Vtělení paměti a minulosti do svatojakubské cesty a společensko-vědního diskursu

The study has two objectives. Firstly, offering a summary of theory of collective memory, it is argued that the concept of memory tends to be used in a broad sense, threatening to fusion with the anthropological notion of culture. In this respect, it is proposed to use the term when referring to the social remembering of specific historical events, persons and experiences in a particular society or culture at a particular place and time. Moreover, several reasons of the memory boom such as some theoretical problems within the social sciences, the specificity of French culture and historiography, postmodern turn, detraditionalism or discourse of postcolonialism are indicated. The other purpose of the study consists in emphasising of the psychosocial power of the past and socially constructed history in the traditional as well as contemporary pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. The disintegration of old myths demands the rise of new chains of memory. Comparing the work of the scholars like Nora and Hervieu-Léger with the ideas of Halbwachs and Eliade, the same power of the past is recognized in some academic and intellectual discourses. The conclusion presents the social and scientific attractiveness of memory as a consequence of the need of identity, significance and sense, and the never-ending debate about change and continuity.