Racial memory
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The concepts of racial memory and genetic memory refer to related hypotheses that an individual can inherit knowledge and memory from its ancestors, even without contact with them.
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Racial Memory
In Jungian psychology, racial memory is a hypothetical type of memory which is not gained through experience or conditioning, but is inherited genetically, as part of a "collective unconscious" of the human species. Racial memory does not define a memory insofar as a specific recollection of an event; instead it references an inherent genetic recollection of the experiences of the ancestral line of any given individual, and how this influences his or her behavior.
For instance, an individual may have a fear of heights. Racial memory would suggest that perhaps this individual's genetic ancestors met a dastardly fate due to a fall; ergo, this "racial memory" of the danger of heights causes the individual to fear them.
Hypothetical biological explanations
The role of "junk DNA" in eukaryotic DNA might play an important role in the transmission of so called racial or ancestral memories. The question must be put therefore as to what extent racial or ancestral memories can be encoded advantageously thereby. Several possibilities should come to mind, these would include: bird song memories, fingerprints, or ultimately "how the brain is wired" with respect to certain behaviours, which ought to in turn include the possibility ....
Recent evidence, as of September 2004, suggest that a different part of the brain may be involved in cases of Chinese descent who suffer from dyslexia, as compared to studies of persons of western descent who have the condition. Accordingly, one might suggest that it will eventually be shown that the aptitude for specific languages may be an inheritable trait, so that while in principle anyone can learn any language, it may be that the languages themselves are in some ways like mathematics and music, in that it is possible to inherit the ability to learn or even compose music or to perform well at math.
The more bold step then is to infer that certain ancestral memories will emerge spontaneously in any society or culture, as as to say that certain ideas may appear in different cultures. For example, the Cinderella story exists in dozens of forms in different variants, quite possibly having been independently authored in different societies and cultures. In a sense then, ancestral memories are more likely to be soft-coded information phenotypes than they are to be explictly hard coded in specific genes.
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Genetic Memory
Genetic memory refers to memories or knowledge available to an individual from their ancestors, even in the absence of direct contact with them or direct instruction from them. It is distinct from genetic traits such as eye color that are inherited genetically.
Genetic memory is a device used in science fiction but it is not scientifically proven to occur in human beings. Some have theorized that it contributed to the spreading of early human beings across the globe, and others have claimed to have observed the action of genetic memory in the behaviors of chimpanzees and bonobos who have demonstrated the abilities of their ancestors (such as using a rock to open nuts) even when isolated from them without the opportunity for direct learning.
It has also been hypothesized to occur in amoebae seen to avoid toxic substances known to their genetic predecessors.
Genetic memory in fiction
Arthur C. Clarke's novel Childhood's End incorporates genetic memory as a plot device.
The idea of racial or genetic memory is central to the Dune series by Frank Herbert.
The Goa'uld, an alien race featured in the Stargate SG-1 television series, possess a genetic memory.