Mémoire, histoire et patrimoine

une illustration : la pratique de l’histoire vivante médiévale

Abstract

Living history is a cultural or social (recreational or professional) practice which allows for an explanation and an examination of the concept of memory. The latter must be understood as related to history and heritage. The completed fieldwork borrows from ethnological and sociological methods (participant observation, qualitative and quantitative research.) Autobiographical memory displayed by the community (through the semantic field of ancestrality) is linked to the historical dimension of the approach set up by the group, which turns to a shared memory of the past. Furthermore, the link to its heritage allows the group to move from a dead, « Fixed » memory to a living, reactualised, symbol of historical reconstitution.