The Record and Repository as a Cultural Form of Expression

Abstract

Archives appear transparent in the construction of history.When historians consult documentary records in the archive, they and their information sources are contextualized within a cultural process: the agency of the historian and the notion of a sourcelreferent are assumed.But archivists participate in a silent process that precedes this, in which an archive selects, preserves, organizes, and presents those records.Even before that, a record must be created within the course of administration or cultural production.In this closed environment, histories can only be written based on documents in the archive, and the archive is inherently dependent on documentary records being created in the first place.As archivists, we examine what informs the creation, selection, and preservation of the documentary records on which histories depend.We can also reflect on our own historicity, and the culture within archives that informs our practice.The archive is a privileged site-by definition, the legitimate place to find authenticlofficial answers about our histories.At its most noble, it is linked to serving the democratic process by preserving the public record and protecting rights.At its most benign, it is the dusty attic safely keeping nostalgic "golden oldies."The popular image of archives evokes a remarkably unchallenged level of disinterested goodwill and trust that the job is being done.Variations on the image all reflect an inherent honesty or at least a benign lack of vested interest, so that archives appear to be working neutrally, in the interests of society as a whole.Histories bear revision.Historians, through their authorship, are vulnerable to challenge about the validity of the histories they construct, while archivists are cast as messengers, and remain relatively invisible in the process.As archivists embark on awareness programmes and promote their work in order to ensure public funding and support, they are inserting archives as a visible step in the process of creating history. Archivists and ArchivesContemporary archives, as a profession, draws on patterns established during a modern rational age.The operative term is "archival science," validated upon a body of theory and practice that presumes objectivity and methodology.Rather than aligning with subjectivity or cultural expression, where diverse perspectives or individual variation are acknowledged, archivists have appropriated a professional discourse characterized by an objective approach and normalized practice, with systems and methodologies that present themselves as value-neutral "All rights reserved Archivaria 36 (Autumn 1993)

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