Latin American indigenous populations are fragile human miracles, trying to survive and perpetuate their menaced cultural heritage and way of life -including more than 250 languages- under the pressure of a predominantly Euro-American society. Their traditional knowledge is the product of centuries of experiences, and is mainly transmitted through oral and artistic expressions, unstable means mainly based on the correct use of memory.
The collection of oral tradition and its management in libraries and archives is not widely spread in Latin America, even if there are some previous experiences on this issue. Oral-archiving techniques and tools have been highly developed and used with other social sectors all around the continent, but native peoples have been longly neglected or even forgotten. Meanwhile, with every old person who dies in the aboriginal communities, a whole library just vanishes.
This paper is aimed at presenting a brief introduction to oral archives and indigenous knowledge in Latin America, emphasizing the urgent necessity of designing stronger and wider research policies for libraries, universities and governmental institutions. The author also presents some ideas and proposals, based in his own work (2002-2005) developing a network of libraries with sound collections in indigenous communities in northern Argentina.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/209311 |
| Date | 07 1900 |
| Creators | Civallero, Edgardo |
| Contributors | UDC Consortium |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | Spanish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article |
| Relation | http://redalyc.uaemex.mx/pdf/161/16172507.pdf |
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