Archives
- LAST REVIEWED: 23 March 2023
- LAST MODIFIED: 23 March 2023
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199766567-0198
- LAST REVIEWED: 23 March 2023
- LAST MODIFIED: 23 March 2023
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199766567-0198
Introduction
Archives and archival studies have an increasingly high profile within anthropology. The term gets used to cover several different fields: in theory it is used to talk about how governments control their populations, including by controlling what sort of history gets written (Derrida 1995 cited under Key Monographs), and generalizing from this, also by controlling how the population thinks about the past and future and about political alternatives (see Foucault 2002 cited under Key Monographs). At a more specific level, one focused more on particulars, archives have become the focus of research in historical anthropology and memory (though the parallel between archives and memory is itself questionable). See the separate Oxford Bibliographies article “Memory.” Studies are now being undertaken of how archives are created and how archivists do their work on the basis of parallels with museum studies. See the separate Oxford Bibliographies article “Museum Anthropology.” Digital archives enable new forms of research, although some and perhaps even most of the conceptual issues around them as archives are in fact the same as for analogue archives, and the digital exponents (who no longer warrant being called pioneers) risk ignoring important precedents and having to relearn the same lessons as their predecessors. The term “archives” can identify the repositories of material (buildings, suites of rooms, or a web address) and the materials contained therein. There is often slippage between these two senses, and some authors pit them against each other. Professional archivists usually discuss “an archives”: the word is plural (because one building/website contains many files). By contrast, theorists who use the idea of records in an extended (metaphorical) sense, following Foucault 2002 and Derrida 1995 (both cited under Key Monographs), discuss the singular “archive,” often with a definite article, so we have “the archive” and sometimes even “the Archive.”
Journals
Many anthropological journals regularly include articles that rely on archival materials or discuss more theoretical issues concerning the archive, often when talking about history and memory. The specialist journals particularly cater to historians and archivists but very often include articles of relevance to anthropologists as well as some special issues dedicated to topics such as nonstandard or indigenous archives. Other relevant titles are included under the Journals heading in the separate Oxford Bibliographies article “Museum Anthropology.” Of the specialist journals, Archival Science has an explicitly global remit, unlike Archivaria, with a Canadian focus, and Archives and Manuscripts, which concentrates on Australia. Both, however, have published important papers about decolonization and the creation of indigenous archives of general significance. Collections is different in that it makes connections between both museums and archives, which all too often are considered separately. Gradhiva: Revue d’anthropologie et d’histoire des arts is predominantly in French; this journal and its English-language counterpart, History and Anthropology, are the main anthropological journals publishing on archival matters. Vestiges: Traces of Record is a new journal publishing in English and French that includes both theoretical discussions and detailed case studies of archival material.
Archival Science: International Journal on Recorded Information. 2001–.
Archival Science has an explicitly global remit and publishes articles about archives in many different parts of the world. See, for example, the special issue Whatley and Brown 2009 (cited under Key Collections). Available online by subscription.
Archivaria: The Journal of the Association of Canadian Archivists. 1975–.
Archivaria has a Canadian focus. It has published important papers about decolonization and the creation of indigenous archives; see also Archives and Manuscripts. Available online by subscription.
Archives and Manuscripts: The Journal of the Australian Society of Archivists. 1955–.
Although explicitly concentrating on Australasia, it publishes on archival matters around the world, and has included important papers on Aboriginal archives. Available online by subscription.
Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals. 2004–.
Although aimed at those working in the institutions in question rather than at researchers using them, this has the advantage of bridging museums and archives, which all too often are considered separately when they should be taken together. Available online by subscription.
Gradhiva: Revue d’anthropologie et d’histoire des arts. 2005–.
Originally established as Gradhiva: Revue d’histoire et d’archives de l’anthropologie in 1986. The name and emphasis changed when the new series was launched in 2005, but even the new series includes many titles that use archival materials or relate to archive studies.
History and Anthropology. 1984–.
This is the main anthropological journal that regularly covers archival issues. Available online by subscription.
Vestiges: Traces of Record. 2015–.
A relatively new gold (no-fee) open access journal created after a workshop in Cameroon. It has a particular focus on research using archives in Africa but will consider papers about any region. It takes a very wide definition of archives including archaeology and art history. Recent issues have included monograph-length special issues and the republication and translation of a Hausa-language history text from northern Nigeria. The Vestiges website has made available other previously inaccessible texts.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Africa, Anthropology of
- Aging
- Agriculture
- Animal Cultures
- Animal Ritual
- Animal Sanctuaries
- Anorexia Nervosa
- Anthropocene, The
- Anthropological Activism and Visual Ethnography
- Anthropology and Education
- Anthropology and Theology
- Anthropology, Degrowth and
- Anthropology of Corruption
- Anthropology of Islam
- Anthropology of Kurdistan
- Anthropology of the Senses
- Anthrozoology
- Antiquity, Ethnography in
- Applied Anthropology
- Archaeobotany
- Archaeological Education
- Archaeologies of Sexuality
- Archaeology
- Archaeology and Museums
- Archaeology and Political Evolution
- Archaeology and Race
- Archaeology and the Body
- Archaeology, Gender and
- Archaeology, Global
- Archaeology, Historical
- Archaeology, Indigenous
- Archaeology of Childhood
- Archaeology of the Senses
- Archives
- Art Museums
- Art/Aesthetics
- Autoethnography
- Bakhtin, Mikhail
- Bass, William M.
- Beauty
- Belief
- Benedict, Ruth
- Binford, Lewis
- Bioarchaeology
- Biocultural Anthropology
- Bioethics
- Biological and Physical Anthropology
- Biological Citizenship
- Boas, Franz
- Bone Histology
- Bureaucracy
- Business Anthropology
- Cancer
- Capitalism
- Cargo Cults
- Caribbean
- Caste
- Charles Sanders Peirce and Anthropological Theory
- Childhood Studies
- Christianity, Anthropology of
- Citizenship
- Class, Archaeology and
- Clinical Trials
- Cobb, William Montague
- Code-switching and Multilingualism
- Cognitive Anthropology
- Cole, Johnnetta
- Colonialism
- Commodities
- Consumerism
- Crapanzano, Vincent
- Cultural Heritage Presentation and Interpretation
- Cultural Heritage, Race and
- Cultural Materialism
- Cultural Relativism
- Cultural Resource Management
- Culture
- Culture and Personality
- Culture, Popular
- Curatorship
- Cyber-Archaeology
- Dalit Studies
- Dance Ethnography
- de Heusch, Luc
- Deaccessioning
- Design
- Design, Anthropology and
- Diaspora
- Digital Anthropology
- Digital Nomads
- Disability and Deaf Studies and Anthropology
- Douglas, Mary
- Drake, St. Clair
- Dreaming
- Durkheim and the Anthropology of Religion
- Economic Anthropology
- Embodied/Virtual Environments
- Embodiment
- Emotion, Anthropology of
- Environmental Anthropology
- Environmental Justice
- Environmental Justice and Indigeneity
- Ethics
- Ethnoarchaeology
- Ethnocentrism
- Ethnographic Documentary Production
- Ethnographic Films from Iran
- Ethnography
- Ethnography Apps and Games
- Ethnohistory and Historical Ethnography
- Ethnomusicology
- Ethnoscience
- Europe
- Evans-Pritchard, E. E.
- Evolution, Cultural
- Evolutionary Cognitive Archaeology
- Evolutionary Theory
- Experimental Archaeology
- Federal Indian Law
- Feminist Anthropology
- Film, Ethnographic
- Folklore
- Food
- Forensic Anthropology
- Francophonie
- Frazer, Sir James George
- Geertz, Clifford
- Gender
- Gender and Religion
- Gene Flow
- Genetics
- Genocide
- GIS and Archaeology
- Global Health
- Globalization
- Gluckman, Max
- Graphic Anthropology
- Grass
- Haraway, Donna
- Healing and Religion
- Health and Social Stratification
- Health Policy, Anthropology of
- Health, Race and
- Heritage Language
- HIV/AIDS
- House Museums
- Human Adaptability
- Human Evolution
- Human Rights
- Human Rights Films
- Humanistic Anthropology
- Hurston, Zora Neale
- Identity
- Identity Politics
- India, Masculinity, Identity
- Indigeneity
- Indigenous Boarding School Experiences
- Indigenous Economic Development
- Indigenous Media: Currents of Engagement
- Industrial Archaeology
- Institutions
- Interpretive Anthropology
- Intertextuality and Interdiscursivity
- Kinship
- Laboratories
- Landscape Archaeology
- Language and Emotion
- Language and Law
- Language and Media
- Language and Race
- Language and Urban Place
- Language Contact and its Sociocultural Contexts, Anthropol...
- Language Ideology
- Language Socialization
- Leakey, Louis
- Legal Anthropology
- Legal Pluralism
- Levantine Archaeology
- Liberalism, Anthropology of
- Linguistic Anthropology
- Linguistic Relativity
- Linguistics, Historical
- Literacy
- Literary Anthropology
- Local Biologies
- Lévi-Strauss, Claude
- Magic
- Malinowski, Bronisław
- Margaret Mead, Gregory Bateson, and Visual Anthropology
- Maritime Archaeology
- Marriage
- Material Culture
- Materiality
- Mathematical Anthropology
- Matriarchal Studies
- Mead, Margaret
- Media Anthropology
- Medical Activism
- Medical Anthropology
- Medical Technology and Technique
- Mediterranean
- Memory
- Mendel, Gregor
- Mental Health and Illness
- Mesoamerican Archaeology
- Mexican Migration to the United States
- Migration
- Militarism, Anthropology and
- Missionization
- Mobility
- Modernity
- Morgan, Lewis Henry
- Multimodal Ethnography
- Multispecies Ethnography
- Museum Anthropology
- Museum Education
- Museum Studies
- Myth
- NAGPRA and Repatriation of Native American Human Remains a...
- Narrative in Sociocultural Studies of Language
- Nationalism
- Needham, Rodney
- Neoliberalism
- NGOs, Anthropology of
- Niche Construction
- Northwest Coast, The
- Object-Based Teaching and Learning in the University with ...
- Oceania, Archaeology of
- Paleolithic Art
- Paleontology
- Performance Studies
- Performativity
- Personhood
- Perspectivism
- Philosophy of Museums
- Pilgrimage
- Plantations
- Political Anthropology
- Postprocessual Archaeology
- Postsocialism
- Poverty, Culture of
- Primatology
- Primitivism and Race in Ethnographic Film: A Decolonial Re...
- Processual Archaeology
- Psycholinguistics
- Psychological Anthropology
- Public Archaeology
- Public Sociocultural Anthropologies
- Race
- Religion
- Religion and Post-Socialism
- Religious Conversion
- Repatriation
- Reproductive and Maternal Health in Anthropology
- Reproductive Technologies
- Rhetoric Culture Theory
- Rural Anthropology
- Sahlins, Marshall
- Sapir, Edward
- Scandinavia
- Science Studies
- Secularization
- Semiotics
- Settler Colonialism
- Sex Estimation
- Sexuality
- Shamanism
- Sign Language
- Skeletal Age Estimation
- Social Anthropology (British Tradition)
- Social Movements
- Socialization
- Society for Visual Anthropology, History of
- Socio-Cultural Approaches to the Anthropology of Reproduct...
- Sociolinguistics
- Sound Ethnography
- Space and Place
- Stable Isotopes
- Stan Brakhage and Ethnographic Praxis
- Structuralism
- Studying Up
- Sub-Saharan Africa, Democracy in
- Surrealism and Anthropology
- Technological Organization
- Tourism
- Trans Studies in Anthroplogy
- Transhumance
- Transnationalism
- Tree-Ring Dating
- Turner, Edith L. B.
- Turner, Victor
- University Museums
- Urban Anthropology
- Value
- Violence
- Virtual Ethnography
- Visual Anthropology
- Whorfian Hypothesis
- Willey, Gordon
- Witchcraft
- Wolf, Eric R.
- Writing Culture
- Youth Culture
- Zoonosis
- Zora Neale Hurston and Visual Anthropology