The Archive of Ethnological and Anthropological Resources (AEAR) and the Digital Archive of Ethnological and Anthropological Resources (DAEAR), available to all interested in the cultural heritage of Macedonia, are the central and only database of documents in the fields of ethnology and anthropology on Macedonia and wider. These archival databases include collections of ethnographic, folklore and other anthropological materials, special collections of objects, archival material, audio, photo and video materials currently being held at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, “St. Cyril and Methodius” Universty in Skopje. All materials collected during research projects and fieldwork at the Institute are archived in these databases.
The archives are available and especially important in the process of contemporizing studies of ethnology and anthropology, due to the fact that students can directly participate in the process of creating documents of cultural heritage in Macedonia. The AEAR and the DAEAR are of special use for scientists and researchers in the fields of ethnology and anthropology and will soon be available online.
Aims
The existence of the AEAR and the DAEAR holds national importance to the Republic of Macedonia due to the collection, maintenance, and presentation of ethnological, folklore, and anthropological materials of the cultures of ethnic communities living in Macedonia. These archives are relatively new, opened in the late 1990s, however already include materials from Macedonia that date to the beginning of the 20th century, such as special archival collections with significant national value (Joseph Obremski’s materials of 1931/32 and Joel Martin Halpern’s collection on Macedonia from 1954 to 2004).
With the creation of the DAEAR we aim to overcome the challenges of classical collection, archival, maintenance and presentation methods of cultural heritage. It is important to proceed with better protection of materials from the past centuries in the form of digitalization or copies. Thus we are in the process of digitalizing an already existent database of information in which various categories of cultural heritage will be maintained: audio-materials (interviews and oral accounts of the past and present); transcribed field notes (digitalized); visual materials (photographs and videos); older archival documents (which cannot be made available in their original form).
The process of creating the databases of the AEAR and DAEAR, as well as their continuous use will directly improve the study programs at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology in a number of subjects, primarily the subjects of: Field ethnology I, II, III, and IV, as well as Methodology of ethnological and anthropological research.
The AEAR and DAEAR contains all audio, video and other materials collected during research done at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology. The total number of audio-casettes is 370, with an equal number of transcribed materials. The process of digitalizing audiovisual materials in currently under way. The AEAR and DAEAR include archived materials of:
Archiver: Bojana Mirchevska, graduated ethnologist
Email: bmircevska@yahoo.com