登录查看更多内容

How can oral history sources improve historical research?

由人工智能和领英社区提供技术支持

How can oral history sources improve historical research? If you are interested in exploring the past from different perspectives, oral history can be a valuable and enriching method. Oral history is the collection and interpretation of spoken memories and personal experiences of individuals and groups. It can reveal insights, emotions, and meanings that are not always captured by written documents or official records. In this article, you will learn how oral history sources can enhance your historical research skills and contribute to a more diverse and inclusive understanding of the past.

此文章中的业界达人

由社区从 8 条内容中精选。了解更多

1 What is oral history?

Oral history is not just a collection of interviews or anecdotes. It is a rigorous and ethical practice that involves careful planning, preparation, recording, transcription, analysis, and preservation of oral sources. Oral historians follow certain principles and guidelines to ensure the quality, reliability, and validity of their sources. They also respect the rights, interests, and wishes of their interviewees, who are considered as co-creators of historical knowledge. Oral history is not a substitute for other sources, but a complement that can enrich and challenge existing narratives.

添加您的观点

Alex Godden

A303 Stonehenge Senior Heritage Officer
举报内容
I made extensive use of oral history and traditions when researching both my undergraduate and Masters theses and found them to be essential in understanding how communities connect to and interpret places, often providing interpretations and histories that are overlooked. In my opinion, this is particularly relevant when compiling 'life histories' of archaeological sites and monuments, as oral accounts will often provide complementary information and even explanations for physical activities found in the archaeological record. It also contributes to the 'story' of a site, that can often provide additional narratives and illustrate cultural attitudes through time.

已翻译

赞
C. P. Kumar

Spiritual Healer (Former Scientist 'G' at National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee)
举报内容
Oral history sources enhance historical research by providing firsthand accounts and personal perspectives, offering insights into lived experiences that may not be documented elsewhere. These narratives contribute to a more nuanced understanding of events, cultures, and societal changes. Additionally, oral histories can fill gaps in the historical record, capturing diverse voices and perspectives that traditional written sources might overlook. Integrating oral history sources can thus enrich and humanize historical narratives.

已翻译

赞
Robert Bracey

Researcher and Historical Blogger
举报内容
Oral history is and always has been a part of historical study. When you sit down to read the critical edition of the Mahabharata, or a Penguin translation of the Iliad, you are not just engaging with a text. That literary product preserves a story-telling practice much older than its date of composition. Understanding the layers of memory and reflection in that oral culture to saying anything meaningful about the literary product. Today historians recognise how central oral cultures are even to textual products and oral history projects are frequently undertaken to capture and preserve what might otherwise be lost - folk tales, experiences of marginalised people, even the elements people in literate societies leave 'unwritten'.

已翻译

赞

2 Why use oral history sources?

Oral history sources can offer many advantages for historical research. They can provide access to perspectives that are often unheard, such as women, minorities, refugees, activists, and everyday people. Oral history can also capture the range of values, beliefs, emotions, motivations, and challenges of different lives and societies. Furthermore, oral history can explore topics and themes that are not well documented or understood by other sources, like culture, identity, memory, trauma, resistance, and change. Moreover, oral history can bring to light the context and significance of historical events and processes. Lastly, oral history can facilitate dialogue between researchers and participants as well as between different generations and cultures.

添加您的观点

Akosua Akuoko, MA

Political Science Professional with Extensive Human Rights Knowledge l Columbia University Alumni I Migrant Forum in Asia Campaign Manager l
(已编辑)
举报内容
Oral history for minority populations can be a conduit to comprehend cultural heritage, historical events, and societal dynamics, pushing against narratives typically written from a dominant, often white, perspective. It supplements other research methods by offering a holistic view rooted in the lived experiences of those historically marginalized. By embracing oral history, these communities can reclaim agency in shaping their narratives, ensuring the preservation and dissemination of their unique cultural, social, and historical contributions.

已翻译

赞
Juan Marquez

Bachelor of Law / Bachelor of Archaeology (First Class Honours)/University Medallist
举报内容
Oral tradition is essential to Indigenous knowledge systems, in which the transmission of customs and laws happens in a cultural context that prepares the recipient of the information to understand the multilayered metaphoric content of the message over time. This complexity contrasts with the simplicity of the written record, which can be readily accessed. The written record has been privileged over oral tradition in Western-centred knowledge systems, but including oral sources in the reconstruction of history is decolonising and essential to social justice. However, the voices of Indigenous peoples and knowledge carriers must be heard in their own right without reinventing their ideas with a Western scientific rendering of meaning.

已翻译

赞
Ricardo Darío Primo

Prof. de Historia- Licenciado en Tecnología Educativa. Integrante del Nodo de Investigadores de Ciudades Portuarias Regionales IDEHESI CONICET
举报内容
La historia oral puede contribuir al enriquecimiento de una mirada micro, más fresca y humana de los acontecimientos sociales, políticos y económicos de una sociedad. Pero su empleo requiere la atención de que este relato responde a vivencias subjetivas y que estas fuentes deben ser corroboradas y analizadas para desentra?ar la mara?a de intereses que representan.

已翻译

赞

3 How to find oral history sources?

Oral history sources can be found in various places and formats, such as archives and libraries, museums and heritage sites, oral history projects and organizations, and even through conducting your own interviews. For example, many institutions have oral history collections that are available online or in person; some museums and heritage sites have oral history exhibits or programs; there are many oral history projects and organizations that focus on specific subjects, regions, or groups; and if you cannot find oral history sources that suit your research needs, you can create your own by conducting oral history interviews. However, this requires careful planning, preparation, and execution, as well as ethical and legal considerations.

添加您的观点

4 How to analyze oral history sources?

Analyzing oral history sources requires critical thinking, creativity, and sensitivity. To do so, you must contextualize your oral sources within their historical, social, and cultural contexts. This includes researching the background and biography of your interviewees, as well as the events and issues they discuss. It is also important to compare and contrast your oral sources with other oral sources and other types of sources. You must look for similarities and differences, consistencies and inconsistencies, agreements and disagreements, and patterns and variations. Additionally, you should interpret and communicate your oral sources in a clear, coherent, and convincing way. You must identify the main themes, messages, and meanings of your oral sources. Moreover, it is necessary to acknowledge the limitations, biases, and ethical issues of your oral sources while properly citing them.

添加您的观点

5 How to use oral history sources ethically?

Oral history sources are not merely data or information; they are expressions of human dignity and agency. Furthermore, these sources are living and dynamic, as they can change over time and in different contexts. Consequently, using oral history sources ethically requires respect, responsibility, and reciprocity. Respect for interviewees is essential; you must treat them as equal partners and collaborators in your historical research. Listen to their stories attentively and empathetically without imposing your own agenda or judgment. Additionally, you must protect their privacy, confidentiality, and safety, and follow their consent and preferences regarding the use and dissemination of their oral sources. Respect for your audience is also necessary; present your oral sources and findings accurately, honestly, and accessibly without distorting or misrepresenting them. Invite feedback from your audience and acknowledge their views and concerns. Lastly, respect for your profession is paramount; adhere to the standards and codes of conduct of oral history practice, such as the Oral History Association's Principles and Best Practices. Moreover, contribute to the advancement of oral history knowledge by sharing your experiences with other oral historians.

添加您的观点

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

添加您的观点

olivia-jeanne/ OliJane COHEN

Docteur ès-Lettres,Chevalier des Palmes Académiques,agent de l’état (ministère), écrivain,directrice d'une collection Essais,modèle,metteur en scène...écrits sur les questions d'esthétique(art,littérature...)
举报内容
Qu'appelle t-on "Histoire" et "histoire" et "oral".... Des notions à définir et à spécifier. Il n'y a pas une histoire mais la vérité du témoignage, celui, unique, individuel, joint à l'Histoire collective. Les rescapés de la Shoah, les "otages" survivants sans autre vie que celle du traumatisme et des troubles qui s'ensuivront, sont ces sources de Vérité. Sources qui éclairent, apprennent, gravent dans le c?ur et la mémoire les Mots, pour ceux qui écoutent et qui ne savaient pas ainsi, comme ?a, autant, à ce point, en dehors de tout ce qu'il croyaient conna?tre. La survivance de la Parole.

已翻译

赞
Robert Bracey

Researcher and Historical Blogger
举报内容
We often assume oral history is about capturing the experience of marginalised or illiterate groups (and there is great value in doing so) but its utility is not limited to that. In 2019 I was working on the perception of stock markets, particularly insider trading (the practice of a person buying or selling based on information that is not public). The Security and Exchange Commission in the United States conducts interviews with staff about their work when they retire. This archive is effectively an oral history of the institution. And it highlighted how staff framed insider trading in moral or ethical terms when they spoke, in contrast to textual sources which discussed it almost entirely in legalistic terms.

已翻译

赞

Research

+ 关注

给文章评分

我们借助人工智能创建了此文章。您认为这篇文章怎么样？

很棒不太好

举报此文章

查看全部

How can oral history sources improve historical research?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 What is oral history?

2 Why use oral history sources?

3 How to find oral history sources?

4 How to analyze oral history sources?

5 How to use oral history sources ethically?

6 Here’s what else to consider

Research

给文章评分

感谢您的反馈

更多Research相关文章

更多相关阅读内容

How can oral history sources improve historical research?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 What is oral history?

2 Why use oral history sources?

3 How to find oral history sources?

4 How to analyze oral history sources?

5 How to use oral history sources ethically?

6 Here’s what else to consider

Research

给文章评分

感谢您的反馈

查看其他技能