Recovering Bartlett's social psychology of cultural dynamics

Despite the current treatment of Frederic C. Bartlett as a cognitive psychologist, his psychology was fundamentally socio-cultural. More than half a century after the publication of Psychology and Primitive Culture (1923) and Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology (1932), his theoretical contribution has contemporary implications for a social psychology that takes culture seriously. This paper seeks to recover and appraise Bartlett's social psychology in light of the recent literature on culture and psychology, and discusses his relevance for a social psychology of cultural dynamics.