Op Glad Ijs? Kanttekeningen Bij Het Gebruik Van Orale Bronnen Voor Het Onderzoek Naar De Scandinavische Missiegeschiedenis: Marginal notes on the use of oral sources in researching Scandinavian missionary history.
In this contribution a number of comments are made on the usefulness and reliability of oral sources for missionary history. In the Netherlands a large-scale initiative has been taken in the field of oral history by the KomMissieMemoires (KMM), which, since its foundation in 1976, has conducted and...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic/Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Amsterdam University Press
1996
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| In: |
Trajecta
Year: 1996, Volume: 5, Issue: 4, Pages: 388-402 |
| Further subjects: | B
Missionaries
B Netherlands B Oral History B Christian Missions B Historical research methods |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | In this contribution a number of comments are made on the usefulness and reliability of oral sources for missionary history. In the Netherlands a large-scale initiative has been taken in the field of oral history by the KomMissieMemoires (KMM), which, since its foundation in 1976, has conducted and recorded extensive interviews with 901 Dutch missionaries. These KMM interviews offer the opportunity to explore the field of missionary history, which had hitherto been difficult to access. In setting up the source database, the Steering Committee of the KMM has taken into account current views on the reliability of such life histories, as well as the representativeness of the interviews. The interviewees and interviewers (mostly religious) were well prepared, and the use of open-question questionnaires ensure the effectiveness of the interviews for purposes of scholarly research. Of course, the fact that the database is dated may be called a disadvantage: the questionnaires were drafted in the late 1970's, and most interviews were held in the 1980's. A more fundamental matter with regard to the reliability of the KMM interviews is the question to what extent reminiscences provide a reliable picture of the past. It turns out that information from oral sources is sometimes strongly at variance with information from written sources. On the basis of psychological research it has been found that the formation (or distortion) of reminiscences is influenced both by the collective memory of the group and by individual factors. Present and past, objectivity and subjectivity, reality and myth constantly impinge on the memory, which means that we shall not find "objective" truth in it. Nevertheless, this does not mean that oral sources may not as such be used for historical research. Oral sources may provide a different, but nonetheless valuable vision on the "historical truth." Taking the workings of memory into account, oral and written sources, each having their own "truth," may be used alongside one another. |
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| ISSN: | 0778-8304 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Trajecta
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