"The author argues that images of the past and recollected knowledge of the past are conveyed and sustained by ritual performances and that performative memory is bodily", an argument he takes up from Bergson, Proust and others. His goal is to show that "bodily social memory is an essential aspect of social memory, but it is an aspect which has until now been badly neglected".
The author proposes that memories of the past are not solely mental but also bodily experiences, sustained through ritual performances, drawing on the ideas of Bergson, Proust, and others. He emphasizes that "bodily social memory" is a vital component of "social memory," which has been neglected in previous studies.