Cultural Memory From the Sciences to the Humanities

Richard C. Sha, Professor of Literature and Affiliate Professor of Philosophy, American University

"This innovative collection approaches the situated dynamism, adaptive resilience, and transgenerational reach of human memory. From ancient folk tales to modernist epics and immigrant recipes, storytelling and symbolization support the plasticity and pluralism of cultural memory in search of sustainable worlds. Combining new research in neuroscience and epigenetics with cultural analysis, this volume has profound implications for how we understand and enact consciousness, agency, and collective identity in the face of war, globalization, and the ruins of time."

Julia Reinhard Lupton, author of Shakespeare Dwelling: Designs for the Theater of Life

"This book represents an audacious attempt to integrate cultural knowledge into a general neuro-cognitive model of human knowledge. Such integration is a necessary step toward our understanding of how primate cognition over time evolve to accommodate the rise of of human communication and human culture."

T. Givon, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Cognitive Science, University of Oregon