Abstract

GIMENEZ, Gilberto. Cultura, identidad y memoria: Materiales para una sociología de los procesos culturales en las franjas fronterizas. Frontera norte [online]. 2009, vol.21, n.41, pp.7-32. ISSN 2594-0260.

In its first part, this article presents a theoretical proposal about the articulation between culture, identity and memory. Culture, understood as "model of significations", would be the provider of the "construction materials" of social identities, while memory would be the principal nutrient of the same. On the one hand, we highlight the obligatory distinction between individual and collective identities, and on the other, between individual and collective memory, to avoid the undue "psychologising" of collectives and groups. The second part explores, according to the theoretical and analytical categories previously mentioned, the conditions of culture, social identities and memory in the border regions. This condition is described, not in terms of a supposed "cultural hybridization", but instead of a co presence and interaction between social actors carrying cultures of distinct origin; not in terms of "deterritorialization", but instead of "multiterritoriality". It concludes by affirming that border regions, far from being the place of forgetfulness and oblivion, is more properly the place for the permanent reactivation of strong memories and the fight against the oblivion of origins.

Keywords : Culture; identity; memory; hybridization; multiterritoriality.