Section
UDC
323.2(495)DOI
https://doi.org/10.31429/26190567-26-1-56-70How to Cite
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2025 Башмаков И.С., Посисеев А.И.
Abstract
The article examines the practices of transmitting local historical heritage and socio-cultural experience through oral tradition, implemented in the public policy system, aimed at forming local identity and collective memory, based on the materials of the village of KatoÒhi (Municipality of Messalonghi) in western Greece. The research methodology included a qualitative sociological survey (in-depth interviews), as well as an analysis of media data, official websites, and statistics. It was determined that the subjects of public memory policy at the local level are municipal authorities and their institutions, civil society actors, representatives of the media, public organizations and movements, and independent activists. Oral tradition as a way of transmitting historical knowledge is spread both within the family, among relatives and acquaintances, and in educational institutions, through local media (mainly newspapers, television, or the Internet), during municipal events, church or official holidays. The objectives of the public memory policy are to attract the attention of local society to the local culture and traditions, strengthen the historical and cultural memory of local residents, protect local interests, increase political loyalty, social solidarity and cohesion of the population, develop civic activity in the field of preserving the historical and cultural heritage. It was revealed that the events of ancient mythology, the period of struggle against Turkish rule, and the acquisition of national independence play a major role in the local historical memory. The study determined that the local oral tradition corresponds to the values and symbols of national Greek identity such as ancient heritage, the struggle for independence from Turkish rule, and Orthodoxy. Oral tradition contributes to the development of public practices of preserving historical memory. The main practice of neotradition in the Messalonghi area is symbolically associated with the tragic event of the “exodus from Messalonghi” during the struggle against Turkish rule.
Keywords
References
Belyaeva, N. Yu. (2007). Publichnaya politika v Rossii: soprotivlenie sredy. [Public Policy in Russia: The Resistance of the Medium]. Polis. Politicheskie issledovaniya [The Policy. Political Research], 1, 22–31. DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2007.01.03
Comstock, J. L. (1829). History of the Greek Revolution. New York: W. W. Reed & co.
Halbwaks, M. (2005). Kollektivnaya i istoricheskaya pamyat’ [Collective and Historical Memory]. Neprikosnovennyi zapas [An Inviolable Reserve], 2, 40–41.
Hobsbawm, E. (2000). Izobretenie traditsii [The Invention of Traditions]. Vestnik Evrazii [Bulletin of Eurasia], 1, 47–62.
Hobsbawm, E. J., Ranger, Т. (Eds) (1983). The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kokosalakis, N., Psimmenos, I. (1996). Modern Greece: A Profile of Identity and Nationalism. In B. Strath and A. Triandafyllidou (Eds). Representations of Europe and the Nation in Current and Prospective Member-States: Media, Elites and Civil Society (pp. 127–165). Brussels: European Commission.
Koumandaraki, A. (2002). The Evolution of Greek National Identity. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, 2(2), 39–53. DOI: 10.1111/j.1754-9469.2002.tb00026.x
Koutras, N. (2015). The Affiliation between State and Churches: The Case Study of Greece. Annales UMCS, Politologia, 21, 85–95. DOI: 10.2478/curie‑2013-0006
Legg, K., Roberts, J. (1997). Modern Greece: A Civilization on the Periphery. New York. Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9780429034787
Malinova, O. Yu., Miller, A. I. (2021). Simvolicheskie aspekty politiki pamyati v sovremennoi Rossii i Vostochnoi Evrope [Symbolic Aspects of Memory Politics in Modern Russia and Eastern Europe]. In V. V. Lapin, A. I. Miller (Eds). Vvedenie. Simvolicheskaya politika i politika pamyati [Introduction. Symbolic Politics and the Politics of Memory] (pp. 7–37). St. Petersburg: Izd-vo Evrop. un-ta v SPb.
Miroshnichenko, I. V. (2015). Publichnaya politika kak slozhnosostavnoi koncept politicheskoi nauki [Public Policy as a Complex Concept of Political Science]. In Smorgunov L. V., Morozova E. V., Kol’ba A.I. (Eds). Sovremennaya politicheskaya real’nost’ i gosudarstvo: slozhnye metody issledovaniya [Modern Political Reality and the State: Complex Research Methods] (pp. 31–49) Krasnodar: Kubanskii gosuniversitet.
Miroshnichenko, I. V., Morozova E. V. (2022). Publichnaya politika kak prostranstvo konvertatsii nematerial’nyh resursov v faktory razvitiya territorii [Public Policy as a Space for Converting Intangible Resources into Factors of Territorial Development]. Politicheskaya nauka [Political science], 3, 144–163. DOI: 10.31249/poln/2022.03.07
Nikovskaya, L. I., Yakimec, V. N. (2007). Publichnaya politika v sovremennoi Rossii: mezhdu korporativno-byurokraticheskim i grazhdansko-modernizatorskim vyborom [Public Policy in Modern Russia: between a Corporate-bureaucratic and a Civil-modernization choice]. Politiya [Polity], 1, 30–51.
Nora, P. (1989). Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire. Representations, 26, 7–24.
Papanikos, G. T. (2024). The National Identity of Ancient and Modern Greeks. Athens Journal of Mediterranean Studies, 10, 63–80. DOI: 10.30958/ajms.10-1-4
Tsoukalas, C. (1999). European Modernity and Greek National Identity. Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans, 1(1), 7–14. DOI: 10.1080/14613199908413983
Vansina, J. (1990). Oral Tradition and Its Methodology. In J. Ki-Zerbo (Еd.). General History of Africa: Methodology and African Prehistory (pp. 142–165). California: Heinemann Publishers, UNESCO. Retrieved from https://repository.out.ac.tz/403/1/Vol_1._Methodology_%26_African_Prehistory_editor_J.KI-ZERBO%28FILEminimizer%29.pdf