On 'doing' memory and self in different cultural contexts

Abstract

After a brief and pointed recapitulation of the main issues of Demuth, Chaudhary and Keller's article, Memories of me. Comparisons from Osnabrück (Germany) and Delhi (India) students and their mothers (doi: 10.1007/s12124-010-9136-5 ), alternative or complementary approaches to the investigation of 'doing' memory and self in different cultural contexts are outlined in a sketch of three interrelated proposals. These proposals turn around a) 'contemporaneousness of the non-contemporaneous' (Gleichzeitigkeit des Ungleichzeitigen) and the analysis of 'cultural hybrids', b) 'indigenous concepts of memory and self' and c) 'memory and self in actual cultural practice'.