Daily Practice and Social Memory at Çatalhöyük

2004 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Hodder ◽  
Craig Cessford

This article is concerned with the social processes involved in the formation of large agglomerated villages in the Neolithic of the Near East and Anatolia, with particular reference to Çatalhöyük in central Turkey. The article aims to show that practice theories (dealing with how social rules are learned in daily practice within the house) can be used to interpret the patterning of recurrent construction and use activities within domestic space at Çatalhöyük. The regulation of social practices in the house created village-wide social rules, but it is argued that the habituated behavior was also commemorative and involved in the construction of social memory. Sitewide and house-based specific memories are documented at Çatalhöyük. The evidence for habituated practice and social memory at other sites is briefly discussed, and is argued to be relevant for the formation of settled agricultural societies.

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (06) ◽  
pp. 19-34
Author(s):  
Luis Mauricio Escalante Solís ◽  
Carlos David Carrillo Trujillo

Las sociedades comparten un serie de formas a través de las cuales se pueden identificar, conocerse y re-conocerse, sin hacer mucho caso a la especificidad, latitud o cultura que las caracterizan y las unen. Lo primero que comparten es una memoria social, entendida como un significado compartido por los miembros que lo conforman, sin importar su veracidad o autenticidad. El recuerdo es necesario para mantener unido a los integrantes de un grupo, es por ello que se manifiesta constante e intermitentemente en el transcurso de la existencia del grupo social, se vuelve un significado adoptado por dicho colectivo que debe ser manifiesto en las actividades y la cotidianidad.El presente trabajo describe y analiza tres prácticas sociales de conmemoración denominadas alternativas que se realizan en países latinoamericanos (Argentina, Chile y México), se fundamentan sus orígenes, causas sociales y formas de organización, así como sus acciones principales. El eje rector que unifica a estas tres prácticas conmemorativas es el hecho de que reivindican la lucha social y ejemplifican mecanismos contrahegemónicos de demanda social, antes las falencias, omisiones y acciones del Estado. El estudio y el análisis de las conmemoraciones abren la posibilidad de entender distintos usos del pasado. Los eventos históricos construyen un relato que otorga identidad y sentimiento de unidad. Sin embargo, recuperar el pasado a través de la conmemoración no elimina el surgimiento de grupos contrahegemónicos que proponen una reflexión crítica sobre lo sucedido. The societies share a number of ways through which they can identify and meet. However, often irrelevant specifics of culture. It is much more important social memory. Social memory is something that is shared by members of a group regardless of their veracity or authenticity. The memory is needed to hold together the members of a group. Therefore, the memory becomes a meaning adopted by the collective manifested in everyday activities.This paper describes and analyzes three social practices of commemoration taking place in Latin American countries (Argentina, Chile and Mexico), describing their origins, social causes, forms of organization and main actions. The guiding principle that unifies these three commemorative practices is claimed that exemplify the social struggle and counter-hegemonic mechanisms of social demand, given the failures, omissions and actions of the state. The study and analysis of the commemorations open the possibility of understanding different uses of the past. Historical events construct a story that gives identity and togetherness. However, recovering the past, through the commemoration does not eliminate the emergence of counter-hegemonic groups that propose a critical reflection about what happened.


2021 ◽  
pp. 38-50
Author(s):  
Andrei Gennadievich Ivanov

This article is dedicated to examination of the dynamic aspect and mythological dimension of social memory. The structure of the latter distinguishes the two levels – “archaic” and ”conjunctural”. The “archaic” level plays a determinant role for the current functionality of mythology , including the mythology of family memory, which is interrelated with such spheres of everyday life as life, work, and recreation). The transformation of family mythology is viewed on the example of manifestation of myth-containing phenomena, such as the sacred leader (hero) and the victim, in everyday life. The following changes are indicated: the representations on causality and ratio between the part and the whole are imparted sacred meaning, while the representations on space and time are being rationalized. The systematic approach was applied towards studying the mythology of family memory. The theoretical conclusions are reinforced by the results of analysis of a series of narrative interviews conducted among the residents of Lipetsk Region about the history of their families. It is established that the basic (constitutive) events for the mythology of family memory indicate more abstract and profound phenomena (for example, hero or victim) than for the social memory. Special work is required for identification of these phenomena and further reconstruction of the mythology of family memory in each particular case. Special attention is given to observations of one of the respondents on the miracle as the phenomenon immanently inherent in life.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bamba Ladji ◽  
Raymond Nébi Bazare

This article aims to explain the social categorization mechanism that governs the world of cybercriminals. It is therefore a practical review of the "grazer" including festive practices (sex, alcohol, psychotropic, etc.) that the ethnographic approach allowed to do. The analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data, put light on the complexity of the social processes of the Ivorian typologisation cybercriminal and festive practices related thereto. Thus the daily "bulldozer" and the ritualistic nature of existing social practices were observed over one year (February 2012 - January 2013), among 250 respondents of which 100 criminals on all 10 districts of Abidjan. This allowed to go to the evidence that festive practices are the ends pursued scams grazers. They determine their belonging to a category of cybercriminals while strengthening the perpetuation of scams on the web activities.


2021 ◽  
pp. 136843102098882
Author(s):  
Jeroen Oomen ◽  
Jesse Hoffman ◽  
Maarten A. Hajer

The concept of the future is re-emerging as an urgent topic on the academic agenda. In this article, we focus on the ‘politics of the future’: the social processes and practices that allow particular imagined futures to become socially performative. Acknowledging that the performativity of such imagined futures is well-understood, we argue that how particular visions come about and why they become performative is underexplained. Drawing on constructivist sociological theory, this article aims to fill (part of) this gap by exploring the question ‘how do imagined futures become socially performative’? In doing so, the article has three aims to (1) identify the leading social–theoretical work on the future; (2) conceptualize the relationship of the imagination of the future with social practices and the performance of reality; (3) provide a theoretical framework explaining how images of the future become performative, using the concepts ‘techniques of futuring’ and ‘dramaturgical regime’.


Author(s):  
Marcele Pereira

This article aims to establish a theoretical approach between the Social Museology and assumptions of Sociology of Absences, from a preliminary analysis of the concepts of monoculture and ecology conveyed by Portuguese sociologist Boaventura de Souza Santos. Monocultures are responsible for the proliferation of social invisibility and from them, ecologies arise as alternatives to enable the visibility of the silenced social practices and therefore, in forgetting process. The social museology, in turn, has been dedicated to transforming marginalized social processes narratives and museological initiatives that enable reflection and citizen participation from a perspective that includes the museum as a space that can act in the deconstruction of social forms of production of non-existence. Thus, social museology finds fertile ground in the interpretations proposed by the Sociology of Absences to deal with the deconstruction of hegemonic ideas guided to strengthen the non-existence produced by the ignorant image; residual; lower; local and unproductive. Search is here to highlight the possibilities of building a dialogue approaching this sociological interpretation model of social museology scenario highlighting some initiatives of northern Brazil. Key words: social museology; sociology of absences; Brazilian Amazon; museums.


2005 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ron L. Adams

In a recent volume of American Antiquity, Hodder and Cessford (2004) suggested that various aspects of the domestic architecture at Çatalhöyük reflect a concern for the construction of social memory and social regulations through daily, habituated practices. The authors note that domestic architecture provides a locus for the construction of social memory in ethnographically documented “house societies” (e.g., Carsten and Hugh-Jones 1995; Joyce and Gillespie 2000) and imply that a similar pattern was prevalent during the Neolithic at Çatalhöyük. While not disputing the general premises of this suggestion, I argue that ethnoarchaeological work in two house societies in Indonesia ( West Sumba and Tana Toraja) can provide further, more detailed insight and some alternate perspectives on the social system of Neolithic Çatalhöyük, particularly in relation to notions of “daily practice” and the critical role of feasting in these societies.


2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bayram Unal

This study deals with survival strategies of illegal migrants in Turkey. It aims to provide an explanation for the efforts to keep illegality sustainable for one specific ethnic/national group—that is, the Gagauz of Moldova, who are of Turkish ethnic origin. In order to explicate the advantages of Turkish ethnic origin, I will focus on their preferential treatment at state-law level and in terms of the implementation of the law by police officers. In a remarkable way, the juridical framework has introduced legal ways of dealing with the illegality of ethnically Turkish migrants. From the viewpoint of migration, the presence of strategic tools of illegality forces us to ask not so much law-related questions, but to turn to a sociological inquiry of how and why they overstay their visas. Therefore, this study concludes that it is the social processes behind their illegality, rather than its form, that is more important for our understanding of the migrants’ survival strategies in destination countries.


Author(s):  
William F. McCants

From the dawn of writing in Sumer to the sunset of the Islamic empire, this book traces four thousand years of speculation on the origins of civilization. Investigating a vast range of primary sources, some of which are translated here for the first time, and focusing on the dynamic influence of the Greek, Roman, and Arab conquests of the Near East, the book looks at the ways the conquerors and those they conquered reshaped their myths of civilization's origins in response to the social and political consequences of empire. The Greek and Roman conquests brought with them a learned culture that competed with that of native elites. The conquering Arabs, in contrast, had no learned culture, which led to three hundred years of Muslim competition over the cultural orientation of Islam, a contest reflected in the culture myths of that time. What we know today as Islamic culture is the product of this contest, whose protagonists drew heavily on the lore of non-Arab and pagan antiquity. The book argues that authors in all three periods did not write about civilization's origins solely out of pure antiquarian interest—they also sought to address the social and political tensions of the day. The strategies they employed and the postcolonial dilemmas they confronted provide invaluable context for understanding how authors today use myth and history to locate themselves in the confusing aftermath of empire.


2001 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-74
Author(s):  
Attiya Y. Javed

The economic reform process began in India in 1991. However, the reform agenda is still far from its goals as is evident from low per capita income. Thus, this reform effort has not produced the desired outcome of a faster rate of economic and social development in a meaningful way. It is the premise of this volume that to transform the social and economic landscape, the proposed reforms should be broadbased and multi-pronged which take into account incentives for the stockholders in both the private and public sectors. The institutions are the rules that govern economy and include the fundamental legal, political, and social rules that establish the basis for production, exchange, and distribution. The two editors of this volume have received contributions from a number of authors and the wide range of papers are grouped under five main headings: political economy of reforms, reforming public goods delivery, reform issues in agriculture and rural governance, and reforming the district and financial sector.


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