PLACE AND MEMORY

What we think and feel about our geographies is obviously based on experiences lived somewhere in the past. From this link everything that occurs in our experienced ground becomes part of our own existence. By populating the thoughts of human beings the past is alive in our memory. In fact the scenarios and experiences glimpsed and lived become part of our memory. Thus all awareness of the past is founded in memory. The memory of distinct spaces and places is inscribed not only in some artifacts of the past that persist in their landscape as geographical testimonies but - mainly - in the memories of the experiences lived by men and women in their lived universe. In this framework place transcends materiality although it is not dissociated from it for spatial memories are eternalized in our geographic memories. In this book we will discuss the relationship between place and memory highlighting the importance of the geographic memories of individuals and/or social groups for the construction of a memorable geography in the midst of their respective lived universes.