THE PROBLEM OF HISTORICAL SOURCES IN ETHNOLOGIC RESEARCH — MEMOIRS AND TRAVEL ACCOUNTS

Abstract

The author emphasizes that it is a well established fact that ethnology/anthropology should, for many scientific reasons, also include the studying of the past in ite research. Decision to study cultures at a time distance, however, brings up the question of sources that could be used as a data base, since the past is nof accessible to classic ethnographic field research methods. New (not by origin but by the time of acceptance) theoretical approaches to history, as in French structural history or in the New History as developed in the USA, among other novelties, also initiated the re-evaluation of historical sources, that is their usefulness for the research. It has been established that no a priori rigid qualification of sources as primary and secondary ones, with all the implications that spring from it, should be considered appropriate. Instead, is necessary to consult and study all kinds of sources, since none are complete and self-sufficient, but rather complementary one to another. Each one can successfully answer one set of questions. Its value depends on the questions it can answer. Finally the author treats memoirs and books of travel as two complementary views of the same reality, from the emic and the ethic perceptions.