Wednesday, 29 June 2016

Religion and Cultural Memory (tr. Rodney Livingstone),
Jan Assmann, Stanford University Press, 2006, page 19

Jan Assmann's sixth cultural memory formation technique from the book of Deuteronomy is the use of oral transmission.

Oral transmission, that is to say, poetry, as the codification of historical memory: "Now therefore write this song for youselves and teach it to the Children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the Children of Israel. For when I have brought them into the land which I swore to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey; and they have eaten and filledt themselves, and grown fat; then they will turn to other gods, and serve them, and despise Me, and break My covenant. And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles come upon them, that this song shall testify before them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed" (31:19-21).