Collective Memory and Cultural Identity Author(s): Jan Assmann and John Czaplicka Source: New German Critique,

No. 65, Cultural History/Cultural Studies (Spring - Summer, 1995), pp. 125-133 Published by: New German Critique Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/488538 . Accessed: 07/08/2013 04:10
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andCultural Collective Memory Identity*

JanAssmann
Problem and Program thesociologist Maurice In thethird decadeof thiscentury, Halbwachs and thearthistorian Aby Warburg independently developed'two theoor "social memory." Theirotherwise ries of a "collective" fundamenmeetin a decisive dismissal ofnumerous turntallydifferent approaches to conceive collective in of-the-century attempts memory biological a tendency or "racialmemory,"2 terms as an inheritable whichwould forinstance, in C. G. Jung's of archetypes.3 stillobtain, Instead, theory shift and Halbwachs thediscourse collective bothWarburg concerning outofa biological framework into a cultural one. knowledge a person from The specific character that derives to a disbelonging tinct and is not seen to maintain itself for culture as society generations a result of phylogenetic but rather as a result of socialization evolution, of the type"in the sense of a cultural and customs.The "survival
* inKultur Thistext was originally undGediichtnis, eds. Jan Assmann published andTonioH61scher (Frankfurt/Main: 1988)9-19. Suhrkamp, inhisKreuzlinger Lecture 1. Warburg however Durkheim of 1923inwhich quotes in hiswork thefirst theconcept of "socialmemory" for time. Cf. RolandKany, appears als Programm: unddieAndacht zumUnbedeutenden Geschichte, Erinnerung Mnemosyne im Werk undBenjamin von Usener, has Warburg Niemeyer, 1987).H. Ritter (Tiibingen: tounpublished informed me that Fritz Saxl hadreferred to the notes, according Warburg work Halbwachs. ofMaurice 2. Ernest H. Gombrich, An Intellectual Aby Warburg: (London:The Biography Institute, 1970)323ff. Warburg mostimportant sourcefor hisowntheory of memory 3. Warburg's was Richard Die Mneme als erhaltendes Semon.See Richard imWechsel des organisSemon, Prinzip chenGeschehens 1920). Engelmann, (Leipzig:

125

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andCultural Collective Memory Identity

is a function of the cultural to memory. According pseudo-species4 while in the world of animals Nietzsche, genetic programs guarantee of the species,humans mustfinda meansby whichto the survival maintain their The solution nature to through generations. consistently thisproblem is offered a collective forall by cultural memory, concept that directs behavior andexperience in theinteractive frameknowledge and one that workof a society in repeated obtains generations through societal andinitiation. practice We5define theconcept ofcultural a doubledelimitamemory through tion that it: distinguishes 1. from or "everyday whatwe call "communicative" which memory," inthenarrower senseofourusagelacks"cultural" characteristics; 2. from whichdoes nothave thecharacteristics of memory science, as it relates to a collective For thesake of brevity, we will self-image. leave aside thisseconddelimitation which Halbwachs as the developed distinction between and and limit ourselves to the first: memory history thedistinction between communicative andcultural memory. Communicative Memory Forus theconcept of"communicative includes thosevarietmemory" ies ofcollective that arebasedexclusively on everyday commumemory nications. Thesevarieties, whichM. Halbwachs and analyzed gathered theconcept under of collective thefieldof oralhisconstitute memory, is communication a characterized ofnontory.6 Everyday by high degree of thematic and specialization, reciprocity roles, instability, disorganizait takesplace between who can changeroles. tion.7 Typically, partners Whoever relatesa joke, a memory, a bit of gossip,or an experience
4. Erik Erikson, of Ritualization," PUB. INFO London(1965):21; "Ontogeny Irenaus Eibl-Eibesfeldt, Krieg und Friedenaus der Sicht der Verhaltensforschung (Munich: 1984). Piper, 5. The use oftheplural refers to theco-authorship ofAleidaAssmann intheformulation of theseideas.See AleidaandJan undGeddchtnis: Assmann, Beitrdge Schrift zurArchdiologie derliterarischen Kommunikation Fink, (Munich: 1987). 6. MauriceHalbwachs, Das Geddchtnis undseinesozialenBedingungen (FrankLa memoire ed. J.Alexfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1985);andMaurice Halbwachs, collective, andre (Paris:PU de France, 1950). 7. Of course, communication is found in non-reciprocal roleconstellaeveryday tionssuchas medicalanamnesis, etc. confession, examination, instruction, interrogation, Butsuch"habits ofspeech" demonstrate a higher ofcultural for(Seibert) already degree andconstitute mation a stage oftransition between andcultural communication. everyday

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in the nextmoment. Thereare occasionswhich becomesthe listener more or less predetermine such communications, for example train or thecommon arerules- "laws rides, rooms, table;andthere waiting - that of themarket"8 thisexchange. Thereis a "household"9 regulate withinthe confinesof which this communication takes place. Yet this a of and disorwillfulness, beyond reigns highdegree formlessness, this manner of each communication, individual Through ganization. a as Halbwachs has shown,is (a) socially which, composes memory to a group. mediated and (b) relates constimemory Everyindividual in communication with tutes itself others. These"others," are however, notjust any set of people,rather who conceivetheir theyare groups a common andpeculiarity unity through past.Halbwachs imageof their thinks of families, and groups, political parneighborhood professional nations. ties, associations, etc.,up to and including Everyindividual suchgroups to numerous andtherefore entertains numerous colbelongs andmemories. lective self-images thepractice of oral history, we have gaineda moreprecise Through of thiseveryday form intothe peculiarqualities of collective insight L. Niethammer, with we willcall communicative memwhich, memory, Its most is As characteristic its limited horizon. ory. important temporal this horizon than all oral history studies does not more extend suggest, to (at the verymost)one hundred yearsintothe past, which eighty or This horizon three four or the Latinsaeculum.10 equals generations shifts in direct relation to thepassing oftime. The communicative memno fixed which wouldbinditto theeverexpanding point past oryoffers in thepassingof time.Such fixity can onlybe achieved a culthrough ofinformal tural formation andtherefore liesoutside everyday memory.

8. Pierre de la pratique. Prgcidede trois tudes Bourdieu, Esquissed'unethdorie Droz,1972). d'ethnologie (Geneve: kabyle thesociologist Thomas 9. In his work, Luckmann speaksof the"communicative ofa society. household" to T. Hl1scher, that treated 10. According to thetimespan exactly by corresponds inAnnals ofthe Tacitus noted ofthelastwitnesses Herodotus. III 75 thedeath expressly inA. andJ.Assmann. in theyear AD 22; cf.Cancik-Lindemeier As to themeanrepublic lifespanofthose whoremember a generation, see Gladas themaximal ingofsaeculum zeitlicher ordo.Zur Struktur Deutungssysteme," igow,"Aetas,aevumand saeclorum in theMediterranean World and theNearEast,ed. D. Hellholm (TilbinApocalypticism 1983). gen:Mohr,

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andCultural Collective Memory Identity

Transition ourselves from thearea of everyday Once we remove communication and enterinto the area of objectivized almost everything culture, is so fundamental thatone mustask whether changes.The transition themetaphor in anywayapplicable. of memory remains as Halbwachs, is well known, at this without it into account juncture, stopped taking He probably once livingcommunication that thought systematically.1 - whether in the forms of objectivized culture in texts, cristallized - the or even rites, monuments, cities, images, buildings, landscapes12 reference are lost and thereand thecontemporary grouprelationship forethecharacter of thisknowledge as a memoire collective disappears as well."MWmoire" 13 is transformed into "histoire." Our thesis For in thecontext contradicts thisassumption. of objectivized culture andof organized or ceremonial a close concommunication, nection to groups andtheir exists which is similar to in that found identity thecase ofeveryday We can to the refer structure of memory. knowledge in thiscase as the"concretion of identity." Withthiswe meanthata bases its consciousness of unity and specificity group uponthisknowlformative andnormative from allows it,which edgeandderives impulses thegroup to reproduce itsidentity. In thissense, has culture objectivized the structure of memory. in as Nietzsche Only historicism, perceptively and clairvoyantly remarked in "On theAdvantage of and Disadvantage for this does structure to dissolve.15 History Life,"l14 begin The Cultural Memory as thecommunicative Just is characterized memory by its proximity
11. Halbwachs dealtwith thephenomena this border. Maurice Halbwachs, beyond La topographie des Evangiles en Terre collective Sainte;etudede memoire lIgendaire he presents Palestine as a commemorative (Paris:PU de France, 1941).There, landscape that transforms InPalestine, thecenturies. intheimage ofthepastfollows through change that aremadeconcrete intheconstruction ofmonuments. theological positions 12. The classicalexample for a primarily memcultural topographically organized of theAustralian with their attachment to certain sacredsites.Cf. oryis that Aborigines Cancikin A. andJ.Assman, andHalbwachs, La topographie for other examlIgendaire orcommemorative plesofsacred landscapes. 13. Friedrich Christentum undKultur andsimilarly Overbeck, (Basel, 1963) 20ff. La topographie 261ff. treat sucha transformation under therubric Halbwachs, legendaire offalsification andin theconceptual framework ofprimeval andtheology. history 14. Friedrich vol.3, ed. K. Schlechta Nietzsche, Werke, Hanser, (Munich: 1964). 15. Cf. AleidaAssmann, "Die Onfiihigkeit zu vergessen : derHistorismus unddie Krisedeskulturellen A. andJ.Assmann. Gedfichtnisses,"

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to the everyday, is characterized cultural from memory by its distance from Distance theeveryday marks theeveryday. its tem(transcendence) has itshorizon does not Cultural memory itsfixed poralhorizon. point; thepassing of time. Thesefixed of with are fateful events points change is maintained thepast,whosememory cultural formation through (texts, and institutional communication rites, monuments) (recitation, practice, of We call these The entire Jewish calobservance). "figures memory." ofmemory.16 In theflowof everyday endar is basedon figures commusuch festivals, "islands nications rites, etc.,form epics,poems,images, different from of time," islandsof a completely temporality suspended such islandsof timeexpandinto memory time.In cultural memory, Besonnencontemplativeness" spaces of "retrospective [retrospective He ascribed a typeof stems from heit].This expression AbyWarburg. of not to the "mnemonic culture, objectivation pointing onlyto energy" worksof highart,but also to posters, cuscostumes, postagestamps, a etc. In collective cultural toms, formation, experience crystallizes, whosemeaning, whentouched becomeaccessible upon,maysuddenly In his large-scale again acrossmillennia. Mnemosyne, project Warburg this pictorial of Western wantedto reconstruct civilization. memory is moregeneral. Thatof courseis notourproblem; ourinquiry But we for emphatically are indebted to Warburg attention to the directing in in the of cultural of cultural memory objectivation stabilizing power situations for ofyears. certain thousands of in his treatment of themnemonic Yetjust as Halbwachs functions not does culture, aspects objectivized Warburg developthesociological ofhispictorial memHalbwachs thenexus between thematizes memory. of theone between and thelanguage oryand group, Warburg memory of cultural to relateall cultural forms. Our theory memory attempts three and thegroup (thecontemporized poles- memory past),culture, to each other. We want to stress the characteris(society) following ticsofcultural memory:
itas theobjectofreligion 16. Halbwachs theremembrance to maintain designated ofa time theagesandwithout ittobe corrupted allowing byintervening longpastthrough memories. Das Gediichtnis 261. The sharpness ofthisformulation, Halbwachs, however, which as an assimilated Halbwachs Jewdidnottreat onlyappliesto theJewish religion, evenmentions. Fortheproblem andhardly ofJewish remembrance see YosefYerushalmi, Jewish andJewish U ofWashington Zachor, P, 1982),andWilly (Seattle: Memory History Gedenken imaltenOrient undimAlten Testament Neukirchner Schottroff, (Neukirchen: des Erziehungsvereins, 1964). Verlag

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Collective andCultural Memory Identity

or therelation to the group.Cultural 1) "The concretion of identity" the store of from which a groupderives memory knowledge preserves of itsunity and peculiarity. an awareness The objective manifestations of cultural are defined a kindof identificatory determemory through in a positive("We are this")or in a negative mination ("That's our sense.17 opposite") such a concretion of identity evolveswhatNietzschehas Through called the "constitution of horizons." The supply of knowledge in the cultural is characterized distinctions made between by sharp memory thosewho belongand thosewho do not,i.e.,between whatappertains to oneself andwhat is foreign. Accessto andtransmission ofthis knowlcalls "theoretical curiosedge are not controlled by whatBlumenberg butrather as described Hans Mol.18 ity," bya "needfor identity" by this Connected with is to reconstruct. No memory can preserve thepast.What 2) its capacity remains is onlythat "which in each era can reconstruct within its society of reference."19 frame Cultural works contemporary memory by reconthat itsknowledge relates to an actual andcontemis, it always structing, situation. in immovable of memory and True,it is fixed porary figures of knowledge, stores butevery context relates to these difcontemporary sometimes sometimes sometimes ferently, criticism, by appropriation, by or by transformation. Cultural existsin two by preservation memory modes:first in themodeofpotentiality ofthearchive whoseaccumulated and rulesof conduct act as a total and secondin texts, images, horizon, themodeofactuality, eachcontemporary context whereby putstheobjectivized into itsownperspective, ititsownrelevance. meaning giving The objectivation or crystallization of communicated 3) Formation. sharedknowledge is a prerequisite of its meaningand collectively transmission in theculturally institutionalized a heritage of society.20
17. The inevitable ofcultural that derives from the"needfor idenegoism memory iftherepresentations ofalterity, intheir relaforms, tity" (Hans Mol) takeson dangerous tion totherepresentations ofidentity become ofan enemy. Cf.Hans (self-images), images andtheSacred(Oxford: andEibl-Eibesfeldt. Mol,Identity Blackwell, 1976);Gladigow; 18. Mol. Das Geddchtnis. 19. Halbwachs, 20. Fortheproblem ofthestability ofcultural see EricHavelock, meanings Preface to Plato (Cambridge: Harvard he speaksof "preserved comUP, 1963),where Belknap, as wellas A. andJ.Assmann, munication" 265-84. Forthetechnology ofconservation and itsintellectual see J.Goody, La logique de l'criture:aux origines des sociimplications etis humaines (Paris:A. Colin,1986).

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is notdependent on a singlemedium suchas writ"Stable" formation rituals can in the Pictorial and also function same way. images ing. of ritual One can speak or formation and thus linguistic, pictorial, of theGreek arrives at thetrinity and dromenon, legomenon, mysteries: As faras language is concerned, formation takesplace deiknymenon. theinvention of writing. The distinction between thecomlongbefore and the municative cultural is not identical withthe memory memory distinction oralandwritten between language. Withthiswe meana) theinstitutional of 4) Organization. buttressing formulization of thecommunicative situacommunication, e.g.,through and b) the specialization tion in ceremony of the bearersof cultural The distribution andstructure ofparticipation in thecommunimemory. cativememory are diffuse. No specialists existin thisregard. Cultural on a specialized a kind memory, by contrast, alwaysdepends practice, of "cultivation."21 In specialcases of written cultures withcanonized can expandenormously such cultivation and becomeextremely texts, differentiated.22 The relation to a normative of the group 5) Obligation. self-image a clear system in importance engenders of values and differentiations which structure the cultural and the symbols. supplyof knowledge Thereare important and unimportant, central and peripheral, local and interlocal on how in the function symbols, depending they production, and reproduction of thisself-image. Historicism is posirepresentation, tioned this evaluation of a which is against perspectival firmly heritage, on cultural centered identity: The particle a"v and theentelechy of Aristotle, thesacredgrottos of ofthe Apolloand of theidolBesas,thesongof Sapphoandthesermon themetric of Pindar sacredThekla, and thealtarof Pompeii, thefragof theDipylon ments vases andthebaths of Caracalla, thedeedsof the divineAugustus, theconic sections of Apollonius and the astrology of is a of it because all to the Petosiris: everything part philology belongs tounderstand, that undyoucannot leaveanything out.23 subject youwant
21. In thisconnection, refers to "cultivated semantics." NiklasLuhmann Niklas . und Semantik Luhmann, Gesellschaftsstruktur (Frankfurt/Main: 1980). Suhrkamp, in this 22. We distinguish between three thecultivation dimensions: oftext, i.e.,the ofword thecultivation observation ofmeaning, of i.e.,theculture bywordtransmission; andcommentary; andmediation, retranslation hermeneutics, i.e.,the exegesis, explication, oftext intolifethrough theinstitutions ofeducation, andinitiation. upbringing, inWerner 23. Wilamowitz, Humanistische Reden undVortrdge quoted Jaeger, (Berlin:De Gruyter, 1960) 1-2.

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andCultural Collective Identity Memory

therehas been no lack of counter-movements As is well known, of sucha value-free science(M. Weber).In the againsttherelativism of thehorizons name of "life,"Nietzsche and opposedthedissolution of historical thehistorical sciences. W. knowledge through perspectives in and other neo-humanists it the of name education. Jaeger opposed To add a relatively recent voice of protest to thislist,we quoteAlexanderRiistows monumental der Gegenwart, a work,Ortsbestimmung the"humanistic standpoint": plea for - Ifyou leave it(that J. the ofthe BotoCz.),then standpoint, history the orany other isjustas interesting, cudo, Zulucafer, people justas linked toGod, andwefind ourselves inthe justas directly important, midst ofanaimless relativism.24 of theknowledge The binding character in cultural preserved memory has two aspects:theformative one in its educative, and civilizing, functions and thenormative one in its function of providhumanizing ingrulesofconduct. is reflexive Cultural inthree 6) Reflexivity. memory ways: it it is in that common in terms a) interprets practice-reflexive practice to use Bourdieu's ritmaxims, "ethno-theories," term, through proverbs, uals (forinstance, sacrificial rites that the of interpret practice hunting), andso on. inthat on itself itsdraws to explain, reinb) It is self-reflexive distinguish, andreceive criticize, control, censure, terpret, surpass, hypoleptically.25 of itsownimageinsofar as itreflects theself-image of c) It is reflexive thegroup a with its own social throughpreoccupation system.26 The conceptof cultural thatbody of reusable memory comprises and rituals to each society in each epoch,whose texts, images, specific serves to stabilize and conveythatsociety'sself-image. "cultivation" for themost Upon suchcollective knowledge, part(butnotexclusively) ofthepast, eachgroup basesitsawareness ofunity andparticularity. The content of suchknowledge variesfrom culture to culture as well
24. Alexander derGegenwart; eineuniversalgeschichtliOrtsbestimmung Riistow, cheKulturkritik E. Rentsch, (Zurich: 1952)12. 25. Aboutthisconcept ed. Odo Marquardand and Karlheinz Stierle cf.Identitdt, relate tothat which the has Fink, (Munich: 1979)358: "About previous speaker lrnytt: - Studien undPolitik zu Aristoteles und Hegel said; compareJ. Ritter, Metaphysik (Frankfurt\Main 1969),esp.p. 64,p. 66." 26. Niklas Westdeutscher Luhmann, Soziologische Aufkldrung 1975). (K61ln: Verlag,

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of itsorganization, itsmedia,and as from epochto epoch.The manner variable.The bindingand reflexive its institutions, are also highly can displayvarying intensities character of a heritage and appear in bases its self-image variousaggregations. One society on a canon of the nexton a basic set of ritualactivities, sacred scripture, and the of forms in a canonof architecon a fixedand hieratic third language The basic attitude tural and artistic thepast,and toward types. history, thus the function of remembering itselfintroduces variable. another of deviating thepastin fear from itsmodel,the One groupremembers nextforfearof repeating thepast:"Thosewho cannot remember their to relive it."27 The basic of thesevaripast are condemned openness of therelation between ables lendsthequestion culture and memory a its cultural interest. a society Through cultural-topological heritage becomesvisibleto itself and to others. Which in pastbecomesevident in its identificatory thatheritage and whichvalues emerge appropriaabout theconstitution andtendencies ofa society. tiontellsus much

Translated byJohnCzaplicka
27. ofthis is thesource AleidaAssmann citation. George Santayana.

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