Social memory and decolonial challenges: reflections from a study on representations of historical personalities in Brazil and Portugal

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30849/ripijp.v59(2025).e2020

Keywords:

collective memory, social representations, history, colonialism, decolonization

Abstract

In this paper, we aim to reflect on social memory and the decolonial challenges of the present by analysing a study on representations of historical personalities carried out in Brazil and Portugal. We conducted a survey in which participants were asked to freely evoke people or groups they considered to be the most important in national history, and to what extent they considered their impact on the country to be positive or negative. 260 people took part: 96 Brazilians (M= 34.6; SD = 11.8), mostly men (55.2%) and 164 Portuguese (M= 19.92; SD = 2.66), mostly women (78%). Among the results, we observed that there was not a single woman - androcentrism - among the 10 most evoked personalities in each country. We also observed a focus on politics, with an emphasis on individual agency to the detriment of collective agency - solipsism. This is particularly evident in the data collected in Portugal, where the emphasis is on kings, rulers, navigators and writers. Personalities associated with the ‘Discoveries’ were frequent, but there was almost no mention of personalities related to decolonisation. In the data from Brazil, on the other hand, ‘Indigenous’ and ‘Afro-descendants’ were among the most evoked. We discussed the implications of ‘rememberings’ and ‘forgettings’ for social memory and the decolonisation of thought as a crucial and particularly challenging task.

Author Biographies

Luiza Lins, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal.

Luiza Lins has a PhD in Social Psychology from the Universidade Federal da Paraíba (Federal University of Paraíba - UFPB), Brazil. She is currently a researcher at the Centre for Communication and Society Studies at the Universidade do Minho (University of Minho), Portugal. She is part of the team working on the project "MigraMediaActs - Migrations, media and activism in Portuguese: decolonising media landscapes and imagining alternative futures". https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6131-9264

 

Rosa Cabecinhas, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal.

Rosa Cabecinhas has a PhD in Social Psychology of Communication, is a professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Director of the interdisciplinary Doctoral Programme in Cultural Studies at the Universidade do Minho (University of Minho), Portugal. She has coordinated several research projects supported by national or international funds on social representations of history, intergroup relations, diversity and social change. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1491-3420

Marcus Eugênio Oliveira Lima, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, São Cristóvão, Brasil.

Marcus Eugênio Oliveira Lima holds a PhD in Social Psychology from ISCTE, Portugal. Post-doctorate at the Institute of Social Sciences of the Universidade de Lisboa (University of Lisbon) and at the School of Psychology of the University of Queensland, Australia. Professor in the Department and Graduate Program in Psychology at the Universidade Federal de Sergipe (Federal University of Sergipe). His research focuses on Group Processes, Social Norms, Racism and Infra-humanization. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5280-130X

Joaquim Pires Valentim, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.

Joaquim Pires Valentim has a PhD in Social Psychology from the Universiodade de Coimbra (University of Coimbra). He also completed a European PhD on Social Representations and Communication (University of Helsinki, University of Rome 'La Sapienza', ISCTE Lisbon). He is an Associate Professor at the University of Coimbra. Main areas of research: social representations, relations between groups, cultural diversity, collective memory and political psychology. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9632-3693

Elza Maria Techio, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, Brasil.

Elza Maria Techio has a PhD in Social Psychology from the Universidad del Pais Vasco - Spain (2008). She teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the Institute of Psychology of the Universidade Federal da Bahia - Federal University of Bahia (PPGPSI-UFBA). Her main areas of expertise are: collective violence, collective memory, emotions, psychosocial well-being, social identity and intergroup relations, stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8229-7674

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2025-05-19

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Lins, L., Cabecinhas, R., Oliveira Lima, M. E., Pires Valentim, J. ., & Techio, E. M. . (2025). Social memory and decolonial challenges: reflections from a study on representations of historical personalities in Brazil and Portugal. Revista Interamericana De Psicología/Interamerican Journal of Psychology, 59(1), e2020. https://doi.org/10.30849/ripijp.v59(2025).e2020

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Vol. 59 (2025): Revista Interamericana de Psicología/Interamerican Journal of Psychology

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Copyright (c) 2025 Luiza Lins, Rosa Cabecinhas, Marcus Eugênio Oliveira Lima, Joaquim Pires Valentim, Elza Maria Techio

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