This newsletter continues a meditation upon memory—though a specific kind of memory: general and cultural rather than personal, extraverted and intellectual rather than introverted and emotional. Consequently, our treatment of the subject has been historical, beginning in the initial oral phase of society, in which memory was all-important, because nothing could be preserved or passed on by being written down. Cultural memory—that is, the historical, social, and religious information on which a society is founded—was vulnerable and threatened. One break in the generational sequence of transmission and, like a native language, it would be lost forever. While tribal elders, priests, and shamans might also have been guardians of cultural lore, remembering became the chief task of the oral poet.
February 17, 2023
February 17, 2023
February 17, 2023
This newsletter continues a meditation upon memory—though a specific kind of memory: general and cultural rather than personal, extraverted and intellectual rather than introverted and emotional. Consequently, our treatment of the subject has been historical, beginning in the initial oral phase of society, in which memory was all-important, because nothing could be preserved or passed on by being written down. Cultural memory—that is, the historical, social, and religious information on which a society is founded—was vulnerable and threatened. One break in the generational sequence of transmission and, like a native language, it would be lost forever. While tribal elders, priests, and shamans might also have been guardians of cultural lore, remembering became the chief task of the oral poet.