ESSAYS AND STUDIES
IDENTITY AND HISTORY – CONTRIBUTION TO THE REMINISCENCE CULTURE
Abstract
At the start of the work we point out to the appearance of
the science historiography, we quote the thinkers who made a
decisive contribution about historical theme and it’s processed by
aplication of scientific methology. When it comes to the national
identity, history theme is unavoidable. Without a feeling for
historical reality, secret of nation is inaccessible. Because the
nation isn’t some kind of abstract-sociological category which
could be reduces to a series of purely sociological elements,
such as: language, race, teritory, statehood, although those
characteristics are to a lesser ot greater extent, the essentials
for determining the national being. But, nation is primarily a
consciousness of common destiny, which untes the members of
the group. A nation becomes aware of itself only when it becomes
aware of it’s history. By becoming familiar with it’s history, selfawareness,
the people get their identity – become self-made.
Undoubtedly, the power of remembrance is what makes people
people. Memories are a form from which the image of identity,
individuals and people are formed. The discussion about identity
is a talk about collective memory and the mediums that enable it
to be held.
Ethno-history is a source of cultural power. Communities
that can boast about it’s history have competitive advantage
because of the feeling of moral superiority over those whose
history is poor or suspicious. Others have nothing left but to
engage in cultural wars, for the purpose of appropriating the
inheritance. The Balkan territory is known for such wars, but it’s
not the only place where we encounter such a phenomenon.
The key factors of identity, and historical memory, relate
to beliefs that do not exist without mythology. The destruction
of mythical creatures represents the impact on the core of what
makes a worldview of one nation, it’s image of the world. This
inevitably leads to the erosion of ethnic ties and the destruction of
the people. One nation lives with it’s legends as long as with it’s
real history. The time of deep political and social shocks always
brings rearrangement of the past, especially at the time when the
national culture was subjected to the aggression of the globalist
concept. Today the struggle for identity, to a large extent, is
reduced to the battle for it’s history.
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