Paul Connerton

Not, I confess, what I anticipated, but turned out to engaging nonetheless. The main thesis is that memory is dependent upon social environment: "'it is through their membership of a social group -- particularly kinship, religious and class affiliations --that individuals are able to acquire, to localise and to recall their memories [quoting Maurice Halbwachs]. In other words, remembering is "not a matter of reproduction, but of construction."

Social memory takes several forms (social memory, commemorative ceremonies, and bodily practices [for me, the most interesting in that he discusses our automatic responses of habit without conscious thought, as in driving a car or typing].… (mer)