Archival Documents and Oral History - Essay Example

Running Head: Archival Documents and Oral History. Archival Documents and Oral History Customer’s Name: Customer’s Course: Tutor’s Name: Archival documents and Oral history are sources of history data. What are some of the advantages and disadvantages linked to this historiographical method? Introduction. History have been of importance to human from generation to generation. Definition of human can’t be significant without getting to the history. For that and other reasons, history has brought the need to be recorded. History recording was mainly done in the form of myth, legends and narratives among others. Currently, such methods are still used to preserve history by different communities and historians although they have been regarded unreliable due to modernization and modification of the historical data recording(Howell and Prevenier, 2001). The modification has significantly created better storage and source of historical data. This is particularly in reference to archival documents or materials and oral history. Under government ministries and the act of parliament, countries and communities have been able to establish national archives. The archives store and retrieve past data in published or written forms for the public. Documents stored in the are mainly government related and also communities past governance. On the other edge, oral history as a source of historical data is based on documentation or storing of words of the mouth(Breisach, 2007). This is mainly done through interviews which are later documented and published for the public in archives using modernized and safe means. The two historiographical methods has provided better means of past data preservation despite the fact that historians and researchers have regarded the two methods as not being absolutely efficient. In a way, the historians and the researchers have created a basis for evaluation of the two historiographical methods on advantages and their disadvantages. Advantages of archival documents and oral history. Archival documents are of a form of archival materials besides archival books and photographic materials. Archival documents and oral history form part of the revolution in modernization of sources of historical data having moved from myths and legends method to such. For this reason, archival documents and oral history sources of past data are associated with many advantages. Archival documents which happens to main on government documents and governance is a safe way to protect and preserve such past historical data since they are stored in public archive to provide information and reference on relevant interested parties such as researchers, current and future governors or politicians. The archival documents are usually original and thereby represent true facts which would be applied in different areas for information and also for references where historical data on past governance is of importance in a particular decision. Moreover, the archival documents has facilitated in the improved student’s understanding in history as the education systems moves from being entirely theoretical to practical. The students are able to absorb better the contents of the archival documents in mind after observation through the national archives than through theory practice(Howell and Prevenier, 2001). The same has helped students in specialized careers such as political science in acquiring knowledge in a great way. For that reason, students has been transformed to researchers where they reveal more information. The document has therefore facilitated to the understanding of the relation between the past governance and the current governance situation . They are able to get the cause and effects of past government acts and documents. Oral history uses words of the mouth through interviews to people directed to a certain aspect of history. Though the level of integrity matters history aspect matters, oral history is bound to be rated among the best sources of past historical data. Oral history has reached history sources that otherwise would have never been discovered. This is because oral history has been able to source out data from individuals who were socially oppressed and neglected. These individuals are women, indigenous people, migrants, workers and even children at the time of the historical event. Through this act, oral history has brought integration and appreciation of such people in the society. Prominent people and also the oppressed has therefore been a source of oral history data that has been collected and recorded from their memories bringing into conclusion that oral history is not a discriminative past data source(Breisach, 2007). In the current globalized world, oral history and archival documents has proved effective in the recording and documentation of past in formation. Digital revolution has neglected and lost past information towards history data preservation due to the digitalization of communication to use of internet and telephone. The digitalized communication does in a way record but does not make the information available to future generation as opposed to oral history and archival documents. Archival documents are placed in national archives which makes the data in them available to the making them reliable. By the fact that archival documents are readily collected, using the documents is more advantageous in reference to time saving, energy and money saving in comparison with other sources of history. Oral history as a source of history has been a link between the privileged and the under privileged in the society apart from having integrated individuals in the society(Breisach, 2007). This is because researchers and students have actively reached to the grass roots to extract information making the people feel appreciated and also able to appreciate the students and the researchers in return. Together with the interaction, students and researchers have been able to ask question in and out of their area of study and finding the relation between various events and through such forums and interviews, they are able to acquire a mass range of information as opposed to other means. Oral history has also reached areas of information that expresses feelings, individual experiences, expectations and interpretations of certain events from individuals in the past. Globalization and technology has made oral history a reliable source of history as invention of audio and visual recording techniques has raised the reliability of oral history data. This is because the interviews made by students and researchers on history have been filmed or recorded not only in paper work but also in audio and visual means. By such means of oral history, people can be able to understand past events effect as feelings such as happiness, grief or pain are better expressed by non-verbal skills in such interlinked interviews(Howell and Prevenier, 2001). Oral history and archival documents have been able to present and preserve culture. Most interviews happens to be directed to culture of certain people and communities in areas of decisions, taboos, beliefs and also governance. This makes it possible for the communities preserve culture and future generations are able to get guidelines and culture from the two historiographical methods. Oral history researchers and students tend to time their interviews in times of cultural events and rituals making oral history as the main contributory in preservation of culture. Archival documents happens to exist in original form more frequently thus ensuring real facts utilization as and certainty in them as a source of historical data. These makes the archival documents reliable to the public and other interested parties(Breisach, 2007). The documents are often accompanied with other references such as archival photographs on events of such documents signing and sealing. These increases the reliability of archival documents and archival materials at large. The use of archival documents is more certain and cheap that even in cases where the participants are dead, the information required is still available in the documents. The documents can also be used as evidences or during crucial decisions. This is because they may have contents on particular governmental transactions and contracts for legal, financial and administrative purposes. For that reason, the government has a duty to safeguard preserve the archival documents. Disadvantages of Archival documents and Oral history Archival documents and oral are bound to be associated with a number of disadvantages. This has been facilitated by research done on them by historians, researchers and students. The advantages discussed earlier are linked to the comparison to traditional methods i.e. myths and legends. Historians and researchers have rendered the two historiographical methods as not having absolute effectiveness. The lack of absolute effectiveness in archival documents and oral history reflects on the disadvantages associated with them. Oral history as a source of historical data is said to be one man’s view. This is because interviews are mostly done on one person especially on prominent people(Breisach, 2007) . At times, researchers and students direct their interviews on prominent people forgetting the information that would have been collected from the grass root. The one man’s view might not be sufficient enough or adequately reliable as one cannot be certain on one man information or knowledge in regard to past historical data. This automatically renders oral history as unreliable until investigation is done on the sources of the oral history(Howell and Prevenier, 2001). Archival documents have been known to accrue loaded advantages as a source of past data. Despite of the fact, archival documents is also accompanied by some disadvantages. Mainly, the disadvantages are based on the content of the documents. The archival documents may have formats which in cases of information retrieval would require encoding and translation to standard format. The encoding and translation takes a lot of time as well as labor. The archival documents also happen to have restrictive or limited information in regard to certain study areas. The archival documents doesn’t explain or expound fully on certain events and as well they doesn’t reflect represent the entire history such events. Unless accompanied by other archival materials such as books and photographs, archival documents may often be limited in terms of exhibiting certain information such as all the participants and undocumented reports. This reduces the reliability of the archival materials(Breisach, 2007). Oral history is at times rendered as not certainly reliable as psychology renders man to have loose memory. The human memory is therefore bound to lapse in time making. For this reason, oral history may not give reliable information with absolute certainty as the interviewee may forget important facts about the subject in question. In cases of orders and sequences, the interviewees may be in a state of self contradiction thereby failing to give adequate information. Researchers and students has therefore tried to work out on the subjectivity on one man bearing in mind the lapse of memory. For this reason, researchers and students have tried to extract their information from several sources for confirmation and comparison in order to come up with reliable information(Howell and Prevenier, 2001). Perhaps that might not be the adequate solution of the lapse of memory and self contradiction. This is because various sources of oral history information will lead to contradiction of information obtained from the various persons. The contradiction makes it difficult for oral history to have absolute effectiveness. Often, oral history lacks to differentiate between information given based in personal experience and required information for the entire subject(Breisach, 2007) . In this case, part of the information may be rendered important to the subject in question while part of it may still be considered useless in regard to the oral history as a source of past data in a specific area. This will automatically render oral history as not informational resourceful. Unless combined with other technological recording methods, oral history as a source of past historical data might not be that effective. This is because the interviewer might not be able to record or capture information from interviewees non-verbal communication. Facial expressions and gestures expressing happiness, grief and pain might not be well captured in researchers final work. Interviewees altitude may determine the level of integrity in the information extracted by the researcher during the interview. The interviewee may unfortunately think of what the researcher wants to extract from him and give him the same instead of giving real facts. At times the interviewee may not be sincere enough in giving information in regard to certain personal matters and unethical issues such as rape violence and assault(Howell and Prevenier, 2001). For this reason, oral history is disadvantaged in regard to giving information on areas among others. Conclusion The two historiographical methods i.e. archival documents and oral history are good sources of historical data even though historians and researchers have rendered them as not having absolute efficiency and certainty. The disadvantages associated with both are outweighed by the advantages accrued in using them as sources of history(Breisach, 2007) . A main concern rises in that with both archival documents and oral history together with some technological input, one is bound to obtain reliable past data. References Breisach Ernst. (2007). Historiography: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. United States. University of Chicago Press. Howell, M and Prevenier, W. (2001). From Reliable Sources: An Introduction to Historical Methods. New Hampshire. Cornell University Pr. Ernst Breisach (Author) › Visit Amazon's Ernst Breisach Page Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author Are you an author? Learn about Author Central Read More