Archaeology, Memory and Oral Tradition: An Introduction

Abstract

This paper serves as an introduction to this special edition of the International Journal of Historical Archaeology on the theme of archaeology, memory and oral history. Recent approaches to oral history and memory destabilise existing grand narratives and confront some of the epistemological assumptions underpinning scientific archaeology. Here we discuss these approaches to memory and explore their impact on historical archaeology, including the challenges that forms of oral and social memory present to a field traditionally defined by the relationship between material culture and text. We then review a number of themes addressed by the articles in this volume.Keywords: memory, oral history, belonging, narrative, place, heritage Archaeology has a lengthy tradition of using oral history and as a form of historical enquiry it has long contributed to the production of public memory. Yet, recent approaches to oral and social memory undermine existing master narratives and confront some of the epistemological assumptions underpinning scientific archaeology. The active selection and construction of memory in the present has been emphasised, along with memory's capacity to disturb dominant ways of understanding the past. In archaeology these developments have been prominent in post-colonial contexts and Indigenous archaeology. Yet there are also parallel trends in Europe, where oral history and social memory are seen as a means to access vernacular culture and subaltern understandings of the past.It was against this intellectual background that we decided to organize a theme titled Memory, Archaeology, and Oral Traditions at the Sixth World Archaeological Congress in Dublin in July 2008. Under this theme, as in this volume, we included oral history in the traditional sense of oral narratives based on first-hand experience, along with broader forms of transgenerational oral tradition, folklore, and social memory. These different forms of oral memory are frequently the focus of distinct bodies of research and publication. Nevertheless, these different kinds of oral memory intersect with one another in complex ways and all are socially and materially mediated to a greater or lesser degree. Their juxtaposition thus raises interesting and productive avenues of enquiry.We asked participants to consider the following questions, which we consider important in the future development of archaeological research on memory. How should we conceive of oral tradition and social memory? In recognizing their significance, how do we avoid objectifying and romanticizing them? Does a dichotomy between memory and history still prevail and if so what are its effects on our understandings of the past? How do we deal with the intersection of written and oral history? To what extent is social memory disparate, located and fragmented and how do authoritative narratives emerge and persist? What roles do archaeological remains play in the production of social memory and what of other 'memory props', such as, texts, images, folktales, myt...

‘They call ’imCrowie’: an investigation of the Aboriginal significance attributed to a wrecked River Murray barge in South Australia

“…The use of ‘oral memory in archaeological research offers us rich potential’ as it can provide ‘a means to understand how people in the past and the present experienced historical landscapes, and to see how meaning is created and negotiated’ (Jones and Russell, : 27—see also Gazin‐Schwartz and Holtorf, : 15; Myrberg, ). The deep cultural meaning inherent in the Crowie story, when explored in conjunction with archaeological methods, allows us to more appropriately consider the ‘intricate mechanisms’ inherent between the ‘symbolic and material world’ (after Symonds, : 113).…”

Reading Activities in Kauman Area, Parakan, Indonesia, During the Colonial Era Using Mapping Analysis

“…Moreover, by using the oral tradition approach, we have understood that architectural research as a historical method can be consequently supplemented. Purwantiasning et al (2018) also refer to the argument of Jones and Russell (2012) who discuss the relation between orality and writing in the context of social memory, which is particularly important in respect to historical archaeology, a field that has long been preoccupied with the relationship between material culture and texts. They also state that social memories are composed of the fragmented stories that surround specific places and events, and which are are passed around within and between generations.…”

Sites of memory in the Irish landscape? Approaching ogham stones through memory studies

“…The tangible, material aspect of this must not be neglected, for as Jones and Russell (2012) propose, archaeological sites ‘can play an important role in terms of providing the material dimension of the past to which people express their affiliation, sense of belonging, and social identity’(p. 275). Even in texts, ogham stones are cognitively linked to such aspects precisely because, as Rekdal (2014) stresses, the archaeological ‘ogham stones represent material perceived of as more solid than parchment’ (p. 114).…”