Bedenler Neye Sahiptir

As the memory studies argue that forgetting can also emerge as a significant component in the creation of new identities, this is, however, rather challenged and opposed within the framework of religious institutionalism. The knowledge that constitutes the cultural memory is a construct of power, and power enforces symbolic codes to maintain the knowledge. In other words, the cultural symbols maintain the memory and reinforce the definitions of situations. The institutional significance attached to certain bodies suggest an astonishing instrument to sustain ideologies and the history of particular constitutions. Whether to be concrete or a relic, a body, with its sacred tranquility, creates an affiliation between the memory of the past and its transmittance toward the future. It is equally worth to consider how bodies are not only subject to institutionalization but also to a process of gendering. In this regard, I aim to explore the implementation of certain sacraments and rituals together with their highly structured power in sustaining the collective memory. Marian iconography, images and relics of saints are also examined insomuch as they foster the cultural memory through the manifestation of bodies.