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A Guide to Historical Documentation in Argentina

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2022

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Preservation of written testimony is essential to the writing of history. Yet, in Latin America, historical documents, though copiously produced, have been sadly neglected and too often destroyed. What remains, then, assumes inestimable value for all historians—humanists or social scientists—for only on its basis can this hemisphere's past be reconstructed. A knowledge of the exact location and condition of material is necessary for the formulation of a reasonable historical research project; it is obviously essential to the research itself.

Type
Research Reports and Notes
Copyright
Copyright © 1975 by Latin American Research Review

Footnotes

*

Editor's Note: The Colloquium, as explained in this Report, is a group of young scholars whose precise membership changes. They maintain an office at Sarmiento 683, 8o piso, Buenos Aires.

References

Notes

1. A similar project should have resulted from Argentina's Law N°. 15,930, Article 2, Section f, “Ley Nacional de Archivos,” passed in 1961, but no action has been taken to date.

Publications of similar intent but different coverage not only reinforced the Colloquium's assessment of the importance of a guide but also helped define its scope, content, and organization. These were: Aurelio Z. Tanodi, Guía de los Archivos de Córdoba (Córdoba: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, 1968); Carl Herbold and Steve Stein, Guía Bibliográfica para la Historia Social y Política del Perú en el Siglo XX (1895-1960) (Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1971); Robert Levine, ed., Brasil: Field Research Guide in the Social Sciences (New York: Columbia University, Institute of Latin American Studies, 1966); Lino Gómez Canedo, Archivos de la Historia de América. 2 vols. (México, D.F.: Instituto Panamericano de Geografía e Historia, 1961).

Two other precedents for Latin American cultural development were influential in the initiation of the Guide project: The Organization of American States' Instituto

Panamericano de Geografía e Historia and the Regional Program for Cultural Development, and the UNESCO Microfilm Project, 1956-59.

Precedents in Argentina, in addition to the above mentioned law, include the resolutions calling for such a guide approved repeatedly at national conferences during the last fifteen years (Primera Reunión Argentina de Historia Social y Económica, Córdoba, 1963; Segundas Jornadas de Archiveros de Argentina, Córdoba, 1969; Terceras Jornadas de Archiveros de Argentina, Buenos Aires, 1971).

This Guide project, therefore, sets out to implement a task earlier called for by others.

2. Dr. Furlong, S.J., was Professor of History at the Universidad del Salvador; member, Academia Nacional de la Historia; President, Instituto Bibliográfico Antonio Zinny; a bibliographer of reknown as well as a prolific author.

Dr. Tanodi is Professor of History at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; founder and Director, Escuela de Archiveros, also at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (the only school of archivists recognized and subsidized by the Organization of American States); Representative for Latin America, Conseil International des Archives, UNESCO; member, Academia Nacional de la Historia; and, without a doubt, Argentina's leading archivist and pioneer in bringing Argentina's historians and archivists together.

Dr. García Balsunce is Professor of History at Instituto del Profesorado “Sagrado Corazón” in Buenos Aires; Director, Equipos de Investigación Histórica, an active historical research center whose members are using quantitative methods and a team approach; and member, Instituto de la Historia del Derecho.

3. Professor Ernesto J. Maeder is Director, Instituto de Historia, Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, Resistencia; member, Academia Nacional de la Historia; and member, Comisión de Historia, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Presidencia de la Nación.

4. The Guide currently functions within the financial structure of Fundación de Investigaciones Económicas Latinoamericanas, Buenos Aires.

5. Pierre Chaunu, Las Grandes Lineas de la Producción Histórica en América Latina (1950-1962) (Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela, Facultad de Humanidades y Educación, Escuela de Historia, 1965), pp. 9, 23-24.

6. This philosophy is shared by other academic programs in Latin America; for example, the Foreign Area Fellowship Program administered by the Social Science Research Council now requires its fellows to be affiliated with and participate in host country research institutions.