FIRST CONFERENCE

First ArchivoyMemoria Conference

Account

Set in the context of the agreement established between the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and RENFE, the Conference on Ethnographic Archives and Social Construction of Memory, organised by the CSIC’s Department of Spanish and American Anthropology and the Archivo Histórico Ferroviario (FFE), was held on 8 and 9 April at the headquarters of the Fundación de los Ferrocarriles Españoles.

The main objective of the conference consisted in discussing the methodological aspects of the creation of ethnographic archives, the latter encompassing both archives that include materials of ethnographic value and collections that bring together the primary sources that are generated when conducting research based on ethnographic fieldwork (audio and video tapes, analogue and digital photos, objects, field diaries, etc.). The conference also reflected on the role of these archives in the social construction of memory. What is preserved is what is going to form part of our social memory. We preserve what we consider most valuable, and in order to be able to assess value it is necessary to understand and analyse. Researchers usually focus on the analytical phase, but this conference sought to emphasise that closer working links with archivists, librarians and museologists can help preserve primary sources and allow them to play an active role in the social construction of memory.

After the opening of the conference, the Humanities and Social Sciences coordinator of the CSIC, Felipe Criado, presented the “Grief Archive” project, whose purpose is to document, organise, analyse and preserve the objects and messages that members of the general public left at the railway stations affected by the 11-M bombings. Reflecting the need for the academic world to give a rigorous response to society’s demand for what has been called the "memorialization" of the bombings, it aims to contribute to the construction of memory by analysing society’s manifestations of grief, in the form of the drawings, letters, poems, photographs, e-mails and a wide variety of objects that people deposited at improvised shrines at the Madrid stations. The project also seeks to ensure that the creation of this ethnographic archive gives rise to lines of research relating to the anthropology of violence, analysis of public space, group expressions, grief rituals and popular religion.

In accordance with the Conference schedule, the first two sessions dealt with ethnographic archives in Spain and the specific experience of the United States in creating ethnographic archives about the 9/11 terrorist attacks or the Vietnam War. In relation to the first topic, Montserrat Iniesta of the Museo del Vi offered a general view of the situation of Spanish ethnographic archives, and Mario Cotterau described the process of recovering and computerising the CSIC’s archive collections, especially the dissemination of personal and scientific archives. Particularly significant was the participation of Guha Shankar and Margaret Kruesi of the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress, who showed the numerous and valuable information resources contained in multi-format collections of songs, oral testimonies, music and popular traditions preserved in the Library of Congress.

Three round tables completed the Conference. The first discussed the projects connected with the recovery of memory and the Spanish Civil War, paying special attention to the Asociación para la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica (ARMH, Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory) and the audiovisual archive project “Memoria Democrática Activa” (“Active Democratic Memory”), more commonly known by its Spanish acronym MEDEA.

The second round table was introduced by the Head of Documental Heritage of the Fundación de los Ferrocarriles Españoles, Domingo Cuéllar, who explained how the Archivo Histórico Ferroviario (AHF) operates and how it has progressed since its creation in 1979. Reflecting on the role that the AHF has played over more than 25 years, special emphasis was placed on the enormous effort involved in classifying and cataloguing the documental collections, which are available through the computerised catalogue at www.docutren.com. The use of different activities for dissemination and public awareness-raising purposes was also explained, with special reference to the AHF’s new publishing venture, which has seen the publication of the collection of "Cuadernos del Archivo Histórico Ferroviario" (“Railway History Archive Notebooks”).

Tying in with the review of the AHF’s documental collections, the Head of the Archivo Histórico Ferroviario, Raquel Letón, described the collection of oral sources "LA VOZ DEL TREN" (“THE VOICE OF THE TRAIN”) http://www.ffe.es/body_orales.htm, created with the aim of incorporating the testimonies of railway-related personnel into the AHF. The first stage of this process involved cataloguing the interviews conducted with railway infrastructure workers as part of the project entitled "El trabajo en la infraestructura del ferrocarril: Una historia oral" (“Working on Railway Infrastructures: An Oral History”). This collection will shortly be expanded with the project carried out by the Programa de Historia Ferroviaria (Railway History Programme), "Historia de los poblados ferroviarios en España" (“History of Railway Towns in Spain”), which gathers together testimonies of individuals and families who grew up in population centres that emerged in connection with railway activity. Along the same archive-related line, the importance of oral sources as archive documents was stressed, as was the role that institutions play in the integration of these collections, the manner in which they are catalogued, and their accessibility.

The contribution of the members of the AHF was completed with the experience of the oral sources researcher Pilar Folguera, who reviewed the research projects carried out with Renfe employees, and that of the archivist Carmen Sierra, who analysed the importance of archives containing oral sources for the purpose of studying and investigating contemporary history, while also offering suggestions and guidelines for the preparation of future oral history projects that should form part of the “Grief Archive”.

The third and final round table considered the problems faced by the CSIC’s research team in creating the “Grief Archive”, dealing with the methodological aspects involved in creating ethnological archives, the ethnographic value of the materials, the primary sources that are generated when conducting research based on fieldwork (audio and video tapes, photographs, objects, field diaries, etc.), and how these sources will allow society to carry out future research projects based on the anthropology of violence and grief rituals.

At the end of conference, the Conclusions committee made a very general assessment of the methodological problems regarding ethnographic archives, the interesting and necessary interdisciplinary collaboration and the importance of oral sources as the focal points of future conference on these topics.

Raquel Letón Ruiz
Archivo Histórico Ferroviario
Fundación de los Ferrocarriles Españoles