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[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: Caught napping!
Seaborne, Mark wrote:
> As any self respecting archivist will tell you, without understanding the
> original context of a document, and its function within that context, it is
> impossible, or at least very dangerous, to derive other meaning from the
> document.
Quite so. Indeed, my claim is stronger: you need to understand the
surface meaning as well as the context.
> For example, I might study a seventeenth century hearth tax return
> in order to learn about household structure in a small Scottish town,
> certainly not the use intended by the originator. However without some
> understanding of the administrative structure that generated the records,
> and the motivations of the data collectors and the data providors, I cannot
> even assume that what I mean by household is what the creator of the
> document meant by hearth.
And indeed, if the document were written in Harappan instead of Scots,
you would have even more trouble: is it in fact a hearth tax return or
just a dog license? There would be no way to tell.
--
Not to perambulate || John Cowan <jcowan@r...>
the corridors || http://www.reutershealth.com
during the hours of repose || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
in the boots of ascension. \\ Sign in Austrian ski-resort hotel
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