Uncovering our Tracks: Ideology and the Archival Enterprise

Matienzo, Mark A. (2004) Uncovering our Tracks: Ideology and the Archival Enterprise.

Abstract

With the recent changes that have occurred within the records environment, such as the problems of electronic records and increased demands for the societal accountability of the profession, archivists have had to rethink many of the principles that guide their activities. In other words, this concerns the connections between archival practice and archival theory, the latter of which has recently become a valid area of inquiry within professional discourse. Starting with the early professional literature contesting the need for archival theory and its necessary connection to archival practice, this section will address one ideology within clear roots in archivistics, that of Positivism. We will see that its ‘naturalization’ (a process important to the concretization of ideology) was challenged through early literature on the subject. The threat to such deeply entrenched ideology was viewed within the profession either as a much-needed change or as a threat to the role of the archivist. Ultimately, the problematization of this ideology will inform the other two areas of analysis within this paper: the examination of ‘archival truth’ and the problems of representation within archives.