When a people group loses interest in history...

[Ernie]

What happens when a people group or subculture loses interest in their own history?

What happens when a people group or subculture loses interest in history, period?

What happens when a people group or subculture rewrites history to suit its present-day biases?

[barnhart]

Good topic. To chart a course from a map one must know where they are and where they came from.

[Neto]

For a simple answer to all three questions, I would say "Nothing good."

[JohnH]

#1 and #2 pave the way to make #3 happen.

[Praxis+Theodicy]

What happens when a people group or subculture loses interest in their own history?

What happens when a people group or subculture loses interest in history, period?

What happens when a people group or subculture rewrites history to suit its present-day biases?

Such people are likely a diaspora, and their subculture will likely fade and they will assimilate into their host cultures over the course of generations.

[Ernie]

What happens when a people group or subculture loses interest in their own history?

What happens when a people group or subculture loses interest in history, period?

What happens when a people group or subculture rewrites history to suit its present-day biases?

Such people are likely a diaspora, and their subculture will likely fade and they will assimilate into their host cultures over the course of generations.

So I guess a fourth question is, What about those who grow up as part of a host culture with a rich heritage, but don't even value that history?

[Bootstrap]

What happens when a people group or subculture rewrites history to suit its present-day biases?

Don't most histories do that?

When we write Mennonite histories, don't they often project our current understanding back on people who were different from us?

[JohnH]

So I guess a fourth question is, What about those who grow up as part of a host culture with a rich heritage, but don't even value that history?

The obvious answer is that that host culture doesn't value history.

[MattY]

What happens when a people group or subculture rewrites history to suit its present-day biases?

As Bootstrap noted, we all do this to some extent; the people in the past faced different circumstances and were shaped in various ways that are different from the present. That doesn't make them better or worse, just different.

A problem can arise when people start to consider the past and its people better than the present. They might rewrite the history of their subculture so that the past was pristine, or put it up on a pedestal and rewrite or ignore the mistakes that they made, and so the main problem with the present is that it changed from what the past was like.

Another problem that happens when people rewrite history to suit their present-day biases is that their desired version of their faith and subculture tends to be similar to other current movements in society, except adjusted to fit their particular subculture. Then future generations begin to consider the rewritten version of history simply the truth, and any diversion from it must be heresy.

What might happen? People might decide that there are 7 and only 7 sacraments, a view that was never held for an entire millennium until at least the 12th century, and then the Council of Trent might anathematize anyone who holds a different view. Or, people might learn that the Anabaptist view is that there are seven ordinances, not realizing that the list of 7 ordinances arose out of the fundamentalist movement in the late 19th/early 20th century.

Another thing that might happen is that various new religious movements might arise - let's say, in the 19th century - which differ from each other in various ways, some of them heretical (Mormons/Jehovah's Witnesses/Christadelphians) and some not (Churches of Christ) and some borderline (Seventh Day Adventist). They often consider themselves the only true church; there might be Christians in other churches, but those churches were corrupted and only their own new movement has the pure faith. This type of thinking runs through all the Restorationist movements of the 19th century, including the Holdemanns and the "Reformed Mennonites". They might rewrite their culture's history to suit their own views.

History should be valued and studied, not put up on a pedestal or held onto as the only way to live. People who desire to live like their ancestors and retain the customs and lifestyle of past generations are not the only ones who value history; sometimes, they are the ones rewriting history.

[Ernie]

What happens when a people group or subculture rewrites history to suit its present-day biases?

Don't most histories do that?

When we write Mennonite histories, don't they often project our current understanding back on people who were different from us?

Yes.