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
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Collective andCultural
Memory Identity*

JanAssmann

Problemand Program
In thethirddecadeof thiscentury, thesociologist MauriceHalbwachs
and thearthistorian Aby Warburg independently developed'two theo-
ries of a "collective"or "social memory." Theirotherwisefundamen-
tallydifferent
approaches meetin a decisivedismissalofnumerous turn-
of-the-century attempts to conceive collective in
memory biological
termsas an inheritable or "racialmemory,"2 a tendency whichwould
stillobtain,forinstance,in C. G. Jung'stheory of archetypes.3Instead,
bothWarburg and Halbwachsshiftthediscourseconcerning collective
knowledge outofa biologicalframework intoa culturalone.
The specificcharacter thata personderivesfrombelongingto a dis-
tinctsocietyand cultureis notseento maintain itselfforgenerations as
a resultof phylogeneticevolution, butrather as a resultof socialization
and customs.The "survivalof the type"in the sense of a cultural
* Thistextwas originally inKulturundGediichtnis,
published eds. JanAssmann
andTonioH61scher (Frankfurt/Main:
Suhrkamp, 1988)9-19.
1. Warburg however quotesDurkheiminhisKreuzlinger Lectureof 1923inwhich
theconceptof "socialmemory" appearsin hisworkforthefirst time.Cf. RolandKany,
Mnemosyne als Programm: Geschichte,Erinnerung unddieAndacht zumUnbedeutenden
im Werkvon Usener,Warburg undBenjamin(Tiibingen: Niemeyer, 1987).H. Ritterhas
informedme thataccording tounpublishednotes,FritzSaxl hadreferredWarburg to the
workofMauriceHalbwachs.
2. ErnestH. Gombrich, Aby Warburg: An Intellectual
Biography(London:The
Warburg 1970)323ff.
Institute,
3. Warburg's mostimportant sourceforhisowntheory of memorywas Richard
Semon.See RichardSemon,Die Mnemeals erhaltendes PrinzipimWechsel des organis-
chenGeschehens (Leipzig:Engelmann, 1920).

125

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126 Collective andCultural
Memory Identity

pseudo-species4 is a function of the culturalmemory.Accordingto

Nietzsche, while in the worldof animalsgeneticprogramsguarantee
the survivalof the species,humansmustfinda meansby whichto
maintaintheirnatureconsistently through generations. The solutionto
thisproblemis offered by cultural
memory, a collectiveconceptforall
knowledgethatdirectsbehaviorandexperience in theinteractive
frame-
workof a societyand one thatobtainsthrough generationsin repeated
societalpracticeandinitiation.
We5definetheconceptofcultural memory througha doubledelimita-
tionthatdistinguishes it:
1. fromwhatwe call "communicative" or "everyday memory," which
inthenarrower senseofourusagelacks"cultural" characteristics;
2. fromscience,whichdoes nothave thecharacteristics of memory
as it relatesto a collectiveself-image.For thesake of brevity,we will
leave aside thisseconddelimitation whichHalbwachsdevelopedas the
distinctionbetweenmemory andhistory andlimitourselvesto thefirst:
thedistinction betweencommunicative andcultural memory.

Communicative Memory
Forus theconceptof"communicative memory" includesthosevariet-
ies ofcollectivememory thatarebasedexclusively on everyday commu-
nications.Thesevarieties, whichM. Halbwachsgathered and analyzed
undertheconceptof collectivememory, constitutethefieldof oralhis-
tory.6Everyday communication is characterized a
by highdegreeofnon-
of
reciprocity roles,
specialization, thematic and disorganiza-
instability,
tion.7Typically,it takesplace between partners who can changeroles.
Whoeverrelatesa joke, a memory, a bit of gossip,or an experience

4. Erik Erikson,"Ontogenyof Ritualization," PUB. INFO London(1965):21;

Irenaus Eibl-Eibesfeldt,
Krieg und Friedenaus der Sicht der Verhaltensforschung
(Munich:Piper,1984).
5. The use ofthepluralrefers to theco-authorship
ofAleidaAssmanninthefor-
mulationof theseideas.See AleidaandJanAssmann, undGeddchtnis:
Schrift Beitrdge
zurArchdiologie
derliterarischen
Kommunikation (Munich:Fink,1987).
6. MauriceHalbwachs, Das Geddchtnis undseinesozialenBedingungen (Frank-
furt/Main:Suhrkamp, 1985);andMauriceHalbwachs, La memoire ed. J.Alex-
collective,
andre(Paris:PU de France,1950).
7. Of course,everyday communication is foundin non-reciprocalroleconstella-
tionssuchas medicalanamnesis, confession, examination,
interrogation, etc.
instruction,
Butsuch"habitsofspeech"(Seibert)alreadydemonstrate a higher
degreeofcultural for-
mationandconstitutea stageoftransition
between everydayandculturalcommunication.

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 JanAssman 127

becomesthe listenerin the nextmoment.Thereare occasionswhich

more or less predetermine such communications, for example train
rides,waitingrooms,or thecommontable;andtherearerules- "laws
of themarket"8 - thatregulatethisexchange.Thereis a "household"9
withinthe confinesof which this communication takes place. Yet
this a of
beyond reigns highdegree formlessness, and disor-
willfulness,
ganization.Through this manner of communication, individual
each
a
composes memorywhich, as Halbwachs has shown,is (a) socially
mediatedand (b) relatesto a group.Everyindividualmemoryconsti-
tutesitselfin communication withothers.These"others," however,are
notjust any set of people,rathertheyare groupswho conceivetheir
unityandpeculiarity through a commonimageof theirpast.Halbwachs
thinksof families,neighborhood and professional groups,politicalpar-
ties, associations,etc.,up to and includingnations.Everyindividual
belongsto numerous suchgroupsandtherefore entertains
numerous col-
lectiveself-images andmemories.
Throughthepracticeof oral history, we have gaineda moreprecise
insightintothe peculiarqualitiesof thiseverydayformof collective
memory, which,withL. Niethammer, we willcall communicative mem-
ory. Its most important characteristicis itslimitedtemporal horizon.As
all oral historystudiessuggest,thishorizondoes notextendmorethan
eightyto (at the verymost)one hundredyearsintothe past, which
equals threeor fourgenerations or theLatinsaeculum.10 This horizon
shiftsin directrelationto thepassingoftime.The communicative mem-
oryoffers no fixedpointwhichwouldbinditto theeverexpanding past
in thepassingof time.Such fixity can onlybe achievedthrough a cul-
turalformation andtherefore liesoutsideofinformal everydaymemory.

8. PierreBourdieu, Esquissed'unethdoriede la pratique.Prgcidede trois tudes

d'ethnologiekabyle(Geneve:Droz,1972).
9. In his work,thesociologistThomasLuckmann speaksof the"communicative
household"ofa society.
10. Accordingto T. Hl1scher,thatcorresponds exactlyto thetimespantreatedby
Herodotus.TacitusexpresslynotedinAnnalsIII 75 thedeathofthelastwitnessesofthe
inA. andJ.Assmann.
republicin theyearAD 22; cf.Cancik-Lindemeier As to themean-
ingofsaeculumas themaximallifespanofthosewhoremember see Glad-
a generation,
igow,"Aetas,aevumand saeclorumordo.Zur Struktur zeitlicherDeutungssysteme,"
Apocalypticism in theMediterraneanWorldand theNearEast,ed. D. Hellholm(Tilbin-
gen:Mohr,1983).

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128 Collective andCultural
Memory Identity

Transition
Once we removeourselvesfromthearea of everyday communication
and enterinto the area of objectivizedculture,almost everything
changes.The transition is so fundamental thatone mustask whether
themetaphor of memory remainsin anywayapplicable.Halbwachs,as
is well known,stoppedat thisjuncture, without takingit intoaccount
He
systematically.1 probablythought that once livingcommunication
cristallizedin the formsof objectivizedculture- whetherin texts,
images,rites,buildings, monuments, cities,or evenlandscapes12 - the
grouprelationship and thecontemporary reference are lost and there-
forethecharacter of thisknowledge as a memoire collectivedisappears
as well."MWmoire" is transformed into"histoire." 13
Our thesiscontradicts thisassumption. For in thecontextof objectiv-
ized cultureandof organized or ceremonial communication, a close con-
nectionto groupsandtheiridentity existswhichis similarto thatfoundin
thecase ofeveryday memory. We canrefer to thestructure ofknowledge
in thiscase as the"concretion of identity." Withthiswe meanthata
groupbases its consciousness of unityand specificity uponthisknowl-
edgeandderivesformative andnormative impulsesfromit,whichallows
thegroupto reproduce itsidentity. In thissense,objectivized culture has
the structureof memory. in
Only historicism, as Nietzsche perceptively
and clairvoyantly remarked in "On theAdvantage and Disadvantage of
for
History Life,"l14 does thisstructure begin to dissolve.15

The CulturalMemory
Justas thecommunicative is characterized
memory by its proximity

11. Halbwachsdealtwiththephenomena beyondthisborder. MauriceHalbwachs,

La topographie lIgendairedes Evangilesen TerreSainte;etudede memoire collective
(Paris:PU de France,1941).There,he presents Palestineas a commemorative landscape
thattransformsthroughthecenturies.InPalestine,changeintheimageofthepastfollows
theological
positionsthataremadeconcrete intheconstruction ofmonuments.
12. The classicalexamplefora primarily topographically organizedculturalmem-
oryis thatof theAustralian Aborigineswiththeirattachment to certainsacredsites.Cf.
Cancikin A. andJ.Assman,andHalbwachs, La topographie lIgendaireforotherexam-
plesofsacredorcommemorative landscapes.
13. Friedrich Overbeck, ChristentumundKultur(Basel, 1963) 20ff.andsimilarly
Halbwachs,La topographie legendaire261ff.treatsucha transformation undertherubric
offalsification
andin theconceptualframework ofprimeval history andtheology.
14. Friedrich Nietzsche,Werke,vol.3, ed. K. Schlechta (Munich:Hanser,1964).
15. Cf. AleidaAssmann, "Die Onfiihigkeitzu vergessen : derHistorismus unddie
Krisedeskulturellen A. andJ.Assmann.
Gedfichtnisses,"

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 JanAssman 129

to the everyday,culturalmemory is characterized by its distancefrom

theeveryday. Distancefromtheeveryday (transcendence) marksitstem-
has
poralhorizon.Culturalmemory itsfixedpoint;itshorizondoes not
changewiththepassingof time.Thesefixedpointsare fateful eventsof
thepast,whosememory is maintained through cultural formation (texts,
rites,monuments) and institutional communication (recitation,practice,
observance).We call these"figures of memory." The entireJewishcal-
endaris basedon figures ofmemory.16 In theflowof everyday commu-
nicationssuch festivals,rites,epics,poems,images,etc., form "islands
of time,"islandsof a completely different temporality suspendedfrom
time.In culturalmemory, such islandsof timeexpandinto memory
spaces of "retrospective contemplativeness" [retrospective Besonnen-
heit].This expressionstemsfromAbyWarburg. He ascribeda typeof
"mnemonic energy"to theobjectivation of culture,pointing notonlyto
worksof highart,but also to posters,postagestamps,costumes,cus-
toms,etc. In culturalformation, a collectiveexperiencecrystallizes,
whosemeaning,whentouchedupon,maysuddenlybecomeaccessible
again acrossmillennia. In his large-scale projectMnemosyne, Warburg
wantedto reconstruct this pictorialmemoryof Westerncivilization.
Thatof courseis notourproblem;ourinquiry is moregeneral.But we
are indebtedto Warburgfor emphatically directingattention to the
power of cultural
objectivation in the stabilizing of culturalmemoryin
certainsituations
forthousands ofyears.
Yetjust as Halbwachsin his treatment of themnemonic functions of
objectivizedculture,Warburg does not developthesociologicalaspects
ofhispictorialmemory. Halbwachsthematizes thenexusbetweenmem-
oryand group,Warburg theone betweenmemory and thelanguageof
culturalforms.Our theoryof culturalmemoryattempts to relateall
threepoles- memory (thecontemporized past),culture, and thegroup
(society)- to each other. We want to stressthe following characteris-
ticsofculturalmemory:
16. Halbwachsdesignated itas theobjectofreligionto maintain theremembrance
ofa timelongpastthroughtheagesandwithout allowingittobe corruptedbyintervening
memories. Halbwachs,Das Gediichtnis 261. The sharpnessofthisformulation,however,
onlyappliesto theJewishreligion,whichHalbwachsas an assimilated Jewdidnottreat
andhardlyevenmentions.Fortheproblem ofJewish remembrance see YosefYerushalmi,
Zachor,JewishHistoryandJewish Memory (Seattle:U ofWashingtonP, 1982),andWilly
Gedenken
Schottroff, imaltenOrientundimAltenTestament (Neukirchen: Neukirchner
Verlagdes Erziehungsvereins,
1964).

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130 Collective andCultural
Memory Identity

1) "The concretion of identity"or therelationto the group.Cultural

memorypreserves the store of knowledgefromwhicha groupderives
an awarenessof itsunityand peculiarity. The objectivemanifestations
of culturalmemoryare definedthrough a kindof identificatory deter-
minationin a positive("We are this")or in a negative("That's our
opposite")sense.17
Throughsuch a concretion of identity evolveswhatNietzschehas
called the "constitution of horizons."The supplyof knowledgein the
culturalmemoryis characterized by sharpdistinctions made between
thosewho belongand thosewho do not,i.e.,betweenwhatappertains
to oneselfandwhatis foreign. Accessto andtransmission ofthisknowl-
edge are not controlled by whatBlumenberg calls "theoreticalcurios-
ity,"butrather bya "needforidentity" as describedby Hans Mol.18
Connected withthisis
2) its capacityto reconstruct. No memory can preservethepast.What
remainsis onlythat"whichsocietyin eacheracan reconstruct withinits
contemporary frameof reference."19 Culturalmemory worksby recon-
structing,thatis, it alwaysrelatesitsknowledge to an actualandcontem-
porarysituation. True,it is fixedin immovable figures of memoryand
storesof knowledge, buteverycontemporary context relatesto thesedif-
ferently,sometimes by appropriation,sometimes by criticism, sometimes
or
by preservation by transformation. Cultural memory exists in two
modes:first in themodeofpotentiality ofthearchivewhoseaccumulated
texts,images,and rulesof conductact as a totalhorizon, and secondin
themodeofactuality, whereby eachcontemporary context putstheobjec-
tivizedmeaning intoitsownperspective, givingititsownrelevance.
3) Formation.The objectivation or crystallization of communicated
meaningand collectivelysharedknowledgeis a prerequisite of its
transmission in theculturally institutionalized a
heritageof society.20

17. The inevitable egoismofculturalmemory thatderivesfromthe"needforiden-

tity"(Hans Mol) takeson dangerous forms, iftherepresentations
ofalterity,
intheirrela-
tiontotherepresentations ofidentity becomeimagesofan enemy.Cf.Hans
(self-images),
Mol,Identity andtheSacred(Oxford:Blackwell,1976);Gladigow;andEibl-Eibesfeldt.
18. Mol.
19. Halbwachs, Das Geddchtnis.
20. Fortheproblem ofthestability
ofculturalmeanings see EricHavelock,Preface
to Plato (Cambridge: Belknap,HarvardUP, 1963),wherehe speaksof "preserved com-
munication" as wellas A. andJ.Assmann, 265-84.Forthetechnology ofconservationand
itsintellectual
implicationssee J.Goody,La logiquede l'criture:aux originesdes soci-
etis humaines (Paris:A. Colin,1986).

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 JanAssman 131

"Stable" formation is notdependent on a singlemediumsuchas writ-

ing. Pictorial images and ritualscan also function in the same way.
One can speak of linguistic,pictorial,or ritual formation and thus
arrivesat thetrinity of theGreekmysteries: legomenon, dromenon, and
deiknymenon. As faras languageis concerned, formation takesplace
longbeforetheinvention of writing.The distinction betweenthecom-
municative memory and the culturalmemory is not identicalwiththe
distinctionbetweenoralandwritten language.
4) Organization. Withthiswe meana) theinstitutional buttressingof
communication, e.g.,through formulization of thecommunicative situa-
tion in ceremonyand b) the specialization of the bearersof cultural
memory. The distribution andstructure ofparticipation in thecommuni-
cativememoryare diffuse. No specialistsexistin thisregard.Cultural
memory, by contrast, alwaysdependson a specializedpractice,a kind
of "cultivation."21 In specialcases of written cultureswithcanonized
texts,such cultivation can expandenormously and becomeextremely
differentiated.22
5) Obligation.The relationto a normative self-imageof the group
engendersa clear systemof values and differentiations in importance
which structure the culturalsupplyof knowledgeand the symbols.
Thereare important and unimportant, centraland peripheral, local and
interlocalsymbols,depending on how theyfunction in theproduction,
representation, and reproduction of thisself-image. Historicism is posi-
tionedfirmly this
against perspectival evaluation of a heritage, which is
centered on cultural identity:
The particlea"v and theentelechy of Aristotle, thesacredgrottosof
Apolloand of theidolBesas,thesongof Sapphoandthesermonofthe
sacredThekla,themetricof Pindarand thealtarof Pompeii,thefrag-
mentsof theDipylonvases andthebathsof Caracalla,thedeedsof the
divineAugustus, theconic sectionsof Apolloniusand the astrology of
Petosiris:everything is a partof philology becauseit all belongsto the
subjectthatyouwanttounderstand, undyoucannotleaveanything out.23

21. In thisconnection, NiklasLuhmann refersto "cultivated

semantics." Niklas .
Luhmann, GesellschaftsstrukturundSemantik(Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1980).
22. We distinguish in thisbetweenthreedimensions: thecultivationoftext,i.e.,the
observationofwordbywordtransmission; thecultivation ofmeaning, i.e.,thecultureof
exegesis,hermeneutics,
explication, andcommentary; andmediation, i.e.,theretranslation
oftextintolifethrough theinstitutions
ofeducation,upbringing, andinitiation.
23. Wilamowitz, quotedinWerner Jaeger, Humanistische RedenundVortrdge (Ber-
lin:De Gruyter,1960) 1-2.

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132 Collective andCultural
Memory Identity

As is well known,therehas been no lack of counter-movements

againsttherelativism of sucha value-free science(M. Weber).In the
name of "life,"Nietzscheopposedthedissolution of thehorizonsand
perspectivesof historical
knowledge through thehistorical
sciences.W.
Jaeger and other neo-humanists opposed it in the name of education.
To add a relativelyrecentvoice of protestto thislist,we quoteAlex-
anderRiistowsmonumental work,Ortsbestimmung der Gegenwart, a
plea forthe"humanisticstandpoint":
- Ifyouleaveit(that J.Cz.),then
standpoint, thehistoryoftheBoto-
cudo,theZulucafer,
oranyotherpeopleisjustas interesting,
justas
important, linked
justas directly toGod,andwefind ourselves
inthe
midstofanaimlessrelativism.24
The bindingcharacter of theknowledge preserved in culturalmemory
has two aspects:theformativeone in its educative,civilizing,and
humanizing functions and thenormative one in its functionof provid-
ingrulesofconduct.
6) Reflexivity. Cultural memory is reflexiveinthreeways:
a) it is practice-reflexive in thatit interpretscommonpracticein terms
through proverbs, maxims,"ethno-theories,"use Bourdieu'sterm,rit-
to
uals (forinstance, sacrificial
ritesthatinterpret thepracticeof hunting),
andso on.
b) It is self-reflexive inthatitsdrawson itself to explain, rein-
distinguish,
terpret, criticize,
censure, control,
surpass,andreceivehypoleptically.25
c) It is reflexive of itsownimageinsofar as itreflectstheself-imageof
thegroupthrough a preoccupation withitsownsocialsystem.26
The conceptof culturalmemorycomprisesthatbody of reusable
texts,images,and ritualsspecificto each societyin each epoch,whose
"cultivation" servesto stabilizeand conveythatsociety'sself-image.
Upon suchcollectiveknowledge, forthemostpart(butnotexclusively)
ofthepast,eachgroupbasesitsawareness ofunityandparticularity.
The content of suchknowledge variesfromcultureto cultureas well

24. AlexanderRiistow, Ortsbestimmung derGegenwart;eineuniversalgeschichtli-

cheKulturkritik
(Zurich:E. Rentsch, 1952)12.
25. Aboutthisconceptcf.Identitdt, ed. Odo Marquardand and KarlheinzStierle
(Munich:Fink,1979)358: "About relatetothatwhichthepreviousspeakerhas
said; compareJ. Ritter, lrnytt:
undPolitik- Studienzu Aristoteles und Hegel
Metaphysik
1969),esp.p. 64,p.
(Frankfurt\Main 66."
26. NiklasLuhmann, SoziologischeAufkldrung Westdeutscher
(K61ln: Verlag,1975).

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 JanAssman 133

as fromepochto epoch.The manner of itsorganization,

itsmedia,and
are also highlyvariable.The bindingand reflexive
its institutions,
characterof a heritagecan displayvaryingintensities and appear in
variousaggregations. One societybases its self-imageon a canon of
sacred scripture,the nexton a basic set of ritualactivities,and the
thirdon a fixedand hieraticlanguageof formsin a canonof architec-
turaland artistictypes.The basic attitudetowardhistory,thepast,and
thus the functionof remembering itselfintroducesanothervariable.
One groupremembers thepastin fearof deviating fromitsmodel,the
nextforfearof repeating thepast:"Thosewho cannotremember their
past are condemned to reliveit."27The basic opennessof thesevari-
ables lendsthequestionof therelationbetweencultureand memorya
interest.Throughits culturalheritagea society
cultural-topological
becomesvisibleto itselfand to others.Whichpastbecomesevidentin
thatheritageand whichvalues emergein its identificatory appropria-
tiontellsus muchabouttheconstitution andtendencies ofa society.

Translated
byJohnCzaplicka

27. AleidaAssmannis thesourceofthiscitation.

GeorgeSantayana.

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