ABSTRACT
When the collective memory of a social group becomes inscribed in a landscape or place, the result is a palimpsest through which communal experience becomes integrated into meaningful narratives – Collective memory involves a creative process of remembering which is distinct from history as the preservation and interrogation of the historical record – It is preserved in landscapes and places and unfolds within a spatial framework – The result is a particular dimension of meaning attached to such places, a ‘primordial depth’ of significance and implication which enables different and seemingly unrelated aspects of the past to be assimilated into a communal narrative which is continually evolving – The collective memory inscribed in place is central to the identity and ethos of social groups – Modernity alters our relationship to collective memory, through the prevalence of functionalism and mediated experience, but paradoxically underlines the importance of those places which afford us a connection to the past.
