Editing Collective memory (section)

== Conceptualization of collective memory ==

=== Attributes of collective memory ===
Collective memory has been conceptualized in several ways and proposed to have certain attributes. For instance, collective memory can refer to a shared body of knowledge (e.g., memory of a nation's past leaders or presidents);<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=DeSoto|first1=K. A.|last2=Roediger|first2=H. L.|date=2014-11-28|title=Forgetting the presidents|journal=Science|volume=346|issue=6213|pages=1106–1109|doi=10.1126/science.1259627|issn=1095-9203|pmid=25430768|bibcode=2014Sci...346.1106R|s2cid=6951497}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Roediger|first1=Henry L.|last2=DeSoto|first2=K. Andrew|date=2016-05-01|title=Recognizing the Presidents: Was Alexander Hamilton President?|journal=Psychological Science|volume=27|issue=5|pages=644–650|doi=10.1177/0956797616631113|pmid=27044319|s2cid=5002467|issn=0956-7976}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Yuan|first1=Ti-Fei|last2=DeSoto|first2=K. Andrew|last3=Xue|first3=Yan|last4=Fu|first4=Mingchen|date=2016|title=Remembering the Leaders of China|journal=Frontiers in Psychology|language=en|volume=7|page=373|doi=10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00373|issn=1664-1078|pmc=4811887|pmid=27065899|doi-access=free}}</ref> the image, narrative, values and ideas of a social group; or the continuous process by which collective memories of events change.<ref name=":0" />

=== History versus collective memory ===
The difference between history and collective memory is best understood when comparing the aims and characteristics of each. A goal of history broadly is to provide a comprehensive, accurate, and unbiased portrayal of past events. This often includes the representation and comparison of multiple perspectives and the integration of these perspectives and details to provide a complete and accurate account. In contrast, collective memory focuses on a single perspective, for instance, the perspective of one social group, nation, or community. Consequently, collective memory represents past events as associated with the values, narratives and biases specific to that group.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Wertsch|first1=James V.|last2=Roediger|first2=Henry L.|date=April 2008|title=Collective memory: conceptual foundations and theoretical approaches|journal=Memory (Hove, England)|volume=16|issue=3|pages=318–326|doi=10.1080/09658210701801434|issn=0965-8211|pmid=18324555|s2cid=205665059}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

Studies have found that people from different nations can have major differences in their recollections of the past. In one study where American and Russian students were instructed to recall significant events from World War II and these lists of events were compared, the majority of events recalled by the American and Russian students were not shared.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J25k7yR_mHAC|title=Voices of Collective Remembering|last=Wertsch|first=James V.|date=2002-07-15|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-00880-8}}</ref> Differences in the events recalled and emotional views towards the Civil War, World War II and the Iraq War have also been found in a study comparing collective memory between generations of Americans.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Roediger|first1=Henry L.|last2=Agarwal|first2=Pooja K.|last3=Butler|first3=Andrew C.|last4=Zaromb|first4=Franklin|date=2014-04-01|title=Collective memories of three wars in United States history in younger and older adults|journal=Memory & Cognition|volume=42|issue=3|pages=383–399|doi=10.3758/s13421-013-0369-7|pmid=24097190|s2cid=15557122|issn=1532-5946}}</ref>

=== Perspectives on collective memory ===
The concept of collective memory, initially developed by [[Maurice Halbwachs|Halbwachs]], has been explored and expanded from various angles – a few of these are introduced below.

James E. Young has introduced the notion of 'collected memory' (opposed to collective memory), marking memory's inherently fragmented, collected and individual character, while Jan Assmann<ref>{{Cite journal|last= Assmann|first= Jan|date=2008|editor-last= A. Erll & A. Nünning|title= Communicative and cultural memory|journal= Cultural Memory Studies: An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook|pages= 109–118|doi= 10.1515/9783110207262.2.109 |isbn= 978-3-11-018860-8 |url=https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeumdok/1774/1/Assmann_Communicative_and_cultural_memory_2008.pdf }}</ref> develops the notion of 'communicative memory', a variety of collective memory based on everyday communication. This form of memory resembles  the exchanges in oral cultures or the memories collected (and made collective) through [[oral tradition]]. As another subform of collective memories, Assmann mentions forms detached from the everyday; they can be particular materialized and fixed points as, e.g. texts and monuments.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1= Assmann |first1= Jan|last2= Czaplicka|first2= John|date=Spring–Summer 1995|title= Collective Memory and Cultural Identity|journal=New German Critique|issue= 65 |pages= 125–133|doi=10.2307/488538|jstor=488538}}</ref>

The theory of collective memory was also discussed by former Hiroshima resident and atomic-bomb survivor, [[Kiyoshi Tanimoto]], in a tour of the United States as an attempt to rally support and funding for the reconstruction of his Memorial Methodist Church in Hiroshima. He theorized that the use of the atomic bomb had forever added to the world's collective memory and would serve in the future as a warning against such devices. See [[John Hersey]]'s 1946 book ''[[Hiroshima]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hersey | first = John |title= Hiroshima|date= 12 August 1985|isbn= 0-394-54844-2|edition= New|location= New York|oclc=12108176}}</ref>

Historian [[Guy Beiner]] (1968- ), an authority on memory and the history of Ireland, has criticized the unreflective use of the adjective "collective" in many studies of memory: {{blockquote|text=The problem is with crude concepts of [[social collectivity | collectivity]], which assume a homogeneity that is rarely, if ever, present, and maintain that, since memory is constructed, it is entirely subject to the manipulations of those invested in its maintenance, denying that there can be limits to the malleability of memory or to the extent to which artificial constructions of memory can be inculcated. In practice, the construction of a completely collective memory is at best an aspiration of politicians, which is never entirely fulfilled and is always subject to contestations.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.drb.ie/essays/troubles-with-remembering-or-the-seven-sins-of-memory-studies |title=Troubles with Remembering; or, the Seven Sins of Memory Studies |author= Beiner, Guy|date= 2017 |website= [[Dublin Review of Books]]}}</ref>}} In its place, Beiner has promoted the term "social memory"<ref>{{Cite book|last= Beiner|first= Guy |date= 2007|title= Remembering the Year of the French: Irish Folk History and Social Memory |url= https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/3846.htm|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press}}</ref> and has also demonstrated its limitations by developing a related concept of "social forgetting".<ref>{{Cite book|last= Beiner|first= Guy|date= 2018|title= Forgetful Remembrance: Social Forgetting and Vernacular Historiography of a Rebellion in Ulster|url= https://global.oup.com/academic/product/forgetful-remembrance-9780198749356?|publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn= 978-0-19-874935-6}}</ref>

Historian [[David Rieff]] takes issue with the term "collective memory", distinguishing between memories of people who were actually alive during the events in question, and people who only know about them from culture or media. Rieff writes in opposition to [[George Santayana]]'s aphorism "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it", pointing out that strong cultural emphasis on certain historical events (often wrongs against the group) can prevent resolution of armed conflicts, especially when the conflict has been previously fought to a draw.<ref name="rieff">{{cite book |title= In Praise of Forgetting: Historical Memory and Its Ironies|title-link= In Praise of Forgetting |year= 2016 |author= David Rieff |publisher= Yale University Press |isbn= 978-0-300-18279-8}}</ref> The sociologist David Leupold draws attention to the problem of structural nationalism inherent in the notion of collective memory, arguing in favor of "emancipating the notion of collective memory from being subjected to the national collective" by employing a ''multi-collective perspective'' that highlights the mutual interaction of other memory collectives that form around generational belonging, family, locality or socio-political world-views.<ref>{{Cite book |last= Leupold |first= David |title= Embattled dreamlands: the politics of contesting Armenian, Kurdish and Turkish memory |date=2020 |isbn=978-0-429-34415-2 |location=New York |page=10 |oclc=1130319782}}</ref>

[[Pierre Lévy]] argues that the phenomenon of human collective intelligence undergoes a profound shift with the arrival of the [[internet]] paradigm, as it allows the vast majority of humanity to access and modify a common shared online collective memory.{{cn|date=August 2024}}