new terms: historical erasure

By Ouyang Yu

 

Historical erasure is the active or passive removal, distortion, or suppression of past events, people, or narratives, especially those of marginalized groups, to serve present agendas, creating gaps in collective memory that can lead to repeating past injustices, distorting identity, and hindering progress. It goes beyond simple forgetting, involving deliberate silencing, altering records, or destroying artifacts, impacting societal understanding of itself.
Types & Mechanisms
  • Intentional Deletion: 
    Practices like Roman damnatio memoriae (condemnation of memory) aimed to wipe individuals from history by destroying monuments and records, notes Fort Ticonderoga.
  • Systematic Omission: 
    Official histories often focus on dominant narratives, leaving out contributions of marginalized communities, as seen in colonial contexts.
  • Distortion & Negationism: 
    Using deceptive research, miscontextualized quotes, or false documents to deny established history, functioning as propaganda.
  • Cultural Erasure: 
    The diminishing of unique cultural elements, like traditional practices, due to dominant external influences, notes Lifestyle → Sustainability Directory.
Consequences
  • Impedes Understanding: 
    Prevents societies from learning from past mistakes, hindering social and environmental progress.
  • Perpetuates Injustice: 
    Obscures origins of current inequalities, making restorative justice difficult.
  • Creates False Narratives: 
    Allows single stories or falsehoods to proliferate, creating stereotypes and dehumanization, notes HUMANIZING HISTORY.
  • Impacts Identity: 
    Leaves gaps in collective memory, affecting community self-perception and belonging.
Examples & Countering Erasure
  • Colonial Erasure: 
    Disregarding indigenous ecological knowledge or the violent origins of unsustainable systems, notes Lifestyle → Sustainability Directory.
  • Countering Erasure: 
    Involves actively recovering silenced narratives, revising curricula to include marginalized voices, digitizing overlooked archives, and recognizing past injustices to build a more complete history, notes HUMANIZING HISTORY.

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