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What use is history?

MyDoorsAreOpen

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I've just finished reading a few articles on two groups of people -- the Roma and Europe's indigenous Traveller peoples. One thing that is very interesting about both of these groups is that they have no history, or rather, no need for history. Each small band's collective memory goes back no further than the tales the oldest member has to tell. When he or she dies, those stories die too. These peoples live in a world that is strikingly present-oriented, where everything is ephemeral except for family and clan ties. Here today, gone tomorrow, and that's fine by them. The precise origin of most of Europe's Traveller peoples is entirely unknown, because neither they nor the majority populations they live amongst have ever (until recently) had any interest in tracing their origins. They're clearly ancient in origin -- many pass along dialects clearly divergent from the majority languages of their respective nations on the order of centuries, and customs long forsaken by anyone else in close proximity. But exactly when and why they diverged? No one knows and no one cares.

I am also well acquainted with two other peoples, the Jews and the Han Chinese, who carry with them voluminous histories. They both love to talk and argue about their respective histories, and are quite proud of them. In fact, I think members of either group would say that their histories are indispensable to their present identities, and that it behooves any proud member to have a thorough understanding of their people's history. And yet, for both peoples (and other ancient civilizations with long memories), history has the nagging habit of looming large in present decision-making. Old wounds never fully heal, old slights never fully forgotten. The past is never dead, for the present is merely a continuation of it.

At times I have heard both Jewish and Chinese intellectuals ask rhetorically, "What good is all this history??" or something to that effect. Yes, they seem to be saying, we have all these glorious memories. But will all those memories help us or save us from disaster in the here and now?

It strikes me that history is in many ways a burden. Any event collectively and saliently remembered by a group of people will have a non-negligible effect on how they make decisions in the present and future. Though not inevitable, this process allows for the possibility that decisions will be made less in the present best interests of the populace, and more in the interests of continuing, or vindicating, a former status quo. The Roma and the Travellers are free of this burden -- they are free to modify anything and everything about how they live and how they interact with other populations, so long as they are loyal to each other. To self-identify as Jewish or Chinese does not entail such freedoms; even these groups' most disaffected members carry with them the need to answer for and come to terms with things their distant ancestors did, if they're to claim any semblance of membership.

It strikes me that history, and the perceived need for it, is something of a spandrel, the way evolutionary biologist S.J. Gould used the term. It arises naturally out of being a settled, agriculturally dependent people, who need to remember the massive crop failures and other breakdowns in the supply chain of food, in order to avoid societal collapse. It is made possible by written language. It is not lost on me that the Chinese invented written language de novo, and the Jews were one of the earliest adopters of it.

It is also not lost on me that a majority of the Roma and Travellers have always been illiterate. One sees the same pattern, interestingly enough, among the world's few remaining stone age hunter gatherer peoples. Among them, one sees much mythology but no real history or need for it. One also doesn't see the need for written language or literacy among such groups. In essence the Roma and Travellers are atavistic hunter gatherers or foragers.

So what of the future? Certainly the present, internet-saturated culture we live in is a natural product of a settled agricultural way of life, with an evolved need for recorded history. But it's different in many ways from the agricultural societies that preceded it and informed it, and arguably a different way of life altogether. Do you predict that the need to keep a detailed and accurate account of history will increase or decrease in the world we're heading towards, and why?
 
Likely decrease, as technological advances will yield the capability to instantaneously record and document while simultaneously allowing immediate access to any information you could need.
As in, surveillance cameras document your life; but nobody feels the need to watch every hour of every video. We only access the certain timeframe on the certain camera to identify the certain person responsible for the certain crime.
 
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