The Politics of Forgetting

Migration, Kinship and Memory on the Periphery of the Southeast Asian State

Bibliographic Data

ID2579342
AuthorsJ Carsten (0000-0002-0286-9936, corresponding author)
Year1995
Volume1
Issue2
Pages317
Publication date1995-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1359-0987 • E-ISSN: 1467-9655
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3034691
OpenAlexW2335599380
LanguageEN
Citations received66
References cited22

Migration histories of villagers from Pulau Langkawi, Malaysia, show extensive demographic movement. These histories can be linked to local notions of kinship in which the acquisition of attributes and relationships in the present and future is of greater importance than links to dead forebears. The fragrnentary nature of memories of migration recalls a wider phenomenon in Southeast Asian kinship, often labelled 'structural amnesia', and analysed in negative terms. However, forgetting one's ancestors can be understood more positively when placed in a regional context and linked to historical features of Southeast Asian polities. The conclusion takes up the wider anthropological debate on individual and social memory and the relation between narrative and memory, and argues that closer attention should be paid to the process of forgetting. In his well-known essay, 'Qu'est-ce qu'une nation?', Ernest Renan writes: the essence of a nation is that all the individuals hold many things in common, and also that all of them have forgotten many things (my translation, Renan 1947-61, vol. 1: 892 [1887], cited in Anderson 1983:15).1

Cognitive psychology · Ethnology · Forgetting · Genealogy · Geography · Kinship · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Asian Studies and History · Computer Science · History · Law · Philippine History and Culture · Psychology