Download - History And Collective Memory
CULT 362 – Memory Studies
FINAL PAPER
History And Collective MemoryPast – Identity – History – Religion
Student Name: Onur Oral
Student ID: 9089
Due Date: 13.06.2010
History And Collective Memory
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HISTORY AND COLLECTIVE MEMORY:
Past – Identity – History – Religion
Abstract: This paper will discuss about collective memory and social identities in
Turkey and its history. I seek to show the idea of collective memory, which is shaped
by religious beliefs and individual cultural histories in the process of time. Primary
methods are textual analysis from different sources about identity, collective memory,
religion and history, and interviewing people from different ages and religious beliefs in
order to get the difference of cultural histories. In this study, I also show how national
history plays a role in creating a nation-state/national identity, which is related to
collective memory of the Turkish society.
Keywords: History, collective memory, social identity, nationalism, religion
If aforementioned idea is about past, individual history plays an important role in
national and individual identities. It shapes common pasts and values, also makes
individuals feel as a parts of a national society. It makes us to question who we are, and
where we came from. But if aformentioned idea is about history, religion is one of the
most important subjects that shapes individuals perspective and judgments.
Islam in Turkey stands in the central role which has played a huge role in the
evolution of Turkish society and polity. Islam is not only a religion in Turkey, it is also
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the grammar according to which a large segment of Turkish society communicates.
(Toprak, 1981). When religion and past plays a huge role in the evolution of a society,
both ideas are consisted of collective memory. The relation between history, collective
memory and religion are attached and influence to each other. An individual’s identity
shaped in childhood by culture and the nation which individuals’ born, and cultures
affected by religion and beliefs. According to Anthony Smith, nationalism has become
a “placeholder” religion in the modern era; “Individuals to persisting communities whose
generations form indissoluble links in a chain of memories and identities.” (Smith A. ,
1986). According to Anthony Smith, the idea of separation from other communities
through the creation of a national historiography’s incorporation into the collective
memory of a nation is crucial for creating national identities. (Smith A. , 1986)
“Historical memory, always appearing in the form of historical narrative, is one
form for the content of collective memory, but collective memory is also the framework
in which historical remembering occurs.” (Crane, 1995) In order to understand and
examine that concept, the method I will do is questioning people with different ages and
religious beliefs.
People who I have interviewed did not want to give their names, in order to
prevent a confussion; A is 25 year-old male, believes in Islam and studies in a college in
Istanbul, Turkey. B is 21 year-old male, believes in Judaism and studies in a college in
Istanbul, Turkey. C is 53 year-old male, believes in Islam and construction engineer in a
private company.
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Onur: Where were you born? And did you grow up there?
A: Izmir. I lived there with my family until I was 19. Ever since, I am in Istanbul.
B: Istanbul, all through my life.
C: I was born in Konya, grew up there, after my marriage I moved to Istanbul
with my family.
Onur: Do you talk about politics and/or religious beliefs with one of your
family member? Do those discussions lead you to ask questions and/or to tell your
idea even if it does not fit to theirs?
A: Actually we do not talk to much about politics and religion. I am from Izmir
and our political perspective is known by others. And religiosly, I have never talked
about that issue wih my family. They never asked me what I believe in, and I have never
asked them what to believe in.
B: We always talk about politics and religion. Because of being minority in this
society, we have to protect our culture, beliefs etc... I have learned about politics and
religion by my family’s experiences about past issues, and their knowledge about our
history.
C: When I was a child, we did not talk about any issue. We could not. For
example, My dad told us who to vote, what to believe. And we can not do anything else
except that. But when I have my own children, my own family, I tried to talk about those
issues, not to make the same mistakes like my father. Both religiosly and politically, I tell
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them what I believe and give my reasons. If my son does not agree with me, it’s OK for
me if he has a good reason.
Onur: Do you know Turkish history and/or the city you are living roughly?
A: Yes, I know our history in details. Not only studied in books, I also believe
that I am curious about reasons of political actions. I always research and brainstorm
about the reasons of actions.
B: Yes, I believe I know Turkish history roughly. But I know the historical and
todays’s treatment to Jews in Turkish society in details.
C: Yes, especially I know Turkish political history in details. I have seen and
lived most of the important historical events when I was a child.
Onur: Do you know how Turkish society gained its independence? If you
think about those times and emphatize yourself with those people who has battled to
gain independence, do you believe you would do the same things like them?
A: Of course I would do the same things. I love my country even if I do not like
my society. I always believe in M.K. Atatürk and his ideology. His decisions were always
prudential, he always thought about future while considering past. My opinion about
politics is same with that ideology.
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B: I know and red about Turkish liberty war from books. I am not really interested
in Turkish history, but I know what they have done to gain independence. If I was there, I
guess I would battle against opponents, but thank God, I was not there in those times. In
my opinion battling should be the last resort. Negotiation is a way better solution for
disagreements.
C: Actually my family has lived those times. I know what they had been through.
I would battle against rivals blindly. Because I know how people in those times suffered.
Onur: Do you remember any specific moment about Turkish Liberty War?
A: Well, even if I personally did not live in those years, I remember that women
carried cannonballs, bullets and many other stuff to help men in the war. I have also seen
a photography of that exact moment. It was a moment that it should not be forgetten.
B: I know that Turks allowed Jews to take refuge in Turkey, and a Jew person
lower a Greek flag in Izmir. That’s what I remember specificly.
C: I remember a video that our Turkish women carried cannonballs in Çanakkale
front-line. That moment represents the unity of Turkish socuety and equality of women
and men.
Onur: If you have a chance to change an event or and action about your
society’s past, what event would it be?
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A: To be honest, I would force Kurdish groups to immigrate from our country.
Maybe you could not guess the problems and troubles that those minor groups could stir
up, but with historical experiences, I would force them to immigrate to another society.
B: Actually, I would not change anything. In my opinion there is no right or
wrong event and/or action in history, there is consrquences for actions and/or events.
C: I don’t know how would I do that but I would try to prevent the deaths of our
soldiers. As I said, i don’t know how would I do that, but at least that’s what I would try
to change, try to prevent.
As you can see national history and individual history plays a crucial role in
creating a national and individual identity. Even if this relationship between national
history and national identity seems clear, it is more complex that it is seen. According to
Anthony Smith, the configuration of national identities are not static, but dynamic. It
evolves every second. Creating nations involves ceaseless re-interpretations, re-
discoveries and re-constructions; each generation must re-fashion national institutions
and stratification systems in the light of myths, memories, values and symbols of the
‘past’. (Smith A. , 1986)
Furthermore, nations are not homogeneous in reality. As Homi Bhabha
argues the nation is “a space that is internally marked by cultural difference and the
heterogeneous histories of contending peoples, antagonistic authorities, and tense
cultural locations.” (Bhabha, 1990)
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Anthony Smith talked about multiple interpretations in national past. “The same
historical fact can be interpreted differently by different groups and can serve varying
memories. Accordingly, certain historical explanations might emphasize certain
historical memories and develop divergent national identities that contest each other.
This process of re-interpretation is thus “the product of dialogues between major social
groups and institutions within the boundaries of the ‘nation’, and it answers to their
perceived ideals and interests.” (Smith A. D., 1986).
Also collective memory plays an important role on the creation of the national
identity. Memory, the main focus of this paper, has different perspectives from different
researchers, writers and philosophers, and it is seen as an attribute to information.
Moreover, collective memory is understood as a process of remembering and forgetting
(Middleton, 1990), thought and imagination in terms of past, present and future
(Brockmeier, 2002).
Without memory individuals would not know about who they are, what they are
and where they are. According to Bruner, Individuals would be purified from the
features, which makes them human, the ability to think, without memory. “Memory and
remembering plays a crucial role in one’s sense of self is thus important for personal and
social identity.” (Bruner, 1996) As Olick says collective memory is the active past that
forms our identities. (Olick, 1998) “The renegotiation of collective memory either by
regulatory standards or by historical circumstances causes, as a consequence, the
change of the content of the national identity. The meaning the facts and the relationships
from the past gain in the present circumstances (some of them do not change at all, some
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are rejected and the importance of some other changes) changes the meaning of the
content of national identity and the construction of collective memory.” (Avdela, 1997)
(Strarigoula, 2009)
Consequentially, by examining the dimension of individuals’ memories, this
study has shown how history and religious beliefs organized memories. Above all, the
process of constructing collective memory shaped by political, historical and religious
beliefs, which events make individuals to remember. Yet, as this research has shown,
individuals are active scholiasts and learners of the information, which is presented to
them, and collective memories embody influences and interpretations. In the end,
collective memory, identity and shared history are related and always involve active
individuals who remember, rather than having memories imprinted on their minds. As
J.R. Gillis told “Identities and memories are not the things we think about, but things we
think with.” (Gillis, 1994).
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Bibliography
Avdela, E. (1997). Time, History and National Identity in school. In What is our country? Athens: Dragona.Bhabha, H. (1990). DissemiNation: Narrating the Nation” in Nation and Narration. USA: Routledge.Brockmeier, J. (2002). Remembering and Forgetting: Narrative as Cultural Memory. Cambridge: Polity Press.Bruner, J. (1996). Group Narrative as a Cultural Context of Autobiography. New York: Cambrodge University Press.Crane, S. A. (1995). Writing the Individual Back into Collective Memory (Vol. 102). The American Historical Review.Gillis, J. R. (1994). Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.Middleton, D. (1990). Collective Remembering. London: Sage.Olick, J. K. (1998). Social Memory Studies; From Collective Memory to the Historical Sociology of Mnemonic Practices. New York: University Press.Smith, A. (1986). The Ethnic Origins of the Nations. England: Blackwell Publishing.Strarigoula, P. (2009, June 9). Unity and Diversity of Euro-Medit erranean Identitie. Retrieved June 5, 2010, from Unity and Diversity of Euro-Medit erranean Identitie: http://www.emuni.si/Files//Denis/Conferences/EMUNI_ReS/2009/Proceeding/Aristotle/Pantouvaki.pdfToprak, B. (1981). Islam and Political Development in Turkey. New York, NY: E. J. Brill.
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