- Jan 2024
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sakai.unc.edu sakai.unc.edu
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collective memoryvibrates" in its every form. It is uncertainand everchanging by nature.
It is also often attempted to be controlled by hegemony.
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psychology,to anthropology, sociology, literary stud-ies, communication, and history.
To the computer sciences as well. We could esadily put into conversation the science of improving memory retrieval speeds or the quantity of memory that we can store.
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intricate system of artificialmemory created by the Greeks to retaininternally large amounts of knowledge
Mentioned in our class lecture on wednesday, but it amazing how mental devices can improve our ability to remember, and subsequently how this ability has been outsourced to technological devices.
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memory was as-sumed to fade as it gained distance fromthe focus of its recollection, its authoritylessening as time passed.
I think this is still true to some degree. Certainly trivial memories that we don't "focus" on fade over time
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collective memory refers torecollections that are instantiated be-yond the individual by and for the collec-tive
A plural memory that is instantiated for two different collectives could be the defeat of the germans and the subsequent end of WW2. Americans are led to believe that we were responsible for ending WW2 and are thus saviors, but many for get the soviet influence that also was essential to winning. A similar story is also told in Russia
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sakai.unc.edu sakai.unc.edu
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Leaders continue to use the past to foster patriotism andcivic duty and ordinary people continue to accept, reformulate, andignore such messages
I do feel that my generation is less patriotic than previous ones; People are more willing to view America with a critical eye
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Their careers and social positions usually de-pend upon the survival of the very institutions that are celebrated incommemorative activities.
This reminds me of a conversation i had with an indigenous person who mentioned how theres often a conflict of interest when another indigenous person ends up working for the government, as these are the very institutions that work to subjugate them
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epresents an array of spe-\ cialized interests that are grounded in parts of the whole.
America is in fact a pluralism of ideas and cultures all grounded in the same geographical region, sharing at least some values.
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ideal rather than complex or ambiguous terms
This reminds me of how European colonialism was justified as a benevolent spread of civilization, when in reality it was abject barbarism
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Public memory emerges from the intersection of official and vernac- fulai ctiltural expressions.
What is meant by vernacular cultural expression here? is this meant to capture public memories not established by the hegemony? For example, where do tragic historical events fit into this framework?
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sakai.unc.edu sakai.unc.edu
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What are the costs of a little black boy or a little black gir
This reminds me of an excerpt from one of kings speeches (I can't remember which) where he describes the dark clouds of racism polluting his young daughters clear mind. Is this not heart breaking. The ones who suffer the most from these institutions (racism) are not us adults, but the young who internalize and feel discrimination potently.
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Malcolm X (which he later reconsidered)
Malcolm X was an intense and interesting character in the civil rights era. For me, most notably because of his idealogical shift towards the end of his life, mentioned here and detailed in his autobiography Malcolm X
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The objection toKing as a worthy hero, in its most benign form, credited King for his contribu-tions to the struggle for civil rights but suggested that he failed to merit hisown official day relative to scores of other deserving champions not similarlyhonored.
Its interesting that this rhetoric was used as in objection to MLK day. Should the achievements of others halt or stop the celebration of another, especially when that achievement is so poignant.
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does such federal holidaystatus, even as it institutionalizes the day, actually diminish it, orchestratingleisure and historical amnesia rather than memory, civic education, reverence,and social action?
I'm not sure it diminishes it, rather adjusts our attention to "orchestrating leisure and historical amnesia". While a federal holiday is insufficient to motivate most americas towards this virtue of "civic education, reerence, and social action" it does at least place it in our awareness. Compare MLK to most any other civil rights leader. How often is Rosa Parks in the forefront of our minds? How many times does one think about Malcolm X?
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sakai.unc.edu sakai.unc.edu
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consumption of a meal was not an important part of the ritual.
Wow, this is at complete odds with the memory and tradition of thanksgiving today
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Because collective memory is a socialconstruction based on presentist needs and concerns,
This reminds me of our lecture on monday about how memory is usable and often defined through that usability.
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The point of theserites is not to alter the past to serve the present, but to reproduce it,making it live as it once did
I suppose this is true to a degree. Many people on certain sides of the political spectrum emphasize the need to return to old values and traditions.
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theMayflower to America
Its interesting here that "the maayflower" is used, when in "travels on the rock" we learned that there were multiple mayflowers
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sakai.unc.edu sakai.unc.edu
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ven ifwe can preserve ten per cent of it, we should preserve it.What matters is what it means
The memory of the rock exists beyond the rock itself. Its purpose has transcended its physical form.
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a relatively minor operationthat nonetheless required someone of more than ordinaryskill in the art.
The gravity of this otherwise simple task is a testament to the materiality of the memory of the rock itself.
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here had been a hundred and two passengers in all.One by one, across the next few months, forty-seven morewould die
Bleak and and tragic start to a cherished, shared American memory.
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n the British merchant marine, Mayflowers were nu-merous.
This is interesting. My memory of the Mayflower was that it was one, unique ship.
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American geologists have preferred a provenance closer tohome:
Another example of bias informing memory of otherwise objective facts.
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www.jstor.org www.jstor.org
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nough is the strongest ofthese four works. An anthropologist, Rountree has spent much of the lastthirty-five years studyi
To what extend do credentials reinforce ones claim to truth? dp we remember Rountree's depection more because they were an ethnographer? is it possible that they still got things wrong?
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. She reconstructs Pocahontas's life by mining the writ-ten record for every scrap it contains, and when it fails (as it so oftendoes) she relies on a creative use of cultural history methods and specu-lation. For example, unable to find records detailing Pocahontas's con-version and marriage, she turns to the Book of Common Prayer todetermine what the common practice for such events
A sensible idea; Sometimes we have to fill in teh gaps of memory as best we can because it is ultimately an imperfect thing. It is important, however, to acknowledge these failings
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Rountree aptly puts it, "he seems to have had a knack for getting intodrastic situations and then being rescued by high-ranking f
Its interesting how recorded memories of other events, will have an effect on how new information is interpreted. I think we all know of the old childrens tale "the boy who cried wolf"
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ad died. His earlier writings
why did smith wait so long to write about this important event? I wish the author expanded on this a bit more
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The four books cover many of the same events but from vaent perspe
Its interesting how multiple sources of information can inform memory and perspective
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sakai.unc.edu sakai.unc.edu
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In one town, dozens of newly freed enslaved people were whipped forcelebrating
The freedman's Bureau, an agent of reconstruction, attempted to curb some of the violence against freed peoples. https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/freedmens-bureau
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How Granger made the generalorder known throughout Galveston is disputed
How do historians come to terms with disparate accounts of historical events? Can we ever really be certain of validity when it comes to memory?
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I am certainmy great-grandfather would have known of Galveston’s other, more important, historical connections toBlack people, for those had more immediate relevance to his life.
It's interesting how we can assume the content of ones memory based on historical events and other contextual clues.
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One of the tests of a great song or poem—any work of art,really—is its capacity to touch different people in different ways across time.
This is certainly true for me if we consider ourselves as different people or changed people throughout the course of our lives. I've listened to songs months or years after first hearing it only to then recognize some underlying meaning it in, affecting me in a whole new way.
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sakai.unc.edu sakai.unc.edu
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The enactment of the British Emancipation Act on August 1, 1834,
Prior to this, I believe that slave trade was abolished in the British empire even earlier in 1807, but this did not affect its colonies.
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Other black New Yorkers believed that, rather than insisting on their rights, amarch of gratitude in Albany was more fitting.6
Why doesn't the author elaborate further here on why there were tensions when resolving these meanings? I feel like that would have been interesting and relevant to the idea of celebration and cohesion among the black community.
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watersheds:
I'm not sure how many know this (since it was unknown to me) but a watershed is an idiom for describing a important historical event, which i suppose is evident from the reading itself
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“What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
In an abriged recollection of his speech captured by Janet Gillespie, Douglas says "that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July!", enumerating sentiments of hypocrisy in this nation that is untrue to itself. This is completely just as America was a nation that was founded on the ideals of individual and inalienable rights while simultaneously oppressing its constituents. Celebrating the birth of such a nation is disrespectful at best and damning for its future in the worst.
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