On the cultural constitution of collective memory

The study of collective memory needs to take into consideration the cultural context in which the remembering takes place. In this article, I analyse how functional variations of collective memory across cultures may influence the processes, practices, and outcomes of collective remembering. I then discuss the transitory nature of culture in affecting collective memory across an individual's lifespan as well as across time and generations. I borrow recent findings from cross-cultural research on autobiographical memory to illustrate the cultural effects, and propose a new approach to studying collective memory in which the individual, the collective, and the culture are treated as a single unit of analysis.