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

May 27, 2010

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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