The Challenge of Archiving Resources in Linguistics and Anthropology in the Southern Cone (South America)

  • Lucía Golluscio, CONICET - CAICYT - Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Elizabeth Manrique, CONICET - CAICYT - Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • In Argentina, the Division of Digital Documentation in Linguistics and Anthropology hosting a regional archive was established in October 2007 thanks to an official agreement on scientific and technological cooperation between the Max Planck Institute and the Argentine Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET).

    The project has posed challenges from the start. We know that minority language documentation and archiving are urgent tasks in South America.
    However, if this is not a collaborative endeavor, it runs the risk of failure. The role that digital archiving plays needs further promotion among the local academic and speech communities.

    In this paper, we analyze different activities that our Regional Archive is implementing to foster collaborative actions with potential donors and users to clarify and legitimize the function of language documentation and archives in South America. First, we discuss training and dissemination strategies with communities and local researchers to promote best practices in documentation and archiving. Second, we examine the new projects about indigenous and migration languages spoken in Argentina, as well as agreements with local institutions and researchers to digitalize and archive audio material collected in the past. Third, our paper explores the relevance of collaborative networks with other archives. Finally, the organization of symposia in the Southern Cone with the participation of local and international specialists contributes to the discussion of ethical
    and political issues arising from the creation of language archives and to the promotion of consensus.