NATIONAL HISTORICAL EVENTS IN IRANIAN COLLECTIVE MEMORY

Year 2013, Volume: 5 Issue: 1, 123 - 132, 01.06.2013

Hamid Ebadollahi Chanzanagh Fatemeh Yazdan Ashouri

Abstract

This study aims to investigate presence of national historical events in Iranian collective memory. According to social theorists remembering is a social phenomenon which occurs in social cadres. In Iranian social context, ethnicity, generation, religion and education are important social cadres of memory. 384 national samples from three different ethnicities, Azeri, Gilaki and Kurd, were chosen by quota sampling. Results of survey indicated three social cadres of generation, religion and education explained remembering national historical events and Iranian collective memory is basically rooted in national historical events rather than ethnic one. ‘The 1979 Islamic revolution’, ‘Iran’s oil nationalization and the following 1953 Iranian coup d’état’ from the last century events and ‘Iranian constitutional revolution’, ‘Russo-Persian wars’ from prior to the last century events are the most important national events remembered by Iranian

Keywords

Iranian collective memory, Historical events, Social cadres of collective memory

References

• Chitsaz ghomi, Mohammad Javad (2007), “Recognizing the concepts of generation and generational gap”, Majalleh javanan va monasebate nasli, Vol. 1, pp. 85-112.
• Halbwachs, Maurice (1992), On Collective Memory, Chicago: Chicago University Press.
• Halbwachs, Maurice (1941), La Topographie Légendaire de Evangiles en Teore Sainte, Paris: Presses de Universitaires de France.
• Mannheim, Karl (1952), Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge, London: Routledge and Kegal Paul.
• Schuman, Howard and Scott Jacqueline (1989), “Generation and collective memories”, American Sociological Review, Vol. 54, pp. 359-381.