口述档案，口述传统与口述历史：概念的混淆及其成因

Oral Archives, Oral Tradition and Oral History: Confusions of Concepts and Their Causes

口述档案主流而言一般是指在档案系统的环境或档案学语境中口述传统与口述历史的合称,但口述传统与口述历史却是两个近乎完全不同的概念。国内相关的研究广泛存在概念混淆现象,类型多样,但最主要的表现是口述档案实质上等同于口述历史而无视口述传统。这种混淆的主要原因包括口述历史的热潮和口述传统领域的相对冷僻、国内学者对新领域的不熟悉乃至缺乏探究、术语在不同语种中的表达和汉语的不同翻译及其歧义、翻译错误、学科鸿沟、国外学者中同样存在的含混与混淆等,而国外混淆的部分原因在于“口述历史”术语本身存在的与口述传统之间的多重歧义。

Oral archives basically refer to the combination of oral tradition and oral history in the environment of the archives system and the context of archiving studies,but oral tradition and oral history are almost totally different concepts.Domestic related research has a wide range of conceptual confusion.The most important manifestation is that oral archives are essentially equivalent to oral history and ignore oral tradition.The main causes for this confusion include the upsurge in oral history and the relative isolation of oral tradition,the unfamiliar or even lack of exploration of new fields by domestic scholars,the different translations of terms and their ambiguities,translation errors,disciplinary divides,and the existence of ambiguity and confusion for foreign scholars.Some of the reasons for foreign confusion lie in the multiple ambiguities between the term"oral history"and oral tradition.