Arhiviranje života (djetinjstva) izbliza. Neke refleksije o problemima pohrane i transkripcije terenskih snimki
Archiving Life (Childhood) Up Close. Some reflections on the Problems of Archiving and Transcription of Field Records

Summary/Abstract: This paper analyzes two seemingly technical, but in reality very complex issues which are the result of methodological, ethical and epistemological dilemmas. One is the issue of (not) archiving fieldwork material or its (partial or complete) public (in)accessibility in the context of safeguarding the participants, and the first one, is the issue of transcribing material, or transferring it from oral into written form. The initial thesis is that archiving material only in the form of a transcript would partially solve the plethora of ethical issues which are the result of archiving audio tapes, but would also open new, not necessarily ethical issues. The text presents some reflections on the issues of archiving and transcribing audio record collected during the research of folkloristic and cultural-anthropological aspects of storytelling about childhood (Marković, 2010), the reflections and their consequences stemming both from contemporary tendencies in ethnology / cultural anthropology and folklore research, and markedly private impressions, conceptions and experiences. Recently the archiving of especially ethnological material in the Special Collection of Ethnographic Material of the Institute for Ethnology and Folklore Research has diminished. One of the reasons for giving up the practice of obligatory archiving is an attempt to avoid censorship and self-censorship of the researcher (who is often not the researcher but the subject) and their interlocutors (who are less frequently the “anonymous” members of a researched group). Not storing the material, on the other hand, can rob the research of its legitimacy, and the material becomes unavailable for future research. In this sense, the text analyzes the methods of transcription that would in part substitute the “hidden” fieldwork records witnessing life up close, as well as frequently emotional and more intimate relationships of the interlocutors. The issues entailed in transcription are questioned with regards to the use value of transcripts used in a scientific text and with regards to the use value of transcripts stored on the shelves of a collection or archive without an available reference to fieldwork audio records.

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