Re: Golden Canon
[ Home ][ Thread ][ Subject ][ Author ][ Date ]Luciana Duranti
Thu, 19 Feb 1998 16:28:30 -0800
>Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 16:22:40
>To: Danny Hillis
>From: Luciana Duranti
>Subject: Re: Golden Canon
>
>At 03:08 PM 2/19/98 -0800, you wrote:
>>
>>>Six thousand years of documentary history have proved us over and over again
>>>that such guarantee cannot be provided by the technology, but by the
>>>trustworthiness of the custodian of the documents.
>>
>>I agreed with much of your note, but I don't think I agree with this
>>statement. As far as I know there has been no custodian chain that has
>>preserved uncorrupted information for nearly that long.
>
>I did not say that there has been an uninterrupted line of custody for 6000
years. At any given time, people have been able to trust information on the
basis of who was holding it, and various lines of custody have succeded each
other. In Bologna, from the university notaries of the 12th century to the
camera actorum of the city state of the 14th century, and step by step to
the modern State Archives of Bologna as Italian province.
> Nor is there good
>>precedent for custodians remaining neutral.
>
>I would like to see what archivists worldwide have to say about this
statement. Of course nobody is ever absolutely neutral or impartial or
objective. These are relative concepts. The neutrality we are talking about
is in relation to the content of any specific document. For more than a
millennium notaries have been considered neutral parties in Europe,
Louisiana, Quebec and South America. National Archival institutions are
neutral parties.
>
>As far as I know, documents
>>that have lasted for thousands of years have generally lasted because the
>>were put on high quality materials and and becuase they were lost or
>>neglected for long periods of time.
>
>Well, allow me to disagree. Only a minority of the documents preserved for
a long time have arrived to us by accident. Even the Sumeriam archives would
not have arrived to us had not been carefully mantained in the archival
palace in their proper arrangement for a very long time. It is important to
remember that physical preservation does not preserve meaning if the
document is out of context and its relationships with the other documents
cannot be ascertained. We have plenty of evidence of the fact that documents
on long lasting materials which have not been the continuing responsibility
of some sovereign body have not been preserved, while frail papyrus can
still be read in the Vatican archives.
>
>It appears that you are talking about isolated items which should
supposedly preserve culture. I am referring to large bodies of documents
that have been maintained for many centuries in their documentary context.
We are probably talking at cross purpose.
>
>Luciana Duranti
>**********************************
>
>
Luciana Duranti Luciana Duranti
Professor Associate Dean of Arts
Master of Archival Studies (Budget Planning and Research)
School of Library, Archival Office of the Dean of Arts
and Information Studies 1866 Main Mall
#831-1956 Main Mall Buchanan B 130
The University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia
Vancouver, B.C Canada V6T 1Z1 Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6T 1Z1
home page http://www.slais.ubc.ca/users/duranti/