Abstract

The aim of this paper is to stress the relevance of social memory and social oblivion in the study of cultural encounter, as a result of the role that both memory and oblivion have in shaping the actual identity of social groups and individuals. Memory and oblivion are not simply the results of social and historical processes, that is, what is remembered and what is forgotten. Memory and oblivion are also, and above all, two factors by which groups and individuals build cultural and social boundaries, play their role in plural contexts and compete with each other. Memory and oblivion are two of the devices by which social and historical processes produces themselves. Referring to a number of cases drawn from the fields of anthropology, history, literature and sociology, this paper shows how, in an epoch of displacement, delocalization and intercultural encounter, the study of social memory and social oblivion becomes crucial in order to understand the present world.