12. The
Cultural Memory System (CMS)
The
Cultural Memory System (CMS) is the systematic theoretical account of those
processes and structures by which the
Cultural
Memory
CM arises and operates.
12.1. The
dual perspectives of the CMS
The
CMS can be viewed from two different perspectives, which are dual aspects of
the same phenomenon,
[437]
much as
wave
and
particle
are dual aspects of the same physical phenomenon:
1.
the
Cultural
Memory
(CM) view, of the individual humans, and
2.
the
Cultural
Pattern
(CP) view, the intersubjective aspect.
12.1.1. The
Cultural Memory view
ad
1.: In the
Cultural
Memory
view, the CMS refers to
those
processes and structures by which personal subjective memory material is
exchanged between individuals and across generations and made available on an
intersubjective basis
.
It is the
diachronic
aspect of
Cultural
Transmission
.
[438]
In ethnological diction, it is the
emic
view, and philosophically, it is based on
intentionality.
From the subjective viewpoint, it is that faculty by which one individual can
{reference to / learn from / participate in} the memory content of (an)other
individual(s), even without direct personal contact, e.g. when they live in a
distant place, or in the distant past.
The
starting point for the concept of
Cultural
Memory
are the works by Aleida and Jan
Assmann
(1983-1992),
Cassirer
(1954-1985),
Yates
(1989, 1990)
,
Connerton
(1989), and
Halbwachs
(1985)
.
References on memory:
Schmidt
(1991),
Harth
(1991),
Norman
(1970-1982),
Bergson
(1919)
,
Heinz v.
Foerster
(1985: 133-172) "Gedächtnis ohne Aufzeichnung",
Johnson
(1991),
Illich
(1988: 14-28).
12.1.2. The
Cultural Pattern view
ad
2.: in the
Cultural
Pattern
view as intersubjective position, it is called the
culture
pattern replicator system,
those processes and structures by which
cultural
patterns
are maintained, exchanged, and transmitted in populations (
synchronic)
and across generations (
diachronic).
In ethnological diction, it is the
etic
view. The cultural pattern view is here called a
morphology,
in the sense that morphology is a theoretical tool for the study of pattern
{maintenance / replication / perception} in the most general sense. Related
material under:
Douglas
(1970: 11): A symbol only has meaning from its relation to other symbols in a
pattern. The pattern gives the meaning. Therefore no one item in the pattern
can carry meaning by itself isolated from the rest.
12.2. The
basic typology of CMS: somatic and extrasomatic factors, sensory modalities
The
typology
of CMS has to account for the different ways and means by which CM is
manifested, maintained or stored, and transmitted.
The
most basic distinction is according to
1.
somatic
and
2.
extrasomatic
factors.
ad
1.:
Somatic
Factors
are those concerning CM as an affair of the human memory, and the human body
and its facilities, the nervous system, the brain, the sense organs and
sensory
modalities
,
etc. Another term used in this context is
incarnat/-ed/-ion,
for:
factors
bound in the bodily flesh
.
A further basic differentiation can be made into the different
impressive
and
expressive
sensory modalities available to the human body.
ad
2.:
Extrasomatic
Factors
are those of the intersubjective domain, or of the external media, here also
called the
Cultural
Memory Media
CMM. All communication between organisms takes place through some medium. The
primary medium is the body, and in performative modes, without material
storage, as in dance or song, there is the physical medium of air, light, or
sound, between the sender and receiver
[439].
The various types of CMM can be classed according to their technical and
informational properties, and along the line of the sensory modalities.
12.3. Extrasomatic
factors: the typology of Cultural Memory Media (CMM)
In
the most general sense, the
Cultural
Memory
Media
CMM is that aspect of the CMS that can in any way be observed from the
intersubjective position, the
extrasomatic
aspect of the CMS
.
The concept of medium is further treated in
Böhme-dürr
(1997),
Posner
(1997: 228-229). More references with many types of CMM in semiotic categories:
Posner
(1997), and
Noeth
(1985).
12.3.1. Sonderforschungsbereich
Literatur und Anthropologie
The
research of SFB 511 (Sonderforschungsbereich Literatur und Anthropologie),
Universität Konstanz, maintains a database of their research (
Sfb-511
1995). The systematics of the SFB 511 is based on the conventional
categorizations of literature sciences, i.e. the western logocentric-/
graphocentric vista,
[440]
and with this provision, its material can serve as base foundation for a more
general CMM studies. The role of media systems in the cultural
context
is summed up by Aleida
Assmann,
and a condensation and translation of her article will be given here:
Assmann
(1995: 348-349): In the last 20 years, a change of orientation has taken place
away from the humanities (Geisteswissenschaften) towards media and culture
sciences. From this new vantage point it has become apparent that the
humanities themselves are based on a construction that arose in the 18th
century, on ideas that were created through a singularization:
Geist
(mind / spirit
[441]),
man, history, or art... out of which were formed those new disciplines of the
19th century: history, literature, esthetics, anthropology, linguistics, art
history (Kittler 1980). In place of the integrative concept
Geist,
there have now been substituted concepts like communication, notation systems,
or in short: media. There are presently three main directions of research
interested in media and the materialities of communication:
First
the hard technological history of communiations, for which the name Kittler
stands as representative. The salient point and provocative of this approach is
that it converts literature science into an engineering science. This school is
based on two other approaches that reach back into the 60's and earlier.
[Second]
The older of these is the historical study of media whose first important
impulses originated in the 20's and 30's that were developed further in Canada
in the 50's and 60's, the Toronto school. To this school belong, among others,
Harold Innis, Eric Havelock, and Marshall McLuhan. Havelock, for example, is a
classicist and researcher of the "cultural revolution of the alphabet". He
understood his work as a continuation of the investigations of Milman Parry in
the 20's and 30's... The central thesis of this school is: cultures are defined
by the capacity of their media, i.e. their recording, storage and transmission
technologies. With this thesis, the focus of attention was directed towards
issues of writing systems and -institutions, types of communication,
transmission channels for messages, and storage technologies of knowledge. This
perspective of media determination of culture that came in a time of immensely
accelerated technological evolution, has not only revealed its critical impact,
it has also given rise to new issues of research...
[Third]
The other direction is the French post structuralistic philosophy of writing
that is connected with the names of Foucault, Lacan, and especially Derrida.
Here the focus is not on media and their historical forms but in the most
general and fundamental sense on an insubversible materiality of writing that
resists the attempts of meaning and signification.
These
areas of research are to be supplemented by a history of writing which focuses,
besides the evolutionary perspective, the technological history and metaphysics
of writing, on the cultural examination of writing.
12.3.2. Static
vs. performative
The
CMM can then be classed into
static
and
material
vs.
performative
and
dynamic
ones.
The
static
CMM are those involving a (more or less) enduring carrier material. They are
treated at
->:STATIC_CMM,
p.
154
The
performative
CMM, also called
ephemeral
or
dynamic,
are treated at
Before
the introduction of technological media like film, audio recording, and
computerized multimedia, the material CMM allowed only static representations.
Writing is the best known and most widely used application of such static CMM.
The overt and covert influences of this factor of stasis in material CMM is of
prime importance for the present study
.
12.3.3. Cultural
Memory Technology: CMT
The
Cultural
Memory Technology
CMT: systematic use of static material extrasomatic devices (CMM) specifically
for transmitting CM. Writing is the prime Cultural Memory Technology of
civilizations.
12.3.4. A
table view of the main types of cultural memory media
The
typology
of CMM can be shown in a diagrammatic ordering according to those main
categories:
I. verbal
language oriented
[442]II. non-verbal
language oriented
and
a. using
markings in/on material storage, with more or less permanent material
substrates, static
b. performative
based on human-to-human transmission, ephemeral, and dynamic
This
classification can be mapped in a table serving as a general coordinate system
for overall orientation and overview. It leaves out the different sensory
modalities which will be treated in the next subsection. We can diagram it in
the following way:
The
broken lines indicate that the categorizations cannot be made to conform to
strict set-theoretical rules
.
The term "oral" tradition is used in quotation marks, as the term is used in
the literature for many different, not only verbal, non-written transmissions
.
The following systematic will provide a more detailed classification.
The
element of
ritual
is drawn as to intersect the categorical ordering, as it does in real life. In
common use, ritual is usually multimedial, with acted performance, and often
with song, music and dance as dominant elements.
Hanna
(1979: 198),
Aquili
(1979). Discursive prosa speech, the recording of which is the main purpose of
writing, is not the most important element in ritual (
Staal
1986: 252). Ritual is placed partly outside the CMM ordering grid, since it
transcends the categorization. It indicates primary CMS mechanisms that are
deeper than what can be conveyed with the semantic content of spoken prosa
language, and which will lead into areas where we cannot tread with the alphabet.
Noeth
(1985: 350-351): Nonverbale Kommunikation erweist sich hier nicht als
Alternative oder Ergänzung zur Sprache, sondern als ein der Sprache
semiotisch überlegenes Ausdrucksmedium.
12.3.5. The
general classification of the spectrum of CMM
Another
display of the different categories of CMM can be made in a more detailed
hierarchy mode, and by further combining the four main categories with the
different sensory / somatic modalities.
12.3.6. Sensory
/ somatic modalities
5. Olfactory
(smell)
->:SMELL,
p.
1496. Taste
(gustatory)
->:TASTE,
p.
151
12.3.7. Non-specific
somatic modalities
12.3.8. Cross
product of Modalities and CMM
Combined
with the different modalities, we arrive at the spectrum of CMM:
1. verbal
language oriented, material carrier, visual, color-insensitive
1.1.1. phonographic
writing: non-alphabetic
->:PHONOGRAPHIC,
p.
1781.1.3. non-phonographic
writing (pictographic, iconic, ideographic, logographic, etc.)
->:LOGOGRAPHIC,
p.
178
2. verbal
language oriented, performative, auditive
2.1. "oral"
tradition
2.1.1. epic
poetry, laws, prayers, oaths
2.1.2. folk
tradition: fairy tales, myths, riddles, jokes, insults, swear words, spells
3. verbal
language oriented, various modes
3.1. material
carrier, tactile
3.1.1. Braille
(Encarta: Braille),
Noeth
(1985: 364-365)
3.2. performative,
auditive, non-vocal
3.2.1. drumming
and whistle "language" (speech-surrogates)
[443]3.3. performative,
visual
3.3.1. sign
languages,
Noeth
(1985: 280-291)
4. non-language
oriented, material carrier
4.1. visual
color-insensitive
4.1.1. operational
symbolic: mathematical, engineering
[444]4.1.2. abstract
symbolic: e.g. music, and dance scripts
[445]
4.1.3. geometrical,
pictorial, diagrammatic,
iconic,
technical drawing
[446]
4.1.4. non-semantic,
symbolic: ornament
[447]
4.2. visual
color-sensitive
4.2.1. pictorial:
painting
4.2.2. abstract:
Inca quipu and other Amerind CMM
[448]4.3. tactile
4.3.2. Inca
quipu, numeric knot systems, rosary
4.4. olfactory
(smell): perfumery
4.5. gustatory
(taste): cooking
4.6. mixed-mode,
and non-classified
4.7. media
technologies, Multimedia, 4d (moving, changing) displays
4.7.1. visual
media technology
[449]4.7.2. auditive
media technology
[450]4.7.3. other
sensory modality media technology
5. non-language
oriented, performative
5.1. gestic,
Noeth
(1985: 339-354)
5.4.1. dance
->:DANCE,
p.
2185.5. auditive:
music, rhythm, drumming
[451]
Ritual
occurs generally in multimedial form and therefore overlaps the classifications.
[441]
For problematics of translation, see
Jahoda (1992: 3), Gü
Nther
(1976: 269)
[442]
S
poken
verbal language in this sense
:
as everything consisting in the production of certain patterns of sounds, which
we call
words
that can be written down with an alphabet.
[447]
Albarn (1974),
Alexander (1977),
Bain (1973),
Critchlow (1976),
Emmer (1993),
Gombrich (1982),
Jones (1987),
Merne (1974),
Williams (1979),
Tufte (1990, 1992).
[449]
visual and auditive media technology can of course also be used for language
oriented productions, but for ease of the classification it is included here.
There
are cases where verbal language is translated into rhythm: African drumming
languages.
