Catholic Social Thought: The Documentary Heritage

Reviewed Book: O\u27Brien, David J. Catholic Social Thought: The Documentary Heritage. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1992

Legal and Policy Framework for Promoting Equitable Access to Documentary Heritage

The National Mission for Manuscripts of India, in association with UNESCO, completed a research study to assist in the development of legal and policy framework and protocols for promoting equitable access to documentary heritage, relevant to India and other South Asian countries. This study report seeks to accurately identify and critically examine the legal and policy framework for promoting equitable access to our documentary heritage. The National Mission for Manuscripts is the most important institution in India creating bibliographic databases of manuscripts and engaged in the conservation and preservation of valuable manuscripts. This report engages with the legal and policy framework which envelops the lifecycle of the Mission’s work: the process of access to manuscripts, digitization of manuscripts and the creation of databases. By critically examining the legal rules in the practical context of the Mission’s work, the research team has put together the first such review of any such initiative in the protection of traditional knowledge in the country. The conclusions of the report are in the form of draft legal agreements and policy recommendations located in the discussion on various parts of the Mission’s work. While this report does not set out to be the final word on these significant policy initiatives, the report definitely makes significant progress in the policy debate and legal literature in this field. This report illustrates working patterns of the Mission within the legal and policy framework in the Country. This report will be a valuable sourcebook for understanding South Asian legal and policy framework for accessing documentary heritage collections. The draft legal agreements and policy recommendations, presented in this report, will also be valuable intervention tools for South Asian countries that share similar legal and policy framework within the sub-region

Intangible inventions: the Kalbeliya gypsy dance form, from its creation to UNESCO recognition

Despite the creation of the Kālbeliyā dance form in the 1980s, it was recognized as a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage in 2010. Rajasthani “Gypsy” performances,featuring a dance designed by the nomadic Kālbeliyā community, have quickly become popular among tourists in India as well as on Western world music stages. The state of Rajasthan, where the Kālbeliyās hail from, is celebrated as “India’s heritage state” by the Indian government as it seeks to promote tourism and the international dissemination of Indian culture through performances and festivals. In this paper, I sketch the history of the Kālbeliyā dance form from its origins in the 1980s through to the UNESCO nomination in 2010. Moreover, I discuss the effects of its recognition as a world heritage dance tradition. The official approval of the Kalbeliya dance form as a heritage activity further highlights the challenges to UNESCO’s candidate selection process. This paper aims to explain the reasons for the nomination of the Kālbeliyā dance form (how and why UNESCO was persuaded to recognize it as a suitable candidate) by connecting this to the continued processes of nationalism and romanticism, the economic strategies adopted by the cultural tourism industry and the commodification and commercialization of Indian folk arts

La socialización del patrimonio bibliográfico y documental de la humanidad desde la perspectiva de los derechos culturales

The socialization of cultural expressions refers to society having access, knowing, appreciating, and reasonably using cultural events and documentaries worldwide. Cultural rights are inherent attributes of society that enable cultural value, experiential demonstrations and reasonably tangible and intangible representations. From this understanding, cultural rights are conducive to socializing the documentary heritage because -among other contributions- they provide access to information, the assessment of documents and the preservation of information in all its manifestations. The overall objective of this document is to analyze some key to socialize bibliographic and documentary heritage of humanity. The particular aim of this paper is to reflect on the socialization of documentary heritage from the viewpoint of the cultural rights, educational trends related to the rights and heritage, and the action on the issue from a library science approach. This document is divided into four sections. The first addresses the fundamental concepts of bibliographic and documentary heritage. The second contains the corresponding to the socialization of the documentary memory. The third is the relationship between cultural rights, libraries and documentary heritage. Finally, we analyze the mission of librarians regarding the socialization of documentary heritage.La socialización de las expresiones culturales se refiere a que la sociedad tenga acceso, conozca, aprecie y usufructúe razonadamente las manifestaciones culturales y documentales mundiales. Los derechos culturales son atributos inherentes de la sociedad, que posibilitan valorar cultural, vivencial y razonadamente las manifestaciones y las representaciones tangibles e intangibles. A partir de esta comprensión, los derechos culturales son propicios para socializar el patrimonio documental, debido a que –entre otras contribuciones- posibilitan el acceso a la información, la valoración de los documentos y la preservación de la información en todas sus manifestaciones. El objetivo general de este documento es analizar algunas acciones fundamentales para socializar el patrimonio bibliográfico y documental de la humanidad. El objetivo particular de este trabajo, es reflexionar sobre la socialización del patrimonio documental desde el enfoque de los derechos culturales, las tendencias educativas relacionadas con los derechos y el patrimonio, así como las acciones en torno al tema desde un enfoque bibliotecológico. Este documento se estructura en cuatro apartados. El primero, aborda los conceptos fundamentales sobre el patrimonio bibliográfico y documental. El segundo, contiene lo respectivo a la socialización de la memoria documental. El tercero, trata la relación entre los derechos culturales, las bibliotecas y la herencia documental. Finalmente, se analiza la misión de los bibliotecólogos respecto a la socialización del patrimonio documental

Time indeterminacy and spatio-temporal building transformations: an approach for architectural heritage understanding

Nowadays most digital reconstructions in architecture and archeology describe buildings heritage as awhole of static and unchangeable entities. However, historical sites can have a rich and complex history, sometimes full of evolutions, sometimes only partially known by means of documentary sources. Various aspects condition the analysis and the interpretation of cultural heritage. First of all, buildings are not inexorably constant in time: creation, destruction, union, division, annexation, partial demolition and change of function are the transformations that buildings can undergo over time. Moreover, other factors sometimes contradictory can condition the knowledge about an historical site, such as historical sources and uncertainty. On one hand, historical documentation concerning past states can be heterogeneous, dubious, incomplete and even contradictory. On the other hand, uncertainty is prevalent in cultural heritage in various forms: sometimes it is impossible to define the dating period, sometimes the building original shape or yet its spatial position. This paper proposes amodeling approach of the geometrical representation of buildings, taking into account the kind of transformations and the notion of temporal indetermination

Digitization and 3D Scanning of Historical Artifacts

Protection and preservation of our cultural and literary historical and documentary heritage are particularly relevant today. The paper presents methods for creating digital resources of historical artifacts related to the Balkan war. Special attention is paid to the process of 3D scanning of objects. The methodology will be used in building an electronic archive and Virtual Museum.Project “Digital archive of documentary heritage of the Balkan Wars” – funded by the Bulgarian Fund for Scientific Research, more specifics at www-address: http://www.math.bas.bg/vt/balkanwars/balkanwars.ht

Appraisal and the Future of Archives in the Digital Era

Discussion of the implications of new technologies, changing public policies, and transformation of culture for how archivists practice and think about appraisal

Documentary heritage: fungal deterioration in Compact Discs

AbstractIn recent years, there has been an exponential growth in the use of digital media for data storage and the creation of museums, libraries and digital archives. In particular, Compact Discs Recordable (CD-R) have become one of the most used tools for archiving documents related to cultural heritage. Many authors have investigated only the CD longevity, but very few studies have focused on their biological deterioration. The aim of this work was to examine the CD-R biodeterioration following two ways: (1) search badly preserved CD-R, showing clear degradation spots and verify that it is fungal deterioration; (2) fungal inoculation tests on blank CD-R to verify their bioreceptivity. The analysis of a badly preserved CD-R showed clear degradation spots, highlighting, after cultural and molecular analysis, the presence on the surface of three different fungi: Chaetomium globosum, Trichoderma atroviride e Coniochaeta sp. For the in vitro inoculation tests we used conidia suspensions of Cladosporium cladosporioides and Penicillium chrysogenum, and we observed the growth for 6 months. At the end of experiment, both fungi colonized the CD-R surface with hyphae and mycelia clearly visible, causing also loss of material and fractal structure presence. For the CD-R use as cultural heritage archiving, the correct storage is an essential phase and, in light of the results obtained, it will be necessary not only to consider the environmental factors (temperature, relative humidity) but also the biological deterioration caused by airborne fungi. Therefore, effort needs to be taken to regularly monitor temperature and relative humidity and it is essential to periodically conduct cleaning of optical media

Ending the silence : a documentary theatre response to the impact of German war guilt on intergenerational, bi-cultural identity in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

This exegesis forms the written accompaniment to the documentary theatre production Ending the Silence. Together, these creative and critical components form the basis for a Performance as Research (PAR) project undertaken as part of a Masters in English at Massey University. This research aims to explore and utilise the potentials of the ‘documentary theatre’ form to better understand how issues of heritage and inheritance have informed intergenerational Kiwi/German bicultural identity. The research also aims to analyse how engaging with a creative process enables a closer investigation into topics which may be regarded as taboo. The PAR project also aimed to give a voice to those who have been silenced due to the pressures of social constructs regarding German War Guilt. This term is defined as a response shared by Germans for Germany’s involvement in the Second World War. This project explores the themes of identity, guilt, history and fiction, and authenticity and the representation of trauma. The thesis begins by describing the ethnographic methodology utilised for devising the documentary theatre script Ending the Silence, highlighting how the creative process enabled a closer investigation of the key research themes. The research highlights how history and fiction can work symbiotically to explore taboo topics in greater depth. It concludes that documentary theatre is a useful tool for exploring taboo topics in history, arguing that there is a need to encourage intergenerational, inter-cultural communication around these topics in order to talk responsibly about past injustices

The Groomers and the Question of Race

The last decade has witnessed a number of prominent police-led operations relating to child sexual exploitation (CSE) in England. Whilst much of the public discourse related to Operation Yewtree, Operation Fernbridge, and others has focused on the criminal nature of CSE, race has been absent from that discourse; conversely, the public debates relating to grooming cases by men of Pakistani heritage have been marked by the presence of race. By critically evaluating the above cases this article aims to put forward three related arguments. First, it aims to highlight and explain contrasting ways in which CSE is debated vis-á-vis the category of racialised politics. Second, it demonstrates how racialised discourse of CSE, initially considered to be a feature of far-right rhetoric, has taken centre ground. Finally, drawing upon analysis of various reports it aims to question the links between race and CSE to show how racialised discourse of CSE helps undermine its victims