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Paper short abstract:

Is it possible to work with lacking archival sources and still analyze and describe the operations of peoples in the past with a reliable result? In order to trace the background to the position in Swedish heritage making that two specific persons bears, although fragmentary, archives has been used.

Paper long abstract:

Personal archives are wonderful sources for cultural history research. Through the traces given by peoples of the past, we can learn about the conditions for individuals as well as for groups of people in different societies in different times. Patterns that not were obvious for a person while he/she was active can be seen through the lens of time and a broader understanding given to acting and decisions. At the same time, personal archives can be a source for frustrations, when documents that once existed now can´t be found in the collections. In my paper, I will discuss how we can work with lacking sources and still analyze and describe the operations of peoples in the past. I will describe the archival sources from the folklorist Eva Wigström and the collector of textile crafting Lilli Zickerman. Both conducted field works in Sweden in order to collect traces of heritage, Wigström in the 1880s, Zickerman in the 1920s. The results of their collecting has been important to the notion of Swedish heritage. Because of the strong influence of their works on the understanding of Swedish heritage, I want to analyze their field work methods. How did they find their informants? How can the relation between explorers (Wigström, Zickerman) and the informants be understood? Moreover, how were the fieldwork experiences transformed into knowledge? The archival sources are obviously incomplete for both persons. Is it still possible to find credible answers to my questions from the archives, and how can this be done?