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Autobiographical Remembering as Cultural Practice: Understanding the Interplay between Memory, Self and Culture

Cornell University, USA

Jens Brockmeier

University of Toronto, Canada, and Free University Berlin, Germany

Autobiographical remembering is examined as a cultural practice unfolding in the developmental dynamics of the interplay between memory, self and culture. In discussing the results of recent comparative studies in the United States and East Asia, we argue that autobiographical memory and self are interconnected meaning systems constructed in macro- and micro-cultural contexts—contexts of collectively performed and shared symbols, tools and artifacts. This process involves manylayered interactions between an individual and the belief structures of the society; it also involves various forms of active negotiation among the agents of socialization. As a result, a culture’s genres of autobiographical remembering and its prevailing conceptions of selfhood have a decisive impact on the very nature of mnemonic transmission from one generation to the next. Against this backdrop, autobiographical remembering is described as an important dimension of cultural memory.

Key Words: autobiographical memory • cultural practice • self

Culture & Psychology, Vol. 8, No. 1, 45-64 (2002)
DOI: 10.1177/1354067X02008001618


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