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- Convenors:
-
Susanne Österlund-Pötzsch
(Society of Swedish Literature in Finland)
Ave Goršič (Estonian Literary Museum)
Audun Kjus (Norsk Folkemuseum (The Norwegian Museum of Cultural History))
- Stream:
- Archives
- Location:
- A125
Short Abstract:
How have visions, realities and heritage ideologies informed and shaped the collection policies, preservation strategies and dissemination work of the tradition archives? Questions regarding the production of knowledge at the tradition archives form the basis for discussion in this panel.
Long Abstract:
In many countries, tradition archives have played a significant role in extending historical awareness and the concept of culture to include the experiences of common people and daily life. Establishing tradition archives was also a means of turning folklore studies and ethnology into research disciplines. The reservoirs of knowledge accumulated in this process still characterize these disciplines against related fields.
In the 1970s - 1990s, the collections at the tradition archives faced extensive critique in many countries. A new generation of researchers found the old collections one sided and tendentious. Among other things, the collected material was considered tainted by outdated ideologies and visions. Simultaneously, the perception of the archives has changed from being seen as neutral sites of storage to being acknowledged as highly politicized sites of power.
How have visions, realities and heritage ideologies informed and shaped the collection policies, preservation strategies and dissemination work of the tradition archives? In what ways is the production of knowledge at the archives affected by the challenge of transforming paper-based institutions to operate in a world of electronic communication? Today, there are increasing demands on the archives to change roles from "guardians" to "disseminators" of cultural heritage - what are the implications, challenges and potentials? These and other questions regarding the production of knowledge at the tradition archives, whether historical or contemporary, are welcomed as a basis for further discussion.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Audun Kjus (Norsk Folkemuseum (The Norwegian Museum of Cultural History))
Paper short abstract:
Why do we run a tradition archive? I identify some of the stronger reasons, and I considered how they blend and to what extent they matter today. Then the reasons are addressed with a suggestion for how a tradition archive might function in order to be useful in our present situation.
Paper long abstract:
I work at the tradition archive called Norwegian Ethnological Research, and the paper is a case study of this particular institution, but the aspects of the discussion will be recognizable in other settings. I will argue that access to documentation of traditional knowledge is more in demand now than it ever has been, and with the digital revolution the possibilities for constructing a sound and useful tradition archive are better than ever.
First I will present some of the stronger answers to the question: why do we run a tradition archive? The reasons are identified historically, and I will consider how they blend and how they differ and to what extent they matter today. Then I will address the identified purposes with a suggestion for how a multi institutional, project based and user oriented tradition archive migth function and what it might look like in order to be usefull, wanted and good in our present situation.
The digital revolution carries important new demands for extended popular access to the sources for knowledge. Democratic governments welcome this development as it provides new pathways for broad participation in shaping how we perceive our own society. To make visible the values in the lives we live in our culturally multi faceted world - also the varieties within the so called majority cultures - is a grand political task, where a modernized and extrovert tradition archive can make significant contributions.
Konrad Kuhn (University of Innsbruck)
Paper short abstract:
The paper focuses on how "culture" became an important argument in political and public debate in Switzerland between 1930 and 1960 and argues for historical research on the production context and their close relatedness to political developments of these still today used "reservoirs of knowledge".
Paper long abstract:
All over Europe, scientific interest in every-day culture and traditions gained not only increasing interest but also government funding during the 1930s. This resulted in various - mostly national - attempts of researching and collecting "culture" in tradition archives.
The paper takes the research material of Richard Weiss (1907-1962), first professor for Volkskunde at the University of Zürich, and the collections of the Atlas der schweizerischen Volkskunde, started in the middle of 1930s as a counter-project to the German Volkskunde-Atlas, to show how "culture" became an important argument in political and public debate in Switzerland. It was through the collected knowledge in these archives, that Volkskunde gained an enhanced status in the 1930s and could serve the demand for a defense against the foreign political threats of Nazism and fascism and even briefly became a "minor" Leitwissenschaft as a legitimizing authority for cultural diversity in Switzerland against chauvinistic racial ideologies. It still is this close relatedness to political developments that today transforms the tradition archives into reservoirs of knowledge for current political attempts of collecting "culture" - now in the wake of "intangible cultural heritage" by UNESCO.
The paper argues for increased historical research on the production context of these "reservoirs of knowledge". It is only in this way, that we can meet the challenges of political usability of tradition archives and of the immanent power in these collected knowledge.
Ave Goršič (Estonian Literary Museum)
Paper short abstract:
After the WWII, folkloristics in Estonia was restructured. Political institutional reorganization shattered a well worked-in situation, there were difficulties with staff. Some ideological control was exercised over the content of the archival materials, certain topics were favoured against others.
Paper long abstract:
With the establishment of the Soviet order in 1940, the former Estonian Folklore Archives were reorganised into the Folklore Department of the State Literary Museum. A folklore section with research staff of the Institute of Language and Literature of the Academy of Sciences was founded in Tartu in 1947, later in 1952 all the departments of the Academy were moved to Tallinn. Thus many researchers were separated from the material, causing folklore collecting, organising of the records and research to suffer. The folklore section of the Institute had its main tasks in research, whereas the Folklore Department was left with providing materials to the researchers, collecting, and work on monumental publications.
Political institutional reorganization shattered a well worked-in situation, plus there were a lot less folklorists after the war. There was new ideology and new research rules in the soviet folkloristics - poetic folklore, working-class folklore, revolutionary topics, collecting war songs etc. In the early years of the Soviet Era there was also control over the content of already collected materials, which had to be ideologically corrected. Collecting ideologies during the Estonian Republic were disparaged, folk belief remained marginal. Nevertheless, old farm-house folklore was continuously collected; gaps from previous collecting work were being filled in, for example research on the correspondents and informants to Jakob Hurt, Matthias Johann Eisen, etc. The Soviet Era left its own long-lasting mark on the archival life, which I would like to reflect upon in my presentation.
Dani Schrire (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Paper short abstract:
Drawing on Israeli folklore archives, I scrutinize the tension between the durability granted to materials stored in archives and the instability of categories used to organize knowledge before it enters the archive and analytic categories used when knowledge is retrieved from there.
Paper long abstract:
Collection of folklore necessitates theoretical understanding (Naithani 2010), such as in relating to different categories that organize knowledge that would enter folk-archives. However, when knowledge is retrieved from archives it has to comply with other knowledge concerns, which interests contemporary scholars and performers. For example, while folk-narrative archives have divided narratives according to folk genres ("legends" vs. "folktales"), contemporary scholars may be interested in gender or environmental issues which may override generic concerns. While digitalization may replace clear taxonomies by attending to "tagging" or other open cataloguing options, it also adds further complexities as knowledge transforms between media. Drawing on cases from the Israeli context, I try to show that although such "taxonomy discrepancies" can be problematic, at the same time they offer ample opportunities for reflection on the role folklore archives have in knowledge processes, especially when archives are viewed as fieldwork sites (as in Fenske 2007). Rather than an obstacle, the inherent tension between the durability granted to materials stored in archives and the instability of categories opens up possibilities for critical historical-ethnography.
Zoltan Magyar (Hungarian Academy of Sciences)
Paper short abstract:
This paper intends to draw the attention to how the archives of Hungarian historical legends have been formed by collecting the Hungarian folklore material by now, furthermore in what form the genre catalogue (type and motif index) will be created supported by this rich text base.
Paper long abstract:
One of the main tasks of the international folklore has already been the compilation of the manifold folkloristic catalogues (type and motif indices) for more than a hundred years. Contrary to plenty of national tale catalogues, the other determining prose epic genre , in case of the legend, those scientific systematizations which have ever been formed from first to last are belief legend catalogues. Nowadays no historical legend catalogues with comprehensive demand , based on rich text basis exist yet. The reason of it is the lack of the consciously collected and archived data base. Also in case of Hungarian folklore extremely rich in historical legends, it was the main obstacle of carrying out the scientific systematization.
Within the scope of Hungarian Academy of Sciences forming archive has come into a state by now which became approximately complete. Namely, a scientifically complete data base which is spread into all generic subgroups. Presently, The Archives of Hungarian Historical Legends consists of 102.000 texts, it was based on 4 main columns: it contains the publications which have ever been published, moreover legends with Hungarian references, archives which also contain folklore material and its archives of manuscripts with historical legendary topics, published and manual with geographic name collectios considered as the collection of the rich historical and local legends. At last but not least, the intensive recently made fieldwork expecially aims at the so-called "white stains" both in geographical and in thematic sense.
Maryna Chernyavska (University of Alberta)
Paper short abstract:
Folklore archives are defined by folklorists and by communities that they serve, study, collect and provide for. This complexity presents both strength and challenge, poses critical questions, but also grants powerful responsibility to shape cultural heritage that will be available in the future.
Paper long abstract:
Interdisciplinarity of folklore studies has a huge impact on the way folklore archives organize and manage records. Materials collected by folklorists in the process of ethnographic fieldwork contain not only text, even in its broadest sense, but necessarily context of cultural phenomena and processes. On one hand, folklorists' research interests define multi-format, multi-dimensional collections they create and deposit to folklore archives. On the other hand, folklore archives are shaped by the community who donate materials striving to preserve their cultural heritage and represent particular ethnic or cultural group in a desired way. Moreover, community comprise givers, users and research subjects of the folklore archives, which inevitably creates complex relationships; raises numerous cultural, ethical, identity questions that surround archival folklore material, its management and representation. These questions are not only extremely important today; they define what cultural heritage will be available for our successors tomorrow.
I will discuss these questions on the example of the Ukrainian Folklore Archives. Being part of the research centre at the University of Alberta, at the same time, it exists to a great extent due to generosity of Ukrainian Canadian community. As folklore archivists, we are constantly juggling our interest in the study of cultural expressions with the community's desire to preserve old and authentic traditions, with the struggles of North American academia with regard to the arts education, with our own search for identity as we position folklore archives within broader archival community, being advocates of folklore archives even within our own discipline of folkloristics.
Liina Saarlo (Estonian Literary Museum)
Paper short abstract:
Concentrating on contextual data of fieldwork in Kodavere, the runo song heritage recording process and the creation of textual corpus are observed; different recording strategies and policies are analyzed along with researcher-informant relations.
Paper long abstract:
Kodavere is a parish in the county of Tartumaa, Eastern Estonia, located on the border of northern and southern Estonian language and song regions. The runo song (regilaul) heritage of Kodavere is undoubtedly extraordinary and also rather methodically recorded. The corpus of runo songs of Kodavere was published in 2014 as an academic publication "Vana Kannel. Kodavere regilaulud" (Monumenta Estoniae Antiquae: Estonum Carmina Popularia).
The earliest runo song collection from Kodavere was probably written down by reverend Everth and published in 1825. The last runo songs were digitally recorded in 1997.
Focus of the paper is on the heritage recording process that has continued for almost 200 years, as well as on the creation of textual corpus.
Earlier field trips were mainly conducted by students and enthusiasts, stipendiaries of various cultural/national societies and organisations, e.g. Koik & Härms in 1887, Liiv & Raja in 1905, Simson in 1920, and Ariste in 1929; later field-work was conducted by professional researchers, e.g. Mägi in 1947, Tampere, Niinemägi et al in 1954-1955, Oras & Saarlo in 1997.
Concentrating on contextual data of field work, like logs, diaries, notes, maps etc, the differences in recording strategies and policies are analyzed along with relations between researchers, their subjects and other local people, eventually having an impact on recording results. Compendiously, to what extent did recording and archiving policies of 19th and 20th centuries impact substantially the runo song corpus of 21st century.
Charlotte Hagstrom (Lund University)
Paper short abstract:
The paper discuss the knowledge produced through open-ended questionnaires from various periods, the problems and advantages in combining material collected with different intentions, and how questionnaires through content, form and themes reflect the research focus and its’ changes over the years.
Paper long abstract:
Open-ended questionnaires have been used by the Folklife Archives for collecting information since 1932. The intention was originally to explore differences, similarities and possible connections between separate regions. The informants were representatives of their local communities and their role was to record the traditions and beliefs in the area, guided by the questionnaires. Their personal thoughts and experiences were thus not of interest. It was also mainly the past that were in focus.
In the 1970's this began to change and questions could be directed towards both individual practices and present day situations. Today the focus is precisely on the informants' own experiences. The questionnaires often involve questions about the past but from an individual point of view: the informant is expected to relate the narrative of the present day situation to memories of how it used to be in youth or childhood.
Today the archive has some 130 regular informants who receive 2-3 questionnaires every year. The topics are selected based on requests by researchers who want to use the material in on going or planned projects, or by the archivists for documentation of a phenomenon or a condition. In this paper I will discuss the knowledge produced through questionnaires from various periods, the problems and advantages in combining material collected with different intentions, and how the questionnaires through their content, form and themes reflect the research focus and its' changes over the years. My discussion is based on my work both as an archivist and a researcher.
Line Grønstad (University of Bergen)
Paper short abstract:
The tradition archives are grappling with the translation of a paper based method to the digital revolution. In the paper the present day situation of tradition archives as well as their future plans will be explored through the analysis of a questionnaire distributed the spring of 2015.
Paper long abstract:
Several papers, articles, anthologies and Ph.D. thesis's deal with various aspects of history, activities and future prospects of the tradition archives but an overview of the different archives seem to be lacking. We are in the middle of the so-called digital revolution where we try to make sense of our methodology, our material and duties that may or may not include a general access for the public, in light of new technologies and new (and old?) challenges. At this point it can be valuable to look at where we are, learn what others are doing, and to see if we are in fact grappling with the same issues.
During the spring of 2015 a questionnaire will be distributed to the active tradition archives in the Nordic and Baltic region mapping the present day situation. Questions include plans and hopes and ideas for the future as well as descriptions of status quo. This paper offers an overview of the results from the questionnaire. The aim is to provide grounds for thinking ahead, operating together and strengthening our field of methodology, that is, if the responses show that the archives see an active future ahead.