Reexamining Collective Memory : The Role of Landscape in Shaping Memories

The purpose of this paper is to review the development and the theoretical framework of collective memory and to explore how it fits within the current anthropological discourse that challenges the human-nature divide. Namely, it examines how landscapes as agents of memory are contributing to shaping collective memories of a community. The concept of collective memory is best known from the works of Maurice Halbwachs. His theory that individuals acquire and share memories as members of a social group has been widely used in various disciplines, including anthropology. However, due to its prominent sociological background, until recently collective memory has only been applied to discussing human societies. The current anthropological research has introduced ontologies that challenge the Western dichotomy of nature-culture, offering the opportunity to rethink the way humans interact with the world and to include non-human agents into the debate. Therefore, it has also become necessary to reconsider collective memory within a broader context. However, while landscape memories have been an important topic in memory studies, landscape has mostly been viewed as being static and shaped by humans. Due to that, collective memory hasnʼt been able to venture outside of its initial social realm. This paper explores the agency of landscape and how it manifests itself within memory thus becoming a part of communities that share and shape collective memories. This study aims to contribute new perspectives in applying the concept of collective memory to current anthropological debates and to offer new insights on human and nature relations by focusing on how humans and landscapes interact and are connected through memories