This dissertation explores the experiences of Egyptian peasants from the Delta province of Minufiyya who were tried for murder by newly created "native" or "national" courts between 1884 and 1914. Through the study of 2,000 pages of criminal files, I deconstruct how the colonial state used the modern techniques of judicial orality, writing, and performance, both to justify a series of reforms that turned the entire legal process into a parody of justice, and to develop a grand narrative that essentialized peasants as revengeful, greedy, and passionate and ultimately linked their alleged immorality to their illiteracy. Furthermore, my work sheds light on how peasants reacted to this process of moralization of the law by promoting the "honor of the brigand" through violence and poetry. Finally, by focusing on the many petitions contained in the judicial files, my dissertation provides new insight into the development of a "vernacular" culture of the law that betrays the peasants' awareness of the highly political nature of the legal process. By presenting and analyzing an untapped wealth of Egyptian archives produced by the native courts, this research not only sheds invaluable light on the workings and hence the very nature of British colonial justice in Egypt, but also represents a significant advance in the knowledge of the origins of Egypt's current legal system. On a more theoretical level, this study also constitutes an important contribution to the reflection on the subaltern subject initiated by Rosalind O'Hanlon and Talal Asad, by showing how the peasants' agency paradoxically lies in their "disempowerment."

This thesis explores some possible approaches to better integration of archives with communities and engagement of archives with local community development initiatives. The study suggests that innovative usage of archival material can facilitate community engagement in the knowledge-based economy and support a broad range of community economic development initiatives. Archival public programming and the need for archivists to actively engage with existing and potential users is included in the discussion. Brandon, Manitoba is used as an example of a community that could benefit from the establishment of community archives.

This thesis examines the evolution of archival theory in light of the ascendance of human rights in Western society. Archives are situated as integral instruments in the protection of human rights within a Western context due to the European preference towards written evidence and bureaucratic systems. The thesis uses a negative case study to demonstrate the power of the record in affecting the human rights of citizens, but also situates access to the government archive among human rights.

Abstract This thesis explores the important role that archivists can and have played in the expansion of Aboriginal rights in Canada. It situates and explores the roles played by British Columbia Provincial Archivist Willard E. Ireland (1914-1979) and the Provincial Archives of British Columbia in two pivotal Aboriginal rights legal cases of the 1960s and 1970s in the larger context of the relationship between Aboriginal rights and archives from the late 1800s to today, arguing that the role of archivists and archives in the pursuit of Aboriginal rights is neither passive nor neutral, and as such, deserves greater awareness and study than it has received in the past.

This thesis argues for new theoretical and methodological approaches to the viewing and description of archival photographs. Many archivists continue to focus on photographic subject content, ignoring photographs’ contexts of creation, context of later use and the multiple ways photographs can be viewed. The thesis first charts the implications of postmodernist viewpoints on archival records generally. It then traces, in the context of the Canadian archival community, the gradual spread of a postmodernist regard for photographs specifically. The thesis then draws on the theories and methodologies of a range of other disciplines to suggest fresh approaches to the viewing and description of photographs. It applies these suggestions to a series of photograph albums held by the Archives of Manitoba. These applied suggestions reveal that photographs are richer archival sources when considered as evidence of both creator and viewer intent rather than as transparent windows onto the past.

Curling is an important part of the Canadian cultural landscape, and nowhere is this more evident than in Manitoba. However, the documentation of curling records within archival repositories in the province has occurred without a strategic plan. This thesis first explores the modern archival appraisal theories and then proposes an appraisal model that utilizes a combination of the documentation strategy and macroappraisal in order to develop a strategy for the documentation of curling in Manitoba. Using this model, this thesis first examines the historical and contemporary context of Canadian sport in order to determine curling’s place within it, and then identifies five key functions of curling in order to evaluate, using function-based appraisal methodologies, the quality of the records that have been collected in archival repositories. The functions, structures, and records of two urban curling clubs and one rural curling club in Manitoba are then examined as case studies, and an appraisal strategy is suggested in order to better ensure that the records documenting curling in Manitoba are preserved. This strategy can be used as a template not only for appraising the records of curling, but for all sports.

This thesis examines records created through diplomatic activities and considers approaches to their archival description, using those created by the Canadian Department of External Affairs in the 1920s as a case study. The objective of the thesis is to explore the history of this record genre with a focus on how archivists can provide users with access to more authentic and meaningful diplomatic records. Chapter One will provide a broad overview history of the diplomatic genre as well as the place of such contextual knowledge about the creation and characteristics of these records. Chapter Two will introduce a key strategy that archives can implement to more effectively relay contextual knowledge to archival users through the function of description. Chapter Three will then introduce a case study, building upon the approach identified in Chapter Two, and based on Canada’s Department of External Affairs in the 1920s.

This thesis considers the problem of the representation of individual institutional textual records in archival research tools. While document studies in academic journals point to the value of focussed consideration of various types of records, archives do not have the resources to apply such focus to every item in their holdings, even though these convey the information sought by many researchers. Over the last century, archivists have emphasized description of groups of records, because this provides insight into the context in which documents exist and immense quantities involved left little choice. Recent developments, however, suggest the individual document should be re-visited. This thesis focuses on how formal descriptive systems might be enhanced to allow closer consideration of individual institutional textual records. It reviews the history of description, explores benefits to researchers seeking information from particular documents (e.g. the will) and explores tools created in response, such as contextual authority files.

This thesis explores why the Public Archives of Canada, which was established in 1872, did not have the full authority or capability to collect the government records of Canada until 1966. The Archives started as an institution focused on collecting historical records, and for decades was largely indifferent to protecting government records. Royal Commissions, particularly those that reported in 1914 and 1962 played a central role in identifying the problems of records management within the growing Canadian civil service. Changing notions of archival theory were also important, as was the influence of professional academics, particularly those historians mandated to write official wartime histories of various federal departments. This thesis argues that the Second World War and the Cold War finally motivated politicians and bureaucrats to address records concerns that senior government officials had first identified during the time of Sir Wilfrid Laurier.

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1994. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-45).