Articles

Ethnicity as Provenance: In Search of Values and Principles for Documenting the Immigrant Experience

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Abstract

This article adds to a recent strand of archival literature that challenges traditional definitions of the principle of provenance by extending it to encompass ethnic communities. Understanding cultural groupings as a manifestation of provenance has several ramifications for archival work. It can assist archivists in overcoming the historical tendency of filiopiestic approaches to documenting ethnic groups and can help to overcome oversimplified conceptions of cultural diversity. Perhaps most notably, it calls into question the conventional archival values of ownership and custody. The author argues that the framework of custodianship should be replaced by one of stewardship as archivists work to build effective documentation of ethnic communities.

How to Cite:

Wurl, J., (2005) “Ethnicity as Provenance: In Search of Values and Principles for Documenting the Immigrant Experience”, Archival Issues 29(1), 65–76. doi: https://doi.org//archivalissues.10940