Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The footprint and the stepping foot: archival records, evidence, and time

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Archival Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper provides an analysis of the archival concepts of “record” and “evidence” as socio-cultural constructs arising out of a particular view of time. Archival records are usually characterized as having certain relationships to evidence in its temporal aspects—specifically, the requirement for a temporal disconnect between creation and use. This disconnect also necessitates a break between knowledge and the knower in which the record must be externalized and set aside from its creator in order to have “recordness”. This paper explores how Western concepts of time impact concepts of records and archival evidences and proposes an alternative framing. Since records have such power in our lives and societies, practitioners must begin to work with an expanded concept of record and sensitivity to differing time frames and worldviews. The paper proposes a new definition of “record” as an intentional, stable, semantic structure, which is used to identify three broad categories of record types, based on event-orientation or object-orientation, that are flexible enough to account for differing cultural and spiritual understandings of time.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. This paper is not fully cited in Watson et al. but it appears to be Gadek (1982).

  2. Emphasis in original.

References

  • Al-Azmeh A (2002) The coherence of the West. In: Rüsen J (ed) Western historical thinking: an intercultural debate, making sense of history: studies in historical culture and intercultural communication. Berghahn Books, New York, pp 58–64

    Google Scholar 

  • Authenticity Task Force (2005) Appendix I: Template for analysis. In: The long-term preservation of authentic electronic records: findings of the InterPARES Project. InterPARES, Vancouver. http://www.interpares.org/book/interpares_book_j_app01.pdf

  • Best A (2009) Evidence: examples and explanations, 7th edn. Aspen Publishers, Frederick

  • Biesecker BA (2006) Of historicity, rhetoric: the archive as scene of invention. Rhetor Pub Aff 9:124–131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brothman B (1993) The limits of limits: Derridean deconstruction and the archival institution. Archivaria 36:205–220

    Google Scholar 

  • Brothman B (2001) The past that archives keep: memory, history, and the preservation of archival records. Archivaria 51:48–79

    Google Scholar 

  • Buckland M (1991) Information as thing. J Am Soc Info Stud 42(5):351–360

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buckland T (2006) Dance, history, and ethnography: frameworks, sources, and identities of past and present. In: Buckland T (ed) Dancing from past to present: nation, culture, identities. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, pp 3–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Cardin M (2001) Archives in 3D. Archivaria 51:112–136

    Google Scholar 

  • Cook T (2001) Fashionable nonsense or professional rebirth: postmodernism and the practice of archives. Archivaria 51:14–35

    Google Scholar 

  • Dodge B (2002) Across the great divide: archival discourse and the (Re)presentations of the past in late modern society. Archivaria 53:16–30

    Google Scholar 

  • Duranti L (1989) Diplomatics: new uses for an old science (Part II). Archivaria 29:4–17

    Google Scholar 

  • Freshwater H (2004) The allure of the archive. Poet Today 24(4):729–758

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frogner R (2010) “Innocent legal fictions”: archival Convention and the North Saanich Treaty of 1852. Archivaria 70:45–94

    Google Scholar 

  • Gadek PA (1982) Biflavonoids from the seed testa of cycadales. Pscyhochemistry 21(4):889–890

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gegeo D, Watson-Gegeo K (2001) ‘How we know’: Kwara‘ae rural villagers doing indigenous epistemology. Contemp Pac 13(1):55–88

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grimes J (1996) Concise dictionary of Indian philosophy : Sanskrit terms defined in English. State University of New York Press, Albany

    Google Scholar 

  • Ham, F G (1993) Archival Selection: a most demanding task. In: Selecting and appraising archives and manuscripts, archival fundamentals series. Society of American Archivists, Chicago, pp 1–6

  • Hardiman R (2009) En mal d’archive: postmodernist theory and recordkeeping. J Soc Archiv 30:27–44

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hedstrom, M (1998) Cohesion and chaos: the state of archival science in the United States. In: The concept of record: report from the Second Stockholm Conference on Archival Science and the Concept of Record, 30–31 May 1996, Stockholm, Sweden. Riksarkivet, Stockholm, pp 37–55

  • Henige D (2005) Historical evidence and argument. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison

    Google Scholar 

  • Higgs E (1998) Record and recordness—essences or conventions? In: The concept of record: report from the Second Stockholm Conference on Archival Science and the Concept of Record, 30-31 May 1996, Stockholm, Sweden. Riksarkivet, Stockholm, pp 101–111

  • Howell M, Prevenier W (2001) From reliable sources: an introduction to historical methods. Cornell University Press, Ithaca

    Google Scholar 

  • Jenkinson, H (1984) Reflections of an archivist. In: Daniels M, Walch T (eds) A modern archives reader: basic readings on archival theory and practice. National Archives and Records Service, U.S. General Services Administration, Washington, D.C, pp 15–21

  • Kelly, T (2006) Evidence. In: Zalta E (ed) Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. The Metaphysics Research Lab, Palo Alto. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/evidence/

  • Ketelaar, E (2000) Archivists in communion. In: Archievenblad, 10–11 presented at the XIVth International Congress on Archives of the Internation Council on Archives. International Council on Archives, Seville

  • Ketelaar, E (2002) The Archive as a time machine. In: Proceedings of the DLM-Forum 2002, Supplement VII presented at the @ccess and Preservation of Electronic Information: Best Practices and Solutions, INSAR European Archives News, Barcelona, pp 576–581. http://cf.hum.uva.nl/bai/home/eketelaar/Timemachine.doc

  • Klopfer L (2001) Oral history and archives in the New South Africa: methodological issues. Archivaria 52:100–124

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumho Tire Co. v. Carmichael, 526 U.S. 137, 119 S. Ct. 1167 (1999)

  • Lemieux V (2001) Let the ghosts speak: an empirical exploration of the “nature” of the record. Archivaria 51:81–110

    Google Scholar 

  • MacNeil H (2000) Trusting records: legal, historical and diplomatic perspectives. Kluwer, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Malkani G (1992) The temporal and the eternal. In: Prasad, H (ed) Time in Indian Philosophy: a collection of essays, Sri Garib Das Oriental Series. Sri Satguru Publications, Delhi, pp 699–707

  • McRanor S (1997) Maintaining the reliability of aboriginal oral records and their material manifestations: implications for archival practice. Archivaria 43:64–88

    Google Scholar 

  • Ong W (1969) World as view and world as event. Am Anthropol 71(4):634–647

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ortega y Gasset J (1975) Reviving the paintings. In: Silver, P (trans) Phenomenology and art. Norton, New York, pp 196–220

  • O’Toole, J (1990) Understanding archives and manuscripts. Archival fundamentals series. Society of American Archivists, Chicago

  • Perkins M (1998) Timeless cultures: the ‘dreamtime’ as colonial discourse. Time Soc 7(2–3):335–351

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pylypchuk MA (1991) The value of aboriginal records as legal evidence in Canada: an examination of sources. Archivaria 32:51–77

    Google Scholar 

  • Rekrut A (2006) Material literacy: reading records as material culture. Archivaria 60:11–37

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothstein P, Raeder M, Crump D (2007) Evidence in a nutshell, 5th edn. Thomson, St Paul

    Google Scholar 

  • Rylance K (2006) Archives and the intangible. Archivaria 62:103–119

    Google Scholar 

  • Schellenberg, T R (1984) The appraisal of modern public records. In: Daniels M, Walch T (eds) A modern archives reader: basic readings on archival theory and practice. National Archives and Records Service, U.S. General Services Administration, Washington D.C, pp 57–70

  • Schwartz J (2002) Coming to terms with photographs: descriptive standards, linguistic “othering”, and the margins of archivy. Archivaria 54:142–171

    Google Scholar 

  • Sekaquaptewa E, Washburn D (2004) They go along singing: reconstructing the Hopi past from ritual metaphors in song and image. Am Antiq 69(3):457–486

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sklar D (2006) Qualities of memory: two dances of the Tortugas fiesta, New Mexico. In: Buckland T (ed) Dancing from past to present: nation, culture, identities. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, pp 97–122

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomassen T (2001) A first introduction to archival science. Archiv Sci 1(4):373–385

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Title 28, rule 702 (2010) Federal Rules of Evidence, U.S. Code, http://www.uscourts.gov/uscourts/RulesAndPolicies/rules/2010%20Rules/Evidence.pdf

  • Upward F (2000) Modeling the continuum as paradigm shift in recordkeeping and archiving processes, and beyond—a personal reflection. Rec Manag J 10(3):115–139

    Google Scholar 

  • Upward F, McKemmish S (2001) In search of the lost tiger, by way of Sainte-Beuve: re-constructing the possibilities in ‘evidence of me’. Archiv Manuscr 29(1):22–43

    Google Scholar 

  • von Leyden W (1984) Categories of historical understanding. Hist Theor 23(1):53–77

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watson H, Yolngu Community at Yirrkala, Chambers, D (1989) Singing the land, signing the land: a portfolio of exhibits. Deakin University, Geelong

  • Watts A (1968) The wisdom of insecurity. Vintage, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Yeo G (2007) Concepts of record (1): evidence, information, and persistent representations. Am Archiv 70(2):315–343

    Google Scholar 

  • Yeo G (2008) Concepts of record (2): prototypes and boundary objects. Am Arch 71(1):118–143

    Google Scholar 

  • Yusof Z, Chell R (2000) The records life cycle: an inadequate concept for technology-generated records. Inf Dev 16(3):135–141

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zins C (2007) Conceptual approaches for defining data, information, and knowledge. J Am Soc Info Sci Technol 58(4):479–493

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Frank Upward and Anne Gilliland for their feedback on the early stages of this work. The author is deeply indebted for the thoughtful and insightful guidance of the anonymous reviewers who helped clarify and strengthen the paper’s arguments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Northwest Quadrant, 3550, PO Box 413, Milwaukee, WI, 53211, USA

    Kimberly Anderson

Authors
  1. Kimberly Anderson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kimberly Anderson.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Anderson, K. The footprint and the stepping foot: archival records, evidence, and time. Arch Sci 13, 349–371 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-012-9193-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-012-9193-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation