Cultural Memory and Early Civilization

Cultural Memory and Early Civilization
Author: Jan Assmann
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2011-12-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 0521763819

Pt. 1. The theoretical basis -- Memory culture -- Written culture -- Cultural identity and political imagination -- pt. 2. Case studies -- Egypt -- Israel and the invention of religion -- The birth of history from the spirit of the law -- Greece and disciplined thinking -- Cultural memory : a summary.

Cultural Memory and Western Civilization

Cultural Memory and Western Civilization
Author: Aleida Assmann
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 423
Release: 2011-11-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 0521764378

This book provides an introduction to the concept of cultural memory, offering a comprehensive overview of its history, forms and functions.

Religion and Cultural Memory

Religion and Cultural Memory
Author: Jan Assmann
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2006
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780804745239

In ten brilliant essays, Jan Assmann explores the connections between religion, culture, and memory. Building on Maurice Halbwachs's idea that memory, like language, is a social phenomenon as well as an individual one, he argues that memory has a cultural dimension too. He develops a persuasive view of the life of the past in such surface phenomena as codes, religious rites and festivals, and canonical texts on the one hand, and in the Freudian psychodrama of repressing and resurrecting the past on the other. Whereas the current fad for oral history inevitably focuses on the actual memories of the last century or so, Assmann presents a commanding view of culture extending over five thousand years. He focuses on cultural memory from the Egyptians, Babylonians, and the Osage Indians down to recent controversies about memorializing the Holocaust in Germany and the role of memory in the current disputes between Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East and between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland.

Critical Perspectives on Cultural Memory and Heritage

Critical Perspectives on Cultural Memory and Heritage
Author: Veysel Apaydin i
Publisher: UCL Press
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2020-02-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1787354849

Critical Perspectives on Cultural Memory and Heritage focuses on the importance of memory and heritage for individual and group identity, and for their sense of belonging. It aims to expose the motives and discourses related to the destruction of memory and heritage during times of war, terror, sectarian conflict and through capitalist policies. It is within these affected spheres of cultural heritage where groups and communities ascribe values, develop memories, and shape their collective identity.

Advancement in Ancient Civilizations

Advancement in Ancient Civilizations
Author: Harald Haarmann
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2020-09-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 1476640750

Traditional scholarship on how ancient civilizations emerged is outmoded and new insights call for revision. According to the well-established paradigm, Mesopotamia is considered the cradle of civilization. Following the cliche of ex oriente lux ("light from the East") all major achievements of humankind spread from the Middle East. Modern archaeology, cultural science and historical linguistics indicate civilizations did not originate from a single prototype. Several models produced divergent patterns of advanced culture, developing both hierarchical and egalitarian societies. This study outlines a panorama of ancient civilizations, including the still little-known Danube civilization, now identified as the oldest advanced culture in Europe. In a comparative view, a new paradigm of research and a new cultural chronology of civilizations in the Old and New Worlds emerges, with climate change shown to be a continual influence on human lifeways.

Ancient Memory

Ancient Memory
Author: Katharine Mawford
Publisher:
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2021-06-30
Genre:
ISBN: 9783110728712

Although the recent 'memory boom' has led to increasing interdisciplinary interest, there is a significant gap relating to the examination of this topic in Classics. In particular, there is need for a systematic exploration of ancient memory and its use as a critical and methodological tool for delving into ancient literature. The present volume provides just such an approach, theorising the use and role of memory in Graeco-Roman thought and literature, and building on the background of memory studies. The volume's contributors apply theoretical models such as memoryscapes, civic and cultural memory, and memory loss to a range of authors, from Homeric epic to Senecan drama, and from historiography to Cicero's recollections of performances. The chapters are divided into four sections according to the main perspective taken. These are: 1) the Mechanics of Memory, 2) Collective memory, 3) Female Memory, and 4) Oblivion. This modern approach to ancient memory will be useful for scholars working across the range of Greek and Roman literature, as well as for students, and a broader interdisciplinary audience interested in the intersection of memory studies and Classics.

The Invention of Religion

The Invention of Religion
Author: Jan Assmann
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 412
Release: 2020-03-24
Genre: Bibles
ISBN: 0691203199

"The Book of Exodus may be the most consequential story ever told. But its spectacular moments of heaven-sent plagues and parting seas overshadow its true significance, says Jan Assmann, a leading historian of ancient religion. The story of Moses guiding the enslaved children of Israel out of captivity to become God's chosen people is the foundation of an entirely new idea of religion, one that lives on today in many of the world's faiths. The Invention of Religion sheds new light on ancient scriptures to show how Exodus has shaped fundamental understandings of monotheistic practice and belief." --

Cultural Memory Studies

Cultural Memory Studies
Author: Nicolas Pethes
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 134
Release: 2019-06-06
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1527535614

This volume provides an overview of theories of cultural memory that are intensively discussed in cultural studies and humanities disciplines such as history, sociology, literary studies, art history, and media studies. Cultural memory encompasses all rituals, institutions and practices through which communities establish their identity and common origin, which are challenged by the digital turn today. The book presents, on the one hand, basic arguments by the most important memory theorists of the 20th and 21st centuries and, on the other, exemplary descriptions of the most significant forms of cultural memory.

Social Memory and State Formation in Early China

Social Memory and State Formation in Early China
Author: Min Li
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 587
Release: 2018-05-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107141451

A thought-provoking book on the archaeology of power, knowledge, social memory, and the emergence of classical tradition in early China.

Moses the Egyptian

Moses the Egyptian
Author: Jan Assmann
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2009-06-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0674020308

Moses is at the foundation of monotheism, and so of Western culture. Here the factual and fictional events and characters in religious beliefs are studied. It traces monotheism back to the Egyptian king Akhenaten and shows how Moses's followers established truth by denouncing all others as false.