The purpose of this paper is to give an outline of the sociology of memory in comparison with the psychological study of memory. First, sociology treats memory as a collective phenomenon, while psychology treats it as an individual phenomenon. Second, sociologists make a study of memory in everyday life situations, while psychologists study it in a laboratory. Third, while psychologists have a correct answer with which a subject's remembrance is compared, sociologists do not have it. Fourth, sociology thinks of the past as being retained in space and materials, while psychology seeks it in the brain. Fifth, while psychology thinks of remembrance as reproducing correctly or wrongly thee past retained in a brain, sociology considers it as reconstructing the past on the present's basis. Finally, while the psychological usage of memory allows applying it only to the memory of people who experienced a certain incident themselves, sociology extends it also to the memory of people who did not experience the incident at all.

特集記憶の社会学
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