social fault lines around race. Robyn Autry consults museum archives, conducts interviews with staff, and recounts the public and private battles fought over the creation and content of history museums. Despite vast differences in the development of South African and U.S. society, Autry finds a common set of ideological, political, economic, and institutional dilemmas arising out of the selective reconstruction of the past. Museums have played a major role in shaping public memory, at times recognizing and at other times blurring the ongoing influence of historical crimes. The narratives museums produce to engage with difficult, violent histories expose present anxieties concerning identity, (mis)recognition, and ongoing conflict.
Martin J. Murray
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816682997
- eISBN:
- 9781452948607
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816682997.003.0005
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural History
Focusing particular attention on two sites of memory – the Voortrekker Monument and the Hector Pieterson Memorial – enables us to critically examine both the parallels and divergent trajectories in ...
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Focusing particular attention on two sites of memory – the Voortrekker Monument and the Hector Pieterson Memorial – enables us to critically examine both the parallels and divergent trajectories in these different modes of commemoration. The Voortrekker Monument marked the power of Afrikanerdom at the height of the political confidence in the National Party as the vehicle of (white) national identity. Once a messenger of power, it has become a symbol of the failed promise of white minority rule. Once a powerful marker of triumph, it has become symbol of hubris. In contrast, the Hector Pieterson Memorial is an exemplary expression of what Maria Tumarkin has called a traumascape, or a distinctive category of place that stands witness to terrible acts of tragedy, and as a result inadvertently becomes synonymous with the past events themselves. Much more than merely the physical setting for tragedy, traumascapes are cathartic locations, transformed psychically by suffering, grief, and loss. They have become essential parts of people’s experience of mourning, remembering, and making sense of the traumatic events that took place there.Less
Focusing particular attention on two sites of memory – the Voortrekker Monument and the Hector Pieterson Memorial – enables us to critically examine both the parallels and divergent trajectories in these different modes of commemoration. The Voortrekker Monument marked the power of Afrikanerdom at the height of the political confidence in the National Party as the vehicle of (white) national identity. Once a messenger of power, it has become a symbol of the failed promise of white minority rule. Once a powerful marker of triumph, it has become symbol of hubris. In contrast, the Hector Pieterson Memorial is an exemplary expression of what Maria Tumarkin has called a traumascape, or a distinctive category of place that stands witness to terrible acts of tragedy, and as a result inadvertently becomes synonymous with the past events themselves. Much more than merely the physical setting for tragedy, traumascapes are cathartic locations, transformed psychically by suffering, grief, and loss. They have become essential parts of people’s experience of mourning, remembering, and making sense of the traumatic events that took place there.
Martin J. Murray
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816682997
- eISBN:
- 9781452948607
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816682997.003.0004
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural History
With the collapse of white minority rule and the dismantling of apartheid, citizens of the ‘new South Africa’ are called upon to look two ways in time: back to the racially-divided past to confront ...
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With the collapse of white minority rule and the dismantling of apartheid, citizens of the ‘new South Africa’ are called upon to look two ways in time: back to the racially-divided past to confront painful memories born of discrimination and oppression, and forward to the future – with its attendant risks, uncertainties, and contingent possibilities. Looking backward, they hold onto the past by remembering and commemorating. Looking forward, they envision a radiant future unencumbered and unburdened by the sordid apartheid past. The central conundrum that arises from this Janus-faced, schizophrenic vision has to do with resolving the tension between the politics of remembering and the politics of forgetting. On the one hand, the collapse of apartheid has triggered an enthusiasm for the recovery of those aspects of the national past which white minority rule had tried to erase, suppress, and elide from collective memory. On the other hand, finding a common ground of shared values upon which to forge a unifying national identity requires moving beyond – escaping – the past that had divided the country along racial and ethnic, ‘tribal’ and linguistic lines.Less
With the collapse of white minority rule and the dismantling of apartheid, citizens of the ‘new South Africa’ are called upon to look two ways in time: back to the racially-divided past to confront painful memories born of discrimination and oppression, and forward to the future – with its attendant risks, uncertainties, and contingent possibilities. Looking backward, they hold onto the past by remembering and commemorating. Looking forward, they envision a radiant future unencumbered and unburdened by the sordid apartheid past. The central conundrum that arises from this Janus-faced, schizophrenic vision has to do with resolving the tension between the politics of remembering and the politics of forgetting. On the one hand, the collapse of apartheid has triggered an enthusiasm for the recovery of those aspects of the national past which white minority rule had tried to erase, suppress, and elide from collective memory. On the other hand, finding a common ground of shared values upon which to forge a unifying national identity requires moving beyond – escaping – the past that had divided the country along racial and ethnic, ‘tribal’ and linguistic lines.
Sebastian Veg (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9789888390762
- eISBN:
- 9789888455614
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888390762.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Over the past 10 or 15 years in China, there has been unprecedented critical public discussion of key episodes in PRC history, in particular the Great Famine of 1959-1961, the Anti-Rightist movement ...
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Over the past 10 or 15 years in China, there has been unprecedented critical public discussion of key episodes in PRC history, in particular the Great Famine of 1959-1961, the Anti-Rightist movement of 1957, and the Cultural Revolution, with the wave of Red Guard apologies. These discussions are quite different from previous expressions of traumatic or nostalgic memories of the Mao era, respectively in the 1980s and 1990s. They reflect both growing dissatisfaction with the authoritarian control over history exercised by the Chinese state, and the new spaces provided for counter-hegemonic narratives by social media and the growing private economy in the 2000s. Unofficial or independent journals, self-published books, social media groups, independent documentary films, private museums, oral history projects, and archival research by amateur historians have all contributed to embryonic public or semi-public discussion. The present volume provides an overview of these new forms of popular memory, in particular critical memory, of the Mao era. Focusing on the processes of private production, public dissemination, and social sanctioning of narratives of the past in contemporary China, it examines the relation between popular memories and their social construction as historical knowledge. The three parts of the book are devoted to the shifting boundary between private and public in the press and media, the reconfiguration of elite and popular discourses in cultural productions (film, visual art, literature), and the emergence of new discourses of knowledge in popular history.Less
Over the past 10 or 15 years in China, there has been unprecedented critical public discussion of key episodes in PRC history, in particular the Great Famine of 1959-1961, the Anti-Rightist movement of 1957, and the Cultural Revolution, with the wave of Red Guard apologies. These discussions are quite different from previous expressions of traumatic or nostalgic memories of the Mao era, respectively in the 1980s and 1990s. They reflect both growing dissatisfaction with the authoritarian control over history exercised by the Chinese state, and the new spaces provided for counter-hegemonic narratives by social media and the growing private economy in the 2000s. Unofficial or independent journals, self-published books, social media groups, independent documentary films, private museums, oral history projects, and archival research by amateur historians have all contributed to embryonic public or semi-public discussion. The present volume provides an overview of these new forms of popular memory, in particular critical memory, of the Mao era. Focusing on the processes of private production, public dissemination, and social sanctioning of narratives of the past in contemporary China, it examines the relation between popular memories and their social construction as historical knowledge. The three parts of the book are devoted to the shifting boundary between private and public in the press and media, the reconfiguration of elite and popular discourses in cultural productions (film, visual art, literature), and the emergence of new discourses of knowledge in popular history.
Robyn Autry
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780231177580
- eISBN:
- 9780231542517
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231177580.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Comparative and Historical Sociology
Chapter 4 asks, “What can deviant forms of remembering tell us about the normative project of collective remembrance?” This chapter draws on newspaper articles, blogs, and interviews to explore the ...
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Chapter 4 asks, “What can deviant forms of remembering tell us about the normative project of collective remembrance?” This chapter draws on newspaper articles, blogs, and interviews to explore the world of “memory deviants” who refuse to engage in ‘socially responsible” forms of remembering and the identity constructions implicit in them. This chapter investigates the limits of constructing a consensus-driven collective memory through the lens of dissenting voices, particularly those of the people meant to identify with revised collective narratives.Less
Chapter 4 asks, “What can deviant forms of remembering tell us about the normative project of collective remembrance?” This chapter draws on newspaper articles, blogs, and interviews to explore the world of “memory deviants” who refuse to engage in ‘socially responsible” forms of remembering and the identity constructions implicit in them. This chapter investigates the limits of constructing a consensus-driven collective memory through the lens of dissenting voices, particularly those of the people meant to identify with revised collective narratives.
Martin J. Murray
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816682997
- eISBN:
- 9781452948607
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816682997.003.0006
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural History
“Haunting” is a useful metaphorical device for calling attention to how it is that certain places instill a sense of possession, absence, and loss in the urban landscape. The sense of the spectral ...
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“Haunting” is a useful metaphorical device for calling attention to how it is that certain places instill a sense of possession, absence, and loss in the urban landscape. The sense of the spectral presence of those who are not physically there is a ubiquitous feature of the phenomenology of place. This chapter uses the examples of the District Six Museum (Cape Town) and Robben Island Museum to explore how the spectral presence of the past haunts the present.Less
“Haunting” is a useful metaphorical device for calling attention to how it is that certain places instill a sense of possession, absence, and loss in the urban landscape. The sense of the spectral presence of those who are not physically there is a ubiquitous feature of the phenomenology of place. This chapter uses the examples of the District Six Museum (Cape Town) and Robben Island Museum to explore how the spectral presence of the past haunts the present.
Robyn Autry
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780231177580
- eISBN:
- 9780231542517
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231177580.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Comparative and Historical Sociology
In Chapter 2, I examine how violent histories are recounted through the lens of group identity formation in exhibitions. I discuss how relying on the conventions of collective storytelling—the rules ...
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In Chapter 2, I examine how violent histories are recounted through the lens of group identity formation in exhibitions. I discuss how relying on the conventions of collective storytelling—the rules and norms around both plot and structure—blunts the sharp edges of history. This chapter analyzes the visual and discursive turns used to construct a metanarrative of group identity forged through collective trauma. In South Africa, this collective experience is articulated as a national one, whereas in the United States interrogation of the society’s racist past is the purview of so-called ethnic or black museums.Less
In Chapter 2, I examine how violent histories are recounted through the lens of group identity formation in exhibitions. I discuss how relying on the conventions of collective storytelling—the rules and norms around both plot and structure—blunts the sharp edges of history. This chapter analyzes the visual and discursive turns used to construct a metanarrative of group identity forged through collective trauma. In South Africa, this collective experience is articulated as a national one, whereas in the United States interrogation of the society’s racist past is the purview of so-called ethnic or black museums.
Martin J. Murray
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816682997
- eISBN:
- 9781452948607
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816682997.003.0001
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural History
The Introduction contextualizes apartheid, while discussing the making and meaning of collective memory.
The Introduction contextualizes apartheid, while discussing the making and meaning of collective memory.
Susan Ireland
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781789620665
- eISBN:
- 9781789623666
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781789620665.003.0021
- Subject:
- History, Imperialism and Colonialism
The Camp Joffre, otherwise known as the Camp de Rivesaltes, played a role in many of the major conflicts of the twentieth century, including the Spanish Civil War, World War II, and the Algerian war ...
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The Camp Joffre, otherwise known as the Camp de Rivesaltes, played a role in many of the major conflicts of the twentieth century, including the Spanish Civil War, World War II, and the Algerian war of independence. Originally designed as a military base, the camp was frequently reconfigured and was used for diverse purposes, often serving as an internment centre. The memorial museum, which was opened in October 2015, bears witness to the camp’s multifaceted history. As a postcolonial site of memory, Rivesaltes is primarily associated with the harkis, the Algerians who worked for the French during the war of independence and who found themselves isolated in temporary housing camps when they were repatriated to France at the end of the conflict. Emblematic of the housing camps in general, Rivesaltes figures prominently in the community’s collective memories as a symbol of their marginalization and of France’s failure to protect them.Less
The Camp Joffre, otherwise known as the Camp de Rivesaltes, played a role in many of the major conflicts of the twentieth century, including the Spanish Civil War, World War II, and the Algerian war of independence. Originally designed as a military base, the camp was frequently reconfigured and was used for diverse purposes, often serving as an internment centre. The memorial museum, which was opened in October 2015, bears witness to the camp’s multifaceted history. As a postcolonial site of memory, Rivesaltes is primarily associated with the harkis, the Algerians who worked for the French during the war of independence and who found themselves isolated in temporary housing camps when they were repatriated to France at the end of the conflict. Emblematic of the housing camps in general, Rivesaltes figures prominently in the community’s collective memories as a symbol of their marginalization and of France’s failure to protect them.
James J. Coleman
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780748676903
- eISBN:
- 9781474405966
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748676903.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Scottish Studies
At a time when the Union between Scotland and England is once again under the spotlight, Remembering the Past in Nineteenth-Century Scotland examines the way in which Scotland’s national heroes were ...
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At a time when the Union between Scotland and England is once again under the spotlight, Remembering the Past in Nineteenth-Century Scotland examines the way in which Scotland’s national heroes were once remembered as champions of both Scottish and British patriotism. Whereas 19th-century Scotland is popularly depicted as a mire of sentimental Jacobitism and kow-towing unionism, this book shows how Scotland’s national heroes were once the embodiment of a consistent, expressive and robust view of Scottish nationality. Whether celebrating the legacy of William Wallace and Robert Bruce, the reformer John Knox, the Covenanters, 19th-century Scots rooted their national heroes in a Presbyterian and unionist view of Scotland’s past.
Examined through the prism of commemoration, this book uncovers collective memories of Scotland’s past entirely opposed to 21st-century assumptions of medieval proto-nationalism and Calvinist misery.
Detailed studies of 19th-century commemoration of Scotland’s national heroes
Uncovers an all but forgotten interpretation of these ‘great Scots’
Shines a new light on the mindset of nineteenth-century Scottish national identity as being comfortably Scottish and British
Overturns the prevailing view of Victorian Scottishness as parochial, sentimental tartanryLess
At a time when the Union between Scotland and England is once again under the spotlight, Remembering the Past in Nineteenth-Century Scotland examines the way in which Scotland’s national heroes were once remembered as champions of both Scottish and British patriotism. Whereas 19th-century Scotland is popularly depicted as a mire of sentimental Jacobitism and kow-towing unionism, this book shows how Scotland’s national heroes were once the embodiment of a consistent, expressive and robust view of Scottish nationality. Whether celebrating the legacy of William Wallace and Robert Bruce, the reformer John Knox, the Covenanters, 19th-century Scots rooted their national heroes in a Presbyterian and unionist view of Scotland’s past.
Examined through the prism of commemoration, this book uncovers collective memories of Scotland’s past entirely opposed to 21st-century assumptions of medieval proto-nationalism and Calvinist misery.
Detailed studies of 19th-century commemoration of Scotland’s national heroes
Uncovers an all but forgotten interpretation of these ‘great Scots’
Shines a new light on the mindset of nineteenth-century Scottish national identity as being comfortably Scottish and British
Overturns the prevailing view of Victorian Scottishness as parochial, sentimental tartanry
Roxana Ferllini
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813061603
- eISBN:
- 9780813051222
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813061603.003.0017
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
Today, Armenians across the globe honor the cultural remembrance of the Armenian genocide. This is significant given that the victims of this historical event remain largely forgotten by the ...
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Today, Armenians across the globe honor the cultural remembrance of the Armenian genocide. This is significant given that the victims of this historical event remain largely forgotten by the international community, including the media and political establishments. Seeking to achieve transitional justice, the Armenian community maintains a policy of formal recognition of the genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire in the early twentieth century. As this chapter shows, the framework of a collective Armenian memory has provided structure and focus for the forensic anthropological work conducted at Ras al-Ain in Syria in 2007. While investigations focused on the exhumations of human remains of those who had perished due to forced deportation, collaboration with the Armenian community proved invaluable. Community members shared their recollections of the events that had transpired at the site, and the forensic evidence in turn provided a sense of closure to the community.Less
Today, Armenians across the globe honor the cultural remembrance of the Armenian genocide. This is significant given that the victims of this historical event remain largely forgotten by the international community, including the media and political establishments. Seeking to achieve transitional justice, the Armenian community maintains a policy of formal recognition of the genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire in the early twentieth century. As this chapter shows, the framework of a collective Armenian memory has provided structure and focus for the forensic anthropological work conducted at Ras al-Ain in Syria in 2007. While investigations focused on the exhumations of human remains of those who had perished due to forced deportation, collaboration with the Armenian community proved invaluable. Community members shared their recollections of the events that had transpired at the site, and the forensic evidence in turn provided a sense of closure to the community.
Martin J. Murray
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816682997
- eISBN:
- 9781452948607
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816682997.003.0003
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural History
This chapter addresses a range of questions that investigate the origins of memory-making under white minority rule and how these discredited mnemonic devices linger in the present. What becomes of ...
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This chapter addresses a range of questions that investigate the origins of memory-making under white minority rule and how these discredited mnemonic devices linger in the present. What becomes of social memories of settler colonialism and white minority rule when the myth-laden, socio-cultural world of their making lies in ruins? The end of apartheid and the transition to parliamentary democracy triggered what amounted to a crisis of collective memory that left citizens of the ‘new South Africa’ without the stable reference points necessary for building a shared sense of national identity. What should be remembered and how? Where do old-fashioned monuments and memorials that extolled the virtues of white minority rule fit into the new national narrative of political stability, economic progress, and racial reconciliation? These are the kinds of questions that immediately provoked widespread debate and controversy.Less
This chapter addresses a range of questions that investigate the origins of memory-making under white minority rule and how these discredited mnemonic devices linger in the present. What becomes of social memories of settler colonialism and white minority rule when the myth-laden, socio-cultural world of their making lies in ruins? The end of apartheid and the transition to parliamentary democracy triggered what amounted to a crisis of collective memory that left citizens of the ‘new South Africa’ without the stable reference points necessary for building a shared sense of national identity. What should be remembered and how? Where do old-fashioned monuments and memorials that extolled the virtues of white minority rule fit into the new national narrative of political stability, economic progress, and racial reconciliation? These are the kinds of questions that immediately provoked widespread debate and controversy.
David Fitzgerald
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804785815
- eISBN:
- 9780804786423
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804785815.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, Conflict Politics and Policy
This introduction examines the literature on the complicated relationship between the US Army and counterinsurgency before seeking an explanation for that relationship in the broader field on US ...
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This introduction examines the literature on the complicated relationship between the US Army and counterinsurgency before seeking an explanation for that relationship in the broader field on US strategic culture and the more general concept of strategic and organizational culture. The chapter also outlines the broad debate on the lessons of Vietnam before considering the theoretical literature on the ‘lessons of history’ and the social construction of history. It argues that the Army’s relationship with counterinsurgency and its lessons of Vietnam cannot be understood without reference to the literature on strategic culture and collective memory.Less
This introduction examines the literature on the complicated relationship between the US Army and counterinsurgency before seeking an explanation for that relationship in the broader field on US strategic culture and the more general concept of strategic and organizational culture. The chapter also outlines the broad debate on the lessons of Vietnam before considering the theoretical literature on the ‘lessons of history’ and the social construction of history. It argues that the Army’s relationship with counterinsurgency and its lessons of Vietnam cannot be understood without reference to the literature on strategic culture and collective memory.
Barbara K. Jones
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781683401049
- eISBN:
- 9781683401728
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9781683401049.003.0009
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
Bald eagles have returned from the brink of extinction and today serve as a reminder to our collective memory of not only what we can do to destroy a species, but what we can learn from its near ...
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Bald eagles have returned from the brink of extinction and today serve as a reminder to our collective memory of not only what we can do to destroy a species, but what we can learn from its near loss. In our environmental ignorance, we almost lost the symbol of our identity as Americans and replaced it with a value system that saw our dominion over nature as a legitimate and proper role for mankind. Today, we more readily appreciate that our well-being is closely tied to that of nature and without intact ecosystems we all lose. Our willingness to pay to maintain populations of bald eagles is an important tool for assigning this charismatic bird value. Bald eagles now soar in places as varied as the rivers of Alaska to the highly developed coastline of the Chesapeake Bay, but in both locations, their presence reminds us of what we could have lost if we allowed the bald eagle to “blink out” and what we have gained from their conservation success.Less
Bald eagles have returned from the brink of extinction and today serve as a reminder to our collective memory of not only what we can do to destroy a species, but what we can learn from its near loss. In our environmental ignorance, we almost lost the symbol of our identity as Americans and replaced it with a value system that saw our dominion over nature as a legitimate and proper role for mankind. Today, we more readily appreciate that our well-being is closely tied to that of nature and without intact ecosystems we all lose. Our willingness to pay to maintain populations of bald eagles is an important tool for assigning this charismatic bird value. Bald eagles now soar in places as varied as the rivers of Alaska to the highly developed coastline of the Chesapeake Bay, but in both locations, their presence reminds us of what we could have lost if we allowed the bald eagle to “blink out” and what we have gained from their conservation success.
Robyn Autry
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780231177580
- eISBN:
- 9780231542517
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231177580.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Comparative and Historical Sociology
Chapter 3 treats the museum not only as a site of memory, but also as a site of employment. It considers how the collective representations require management over time, focusing on some of the banal ...
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Chapter 3 treats the museum not only as a site of memory, but also as a site of employment. It considers how the collective representations require management over time, focusing on some of the banal or profane dimensions of memory work: the budgets, the political wrangling, staff composition and training, and construction costs and woes. Museum curators and directors must contend with a cluster of political-economic and institutional factors that deeply determine their capacity to represent the past. I found that all the museums I studied faced related concerns about funding, attendance, membership development, and exhibition design.Less
Chapter 3 treats the museum not only as a site of memory, but also as a site of employment. It considers how the collective representations require management over time, focusing on some of the banal or profane dimensions of memory work: the budgets, the political wrangling, staff composition and training, and construction costs and woes. Museum curators and directors must contend with a cluster of political-economic and institutional factors that deeply determine their capacity to represent the past. I found that all the museums I studied faced related concerns about funding, attendance, membership development, and exhibition design.
Rachelle Saltzman
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719079771
- eISBN:
- 9781781704080
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719079771.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Social History
A lark for the sake of their country tells the tale of the upper and middle-class ‘volunteers’ in Great Britain's 1926 General Strike. With behaviour derived from their play traditions – the larks, ...
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A lark for the sake of their country tells the tale of the upper and middle-class ‘volunteers’ in Great Britain's 1926 General Strike. With behaviour derived from their play traditions – the larks, rags, fancy dress parties, and treasure hunts that prevailed at universities and country houses – the volunteers transformed a potential workers’ revolution into a festive public performance of Englishness. This book recreates the cultural context for the volunteers’ actions to explore how volunteers, strikers, and the Government used the strike to define national identity; it also considers how scholars, novelists, playwrights, diarists, museum curators, local examine historians, and even a theme restaurant have continued to recycle the event.Despite scores of books about the strike, there is no other full-length study of the volunteers. Using the methodology and theory of folklore, social anthropology, literary criticism, and social history, this work presents a cultural ethnography of one of modern British history's most significant events. From 1985’87, the author conducted correspondence and oral history interviews with nearly 300 volunteers, strikers, and contemporary observers. Those materials, combined with archival documents and a survey of contemporary media, novels, diaries, plays, memoirs, histories, and exhibitions, provided the basis for exploring the traditional expressive culture of the British upper classes.This study will appeal to aficianodos of British social and cultural history, folklore, and popular culture as well as to undergraduate and graduate classes in British studies, modern labour history, and social anthropology as well as those on collective memory, history making and identity.Less
A lark for the sake of their country tells the tale of the upper and middle-class ‘volunteers’ in Great Britain's 1926 General Strike. With behaviour derived from their play traditions – the larks, rags, fancy dress parties, and treasure hunts that prevailed at universities and country houses – the volunteers transformed a potential workers’ revolution into a festive public performance of Englishness. This book recreates the cultural context for the volunteers’ actions to explore how volunteers, strikers, and the Government used the strike to define national identity; it also considers how scholars, novelists, playwrights, diarists, museum curators, local examine historians, and even a theme restaurant have continued to recycle the event.Despite scores of books about the strike, there is no other full-length study of the volunteers. Using the methodology and theory of folklore, social anthropology, literary criticism, and social history, this work presents a cultural ethnography of one of modern British history's most significant events. From 1985’87, the author conducted correspondence and oral history interviews with nearly 300 volunteers, strikers, and contemporary observers. Those materials, combined with archival documents and a survey of contemporary media, novels, diaries, plays, memoirs, histories, and exhibitions, provided the basis for exploring the traditional expressive culture of the British upper classes.This study will appeal to aficianodos of British social and cultural history, folklore, and popular culture as well as to undergraduate and graduate classes in British studies, modern labour history, and social anthropology as well as those on collective memory, history making and identity.
Robyn Autry
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780231177580
- eISBN:
- 9780231542517
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231177580.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Comparative and Historical Sociology
Finally, in the conclusion, I revisit the puzzle of collective memory and the politics of representation or the “museumification of memory.” This chapter argues that memory and identity become ...
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Finally, in the conclusion, I revisit the puzzle of collective memory and the politics of representation or the “museumification of memory.” This chapter argues that memory and identity become artifacts in the interest of reconstituting the collective in the aftermath of prolonged and intense conflict. It also questions the motivations for and implications of the construction and production of consensus-driven narratives as the basis of collective memory. Ultimately, this chapter considers the extent to which museum practices can transcend the familiar visual and discursive language of racial and national identities that is itself rooted in histories of oppression and exclusion.Less
Finally, in the conclusion, I revisit the puzzle of collective memory and the politics of representation or the “museumification of memory.” This chapter argues that memory and identity become artifacts in the interest of reconstituting the collective in the aftermath of prolonged and intense conflict. It also questions the motivations for and implications of the construction and production of consensus-driven narratives as the basis of collective memory. Ultimately, this chapter considers the extent to which museum practices can transcend the familiar visual and discursive language of racial and national identities that is itself rooted in histories of oppression and exclusion.
Derya Firat
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813061603
- eISBN:
- 9780813051222
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813061603.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
The 1980 military coup is a milestone in Turkish history. While more than thirty years have passed since the event, a review of contemporary debates on the subject reveals an urgent need to confront ...
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The 1980 military coup is a milestone in Turkish history. While more than thirty years have passed since the event, a review of contemporary debates on the subject reveals an urgent need to confront the memories associated with Turkey's unspoken past. In order to meet this need, this chapter discusses the physical sites of memory that emerged with the military coup. It focuses on three sites associated with urban public protest: the street, Istanbul's Taksim Square, and Diyarbakır Prison. While the first operates at the scale of the whole Turkish society, the second concerns the Turkish Left, and the third is a site of memory for the Kurdish people. In approaching these three spaces, Fırat ventures into different topographies of memory, exploring in particular how Pierre Nora's 'sites of memory' and Maurice Halbwachs’ “collective memory” articulate with the Turkish case.Less
The 1980 military coup is a milestone in Turkish history. While more than thirty years have passed since the event, a review of contemporary debates on the subject reveals an urgent need to confront the memories associated with Turkey's unspoken past. In order to meet this need, this chapter discusses the physical sites of memory that emerged with the military coup. It focuses on three sites associated with urban public protest: the street, Istanbul's Taksim Square, and Diyarbakır Prison. While the first operates at the scale of the whole Turkish society, the second concerns the Turkish Left, and the third is a site of memory for the Kurdish people. In approaching these three spaces, Fırat ventures into different topographies of memory, exploring in particular how Pierre Nora's 'sites of memory' and Maurice Halbwachs’ “collective memory” articulate with the Turkish case.
