Thursday, 23 June 2016

Religion and Cultural Memory (tr. Rodney Livingstone),
Jan Assmann, Stanford University Press, 2006, page 18

Jan Assmann lists seven procedures or processes by which a cultural memory is formed. The first is learning by heart:

Learning by heart asmaking conscious, taking to heart: "And these words, which I command you this day, shall be on yout heart" (Deut 6:6; see also 11:18: "Therefore yu shall lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul.")

How many of us cannot remember a speech, a hymn or a poem that we had to learn when we were children? These are normally quiescent and not part of our conscious at all, but if someone presses the right button, says some combination of words, there they are - and verses or paragraphs come trotting out as if we had only learned it yesterday.