Collective memory and social change: Framing Christopher Columbus

The symbols and ideas associated with the story of America's origins have proven to be potent symbols of repression and resistance; remembering Columbus has sparked competition and conflict among economic, nationality, religious, and ethnic groups. As new groups formed, new visions of national origins spread throughout the public culture. Many groups created "memory frames" that organized the story of Columbus around their own partisan interests. A few groups found their memory frames commonly and widely reproduced across major institutional contexts. Memory frames that transcend their group origins and become regular parts of social institutions have become "collective memories." An analysis of thousands of primary and secondary sources from American public culture show that only four memory frames became widely shared collective memories: nationalist, religious, ethnic, and anti-colonial. Why did these memory frames become collective memories? In other words, why were particular groups able to spread their own interpretations of Columbus across institutional contexts?; I analyze the reproduction of Columbus symbolism in major social institutions, and show how Columbus memory frames were received among cultural leaders within institutional contexts throughout the public sphere. I explain why four specific memory frames became collective memories by showing the structural changes that prepared specific groups to take part in status and inequality debates with Columbus symbols. Collective memories emerge out of a specific context of cultural resurgence: demographic change, institutional discrimination, and pan-ethnic group identities. Out of these structural changes emerged memory frames that were used in status and identity debates. Columbus became a common symbol used to construct inequality and national identity. In sum, this dissertation examines the production and reception of culture. It uses a cultural history of a single cultural object across institutional context to demonstrate why particular groups produce memory frames, how they produce memory frames, and why some memory frames spread throughout the public culture and become collective memories.