A Guide to Oral-historical Evidence

Una guía de fuentes históricas orales

Pamela Jane Smith McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research , Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3ER [email protected]

Recibido: 22-11-2012 Aceptado: 21-08-2013

Abstract Oral-historical methodology is briefly analysed and explained based on the author’s personal experience in the field over 30 years. The definition and uses of structured and unstructured interviews are detailed. The emotional aspects of interviewing are recognised. The problem sof how to address questions of credibility, transferability, dependability or confirm ability are examined. Examples of how to juxtapose different sources with oral evidence to support an histori- cal interpretation are given. Following Alison Wylie’s suggestions, use of ‘networks of resistances’ and ‘concatenations of inferences’ is recommended. In summary, personal narrative is seen as an elegant tool which enriches the history of . Oral recollections can recreate and capture the volume, silence, emotion and personal meaning of events. The Personal Histories Project is introduced as a way to create new sources and oral-history archives for future stu- dents, teachers and researchers.

Key words: Oral-history method. . Garrod. Burkitt. Clark. The Personal Histories Project.

Resumen En este artículo se presenta brevemente la metodología histórica basada en fuentes orales a partir de la experiencia acumulada por el autor durante 30 años. Se detalla la definición y usos de entrevistas estructuradas e informales. Se describen los aspectos emocionales de las entrevistas. Se presentan ejemplos de cómo diferentes fuentes históricas pueden combinarse con fuentes orales en interpretaciones históricas. Siguiendo las sugerencias de Alison Wylie, se re- comienda utilizar ‘redes de resistencia’ y ‘concatenaciones de inferencias’. En definitiva, las narrativas personales son consideradas como una herramienta elegante que enriquece la historia de la arqueología. La recolección de historias orales puede recrear y capturar el volumen, el silencio, la emoción y el significado personal de los acontecimientos. El autor introduce el proyecto ‘Personal Histories’ como una manera de crear nuevas fuentes y archivos de historias orales, para futuros estudiantes, profesores e investigadores.

Palabras clave: Metodología de historia oral. Historia de la arqueología. Garrod. Burkitt. Clark. Proyecto‘Personal Histories’.

Complutum, 2013, Vol. 24 (2): 163-171 163 ISSN: 1131-6993 http://dx.doi.org/10.5209/rev_CMPL.2013.v24.n2.43377 Pamela Jane Smith A Guide to Oral-historical Evidence

“Memories,” said one of my interviewees (Smith ity? I hope to answer those queries by presenting 2007), “are like gathering roses in winter.” case studies. In this short article, I use examples from my oral-histories research to show how histo- rians of archaeology might use oral-historical evi- 1. Introduction dence judiciously to enhance the stories they tell. I start with an historical example which demonstrates Most handbooks and textbooks on oral-historical how oral sources can be juxtaposed with other types practice and principles written in the English lan- of material to piece together an interpretation. I also guage (Guba Egon & Lincoln 1981, Humphries 1984, will discuss briefly the emotional commitments Perks 1992,Perks & Thompson 2006, Ritchie2011, which are oral history’s great strength. Thompson 2000, or Yow 2005) include the follow- ing simple instructions. Make eye contact with the ‘narrator’. Respect the ‘informant’. Give priority to 2. First historical example what she or he wishes to say. Listen! Be aware that the physical environment and realise that differences In the field of the history of science, the past forty in age, gender and race may affect the interview. Be years have witnessed an increasing interest in the a neutral, objective observer free from any compul- study of controversies (e.g. Rudwick 1985, Macha- sion to prove a particular agenda. Be prepared. Plan mer 2000). In general, sociologists and historians ahead. Conduct background research. Know your have examined scientific controversies in order to subject. Decide on the type of interview needed, shed light on the history of their sciences. While structured or unstructured (informal). Decide on your historians of archaeology have been reluctant to questions. Approach the narrator in a kind, respectful evaluate scientific controversies in the history of manner. Ask permission to use the recording and ask archaeology, controversy studies may be useful to for that in writing. And, practically, bring the right explore important problems concerning the history digital equipment such as an H2n or H4n Zoom. Test of archaeological research. An example will illus- your equipment. Allow time. Store your recordings trate this point. safely away from magnetic sources. If you decide to In 1950, a divisive controversy burst open within transcribe, share the transcription with the narrator the University of Cambridge Faculty of Archaeol- and seek permission each time you use it. Change the ogy and . Meyer Fortes (1906-83) had transcript and re-record or destroy the recording if been appointed as the William Wyse Professor of the narrator wishes. Social Anthropology. He felt that Ethel Lindgren, These simple points are important and an ethical who had become a Lecturer just before his own ap- beginning but do not explain how an historical argu- pointment, should be replaced by Edmund Leach ment is constructed; nor do most manuals discuss the (1910-89). Leach was more appropriate to the Fac- deeper issues of the relationship which develops dur- ulty’s new theoretical outlook under Fortes’s lead- ing an interview and how that relationship affects the ership and to new teaching demands. Lindgren, oral historian and the person who is interviewed, and however, was acknowledged to be a good lecturer how oral-history practice may help to uncover new and supervisor who had attracted students and who historical sources. had produced quality research as an ethnologist Most British oral historians distinguish between during the 1930s. This controversy split the Fac- “structured” and “unstructured” interviews. Struc- ulty between the older, moneyed “amateurs” of the tured interview sare essentially oral questionnaires 1920s, including Lindgren, Miles Burkitt and Tom focusing on a narrow enquiry for a specific purpose. Lethbridge, and the younger, poorer “profession- The interviewer controls the discussion to serve his or als”. With Leach’s appointment and Lindgren’s dis- her predetermined goal. Unstructured interview sare missal, a new intellectual era for archaeology and broad, fluid, friendly and conversational; life-history anthropology was ushered in. Leach became one of recording is always unstructured. The interviewee, the leading anthropologists of his day. This change the narrator, controls the direction of the interview in power supported the later development of the ar- and follows whatever he or she wishes to record. The chaeologist David Clarke’s (1937-76) profoundly unexpected always emerges. The unstructured life- influential analytical archaeology and the New Ar- history interview is ‘qualitative’. The emphasis is on chaeology in the 1960s and 1970s in the UK. ‘process’, ‘context’, ‘situatedness’, micro-investiga- How does one gain the information necessary tion, thick description and emotional involvement. for an analysis of this 1950 academic controversy? Since most historians prefer unstructured inter- I found three differing oral-historical accounts, viewing, how then do we address questions of cred- one from the then Secretary for the Faculty, Mary ibility, transferability, dependability or confirmabil- Thatcher, and two from former post-graduate stu-

Complutum, 2013, Vol. 24 (2): 163-171 164 A Guide to Oral-historical Evidence Pamela Jane Smith dents. Cambridge archaeology Professor Glyn Histories Project, an oral-history project now run Daniel’s version of events is printed candidly in his by undergraduates. The Project records the lives of book, Some Small Harvest (1986). Committee and British archaeologists who have set the curricula Faculty Board Minutes that record discussions and for undergraduate education in the UK. Films of decisions are saved at the Cambridge University our interviews are produced by student volunteers Library. Finally, there are Fortes’s and Lindgren’s and loaded on the web , on Vimeo and on The Personal His- Spoken accounts can thus be placed alongside tories Project Facebook page. This project creates equally solid written evidence. I use oral-historical new oral-historical sources. The films have been evidence, then, as a small piece of a large project. enormously successful and are useful as teaching Oral responses are only quoted when corroborated aids. An oral history of the New Archaeology of by other types of sources. I always attempt to estab- the 1960s, for example, with , Mike lish what philosopher, Alison Wylie (1989, 1992), Schiffer, Ezra Zubrow, Graeme Barker, Paul Mel- terms a network of resistances and a concatenation lars, Robin Dennell and Rob Foley speaking, avail- of inferences. Oral responses are used in conjunc- able at , has tion with other supporting material. Interpretations been downloaded nearly 6000 times in 96 countries. are strengthened when based on converging lines of evidence. Conclusions are improved by using col- 2.2. Reliable witnesses and relationships lateral lines of documentation. An academic turning point at a key university may then be more fairly It is important to follow standard ethical procedures analysed using several lines of information to re- when developing friendships with the people who construct political, academic social and intellectual act as “living references”. Firstly, in my experience, changes. Thus a combination of independent lines all people interviewed approve anything I used. of evidence helps us understand how Professor For example, I first wrote to the now late Grahame Fortes used the situation to install his research agen- Clark in 1987 to seek permission to study his life da and jettison competing intellectual programmes. and career in my Ph.D research on the history of at the University of Cambridge. He read 2.1. Oral history and new historical sources all my articles prior to publication. Both Clark and his wife, the late Lady Clark, never interfered with I found, years ago, that secondary, published ma- interpretation, as they began to know and develop terial did not yet exist for the histories I was then a relationship of trust with me over years. Very sel- investigating; unpublished sources had not then dom has anyone requested changes. Dorothy Gar- been located when I began to investigate the history rod’s family was always strongly supportive. Miles of academic British archaeology. My past research Burkitt’s family was also kind and generously help- into the history of archaeology in early twentieth- ful. Less-known but equally important archaeologi- century Britain (Smith 1994, 1997a, 1997b, 2000) cal players, such as the Cambridge Archaeology and my previous work in the history of twentieth- Faculty “tea-boy”, Charles Denston, offered their century Canadian archaeology (Smith 1998) were diaries, correspondence, unpublished photo albums, substantially based on information discovered with unpublished personal notes and draft copies of ex- the generous help of those I interviewed. Oral his- cavation and technical reports. This material, often tory can secure an argument when juxtaposed to at first held by the families, was always extremely and intertwined with published and unpublished valuable. With sources you may recover as the re- sources, and it can also produce new sources. sult of interviews, always request permission before Numerous conversations with elderly archae- using them. ologists, their families, their students and their When I first began to investigate the history of colleagues and friends resulted in uncovering new British archaeology, no one had yet discovered then material and the creation of new archives. Much of unknown figures such as Miles Burkitt (figure 1). this has been placed in the Cambridge University Fortunately, many I interviewed during the 1990s, Library Manuscripts Department. Approved tapes including my late husband Thurstan Shaw (1914- are stored at the Society of Antiquaries of London, 2013), held memories which corroborated unpub- with me and with the Wenner-Gren Foundation in lished and published written accounts. Written New York City. Interviews and transcriptions ap- material was made available to me by the Burkitt pear on my website and are reproduced in my Ph.D family, who have since become lasting friends; my thesis, published by British Archaeological Reports husband’s memories of Burkitt as his teacher during (Smith 2009). In 2006, I also founded the Personal the 1930s in Cambridge fitted well with evidence

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Figure 1. Letter from l’Abbé H. Breuil, explaining rock art evidence to Miles Burkitt, 1919. Photograph courtesy of the Miles Burkitt family. In 1915, a shy Burkitt (1890-1971), described by his former Cambridge students as kind and unconventional, became the first in Great Britain to offer a degree course of lectures on prehistoric ar- chaeology to undergraduates. Throughout his life, Burkitt remained deeply indebted to his honoured and beloved Breuil. from the unsorted material held by the family and cave of Gargas, where Breuil had recently discov- in a Burkitt archive at the Cambridge University ered a new gallery; Burkitt was here enthralled Library. by the mutilated hands stencilled on cave walls By considering these complementary sources which were interpreted as an early form of magic together, I reconstructed for the first time (Smith amongst the Aurignacian people. 2009: 19-28) that Burkitt had been admitted to As remembered by my husband, Burkitt was the University of Cambridge in 1909 and by 1913 proud to be “Breuil’s pupil”; in his correspon- had met l’Abbé Henri Breuil, considered by all, dence, Burkitt often referred to Breuil and Ober- at that time, to be the greatest living authority on maier as his honoured “teachers”. Without classes prehistory. The irrepressible Breuil clearly made or formalized courses available, “much archaeo- an indelible impression on young Burkitt. Within logical and geological information was gleaned” weeks they were roaming Spain, joining Père Teil- at informal evening camp conversations in 1913 hard de Chardin, “Alsatian” Paul Wernert and the and 1914. Burkitt learned excavation methods by Bavarian priest, Hugo Obermaier, at the excava- observation and imitation amidst rough living. tion of the great cave of Castillo in 1913. During their wanderings through the mountains of Letters home held at the University Library Spain, Breuil had explained to Burkitt the phases reveal Burkitt’s delight and wonder at Castillo’s of evolution which cave paintings and engravings prehistoric art, long succession of Palaeolithic and were thought to follow. Years later, Burkitt used Upper Palaeolithic industries and its sequence of exactly this reasoning to suggest chronologies for Pleistocene fauna. After a season of excavation the South African rock art which he viewed and at Castillo, Burkitt, Teilhard de Chardin, Wernert admired during his tour of South Africa in 1927. and Breuil toured “les Grottes ornées” of north- In his 1928 book, South Africa’s Past in Stone and west Spain and then hiked to the Hautes-Pyrénées’ Paint, Burkitt imported Breuil’s methods of anal-

Complutum, 2013, Vol. 24 (2): 163-171 166 A Guide to Oral-historical Evidence Pamela Jane Smith ysis when he attempted to analyse and synthesis on 6th May 1939, as the first female professor at John Goodwin’s original material and sites. Cambridge or is barely mentioned in any The continental scholars Burkitt encountered in official record. Regardless of her grand archaeo- 1913 and ’14, Breuil, Obermaier and Cartailhac, logical accomplishments, Garrod still remained, contributed extensively and freely to the first ar- when I began my research on her in 1995, a “shad- chaeological textbook at the University of Cam- owy figure” (Smith 1997a, 2000, Smith et al. bridge, Burkitt’s Prehistory (1921), which Breuil 1997, 2009). The scant, unrevealing Minutes from himself had encouraged Burkitt to write. This book Elections to Professorships were the only existing and Burkitt’s The Old Stone Age (1933) became document. The eight, all-male Electors, pillars of the standard texts for generations of students going respectability and representatives of extreme Brit- from Cambridge to the then Empire. Unabridged ish academic power, appear to have met in the and uncritical use of Breuil’s and Obermaier’s re- usual way, discussed an apparently small field of search and teachings is found in Burkitt’s publica- candidates, reconvened the following morning and tions throughout ensuing decades. Intellectual and quickly voted for Garrod, the first woman elected personal faithfulness were manifest in Burkitt’s to any such position since Cambridge University books and articles when he repeated his continen- had been founded in about 1260. There is no hint tal mentors’ material verbatim (Smith 2009: 25-7). of controversy surrounding this important election The depth of this indebtedness was clearly re- which later led to women being finally admitted to membered by former Burkitt students. Although Cambridge as degree students in 1948. it was not difficult, therefore, to reconstruct and However, the testimony of the late Lady Jef- document the formative and overwhelming influ- freys, formerly Bertha Swirles (1903-99), greatly ence of continental thinkers, such as Breuil and enhanced this scarce written evidence. By good Obermaier, on Burkitt’s thinking and on the con- chance, I met someone in the Cambridge Univer- tent and reasoning contained in his first textbooks sity Library tea-room who had come up to study at the University of Cambridge (Smith 2009: 24- archaeology and anthropology during the Second 8), it was more difficult to ascertain and to re- World War. Months later, she suggested that I construct Burkitt’s spiritual beliefs. These beliefs speak to her friend, Lady Jeffreys, a mathemati- proved fascinating as they underlay and motivated cal physicist, then in her mid 90s. At that time, I his teaching. was living as a guest of Elisabeth Leedham-Green, According to Thurstan Shaw and his fellow Af- the erudite Deputy Keeper of University Archives ricanist, the late Desmond Clark (1916-2002), who at the University of Cambridge. Leedham-Green had been a Cambridge undergraduate at the same knew the wider Cambridge and British academy. time as Thurstan in the 1930s,and also according She assured me that Lady Jeffreys was a highly re- to unpublished accounts held by descendants, early spected member of the tight Cambridge community, in World War I, Burkitt had begun to believe that known for her clarity, good memory, astute judge- humans “moved Godward... partly owing to strug- ment and intelligence. She would be reliable. gles against overwhelming odds” (Quotation from In fine, vivid detail, the late Lady Jeffreys remem- “Sermon preached in Barrington Church”; Burkitt bered how she had met “outside Elector”, Manchester Family Archives). Evil itself could help a nation Professor of Geography, H.J. Fleure (1877-1969), on and a person mature. He argued that through the a train to Manchester the morning following Garrod’s study of the past, we gain knowledge of ourselves. election in 1939. She recounted Fleure’s humour and Cambridge students, educated in prehistory, would high spirits, the sepia light drifting through the train be public-spirited, just, intelligent leaders and fair, window. Fleure’s memory of the Vice-Chancellor’s peaceful administrators. The goal of studying ar- response when the Electors gave their decision was, chaeology was to develop personal character and “Gentlemen, you have presented us with a problem”. the qualities of self-reliance that promote world When I crosschecked this phrase with Classicist, the peace. From interviews, it emerged that Burkitt late Alison Duke, then also in her 90s, she confirmed believed that prehistory must remain in the hands that the wording was exactly his. of amateurs who were motivated by love, not mon- Jeffreys’s memories helped in the reconstruction ey or honours. Burkitt’s religious beliefs could not of Garrod’s academic and archaeological career. have been reconstructed without the memories of Why was she, a woman, elected? Fleure was amused, his former students. Jeffreys said. He was from Manchester, where wom- Occasionally, to use another example, one en were already admitted to degrees and he was ac- unique and reliable witness, respected within a customed to the idea of women in higher academic small social community, may augment thin written ranks. He found no difficulty in promoting a woman evidence. Dorothy Garrod’s momentous election, as a candidate.

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Additional information was gained during an Before her election, Dorothy Garrod (figure 2) had interview with my dear late friend, Mina Leth- an illustrious excavation and expedition career as bridge (1919-2000). Mina offered me her husband, a superbly accomplished “dirt” archaeologist in Tom Lethbridge’s (1901-71) diary. Tom had taught the field. She was one of the finest British archae- Anglo-Saxon archaeology at Cambridge for years ologists of the twentieth century. Garrod excavat- and had also put in for the 1939 Professorship at ed the Devil’s Tower site in over a total the request of those opposed to an outsider. Prob- of seven months between 1925 and 1927. This was ably the “candidate from outside” was Mortimer her first internationally recognised dig and she Wheeler or Louis Leakey, who Daniel (1986: 97) soon struck skeletal gold. With sheer skill, which states wanted the position. Wheeler at that time was to occur again and again during her excava- was involved as Honorary Director of the Institute tion career, Garrod found the scattered fragments of Archaeology in London which he and his wife, of one tiny skull over a period of two separate ex- Tessa, founded in the mid-1930s. He had not for- cavation seasons. The photograph of Garrod from mally applied but the British archaeological com- her own album(figure2), which I found stored at munity was small and an informal inquiry would the Musée des Antiquités Nationales, testifies to the have been sufficient. He was “a brilliant organizer, personal importance of these spectacular finds. Sur- a born excavator, a dynamic and forceful charac- rounded by red stars, Garrod here sits holding the ter”, but both Leakey and Wheeler were also con- pieces. The photograph is entitled “Abel”, “b. B.C. sidered “bounders” by some members of the Cam- 20,000. d. aet. 5, Disinterred, June 11, 1926.” bridge Faculty (Daniel 1986: 407-8). By implica- tion one of the Electors who might have voted for 3.3. The occasional use of structured interviews Wheeler was diverted by Lethbridge’s candidacy. The vote was split. A highly qualified, scandal- As explained, informal flowing life-history inter- free, established British-born woman was appar- views are favoured by oral historians, but a struc- ently a more pleasing alternative than any outsider. tured interview – again essentially an oral question- “All went well,” Lethbridge ([1965]: 100) wrote in naire focusing on a narrow enquiry for a specific his diary, “the proper man got in.” purpose – is often a good start. Again, my research on Garrod may provide an example of the effective- ness of structured interviews. Persistent rumours suggested that she had burnt her literary remains. In consequence, Garrod’s life and brilliant career had not been thoroughly documented. After much intensive questioning of many people, in 1996, I ap- proached the Cambridge University roll office and found L. Pulvertaft-Green who studied archaeology in 1948. Pulvertaft-Green was the first to mention a counter-rumour. Grahame Clark had years ago told her that Garrod had saved correspondence and field notes and that this unpublished material was stored in France. I contacted Paul Bahn, a good friend of Suzanne Cassou de Saint-Mathurin, who had ex- cavated with Garrod in France and Lebanon and stayed with her in the Charente. A letter to me from Paul Bahn written in April 1996 states, “I have just returned from Paris... There is indeed considerable Garrod material... now gone to the Musée des An- tiquités Nationales”. When Saint-Mathurin died in 1991, boxes of Garrod’s diaries, letters, field notes, photographs and manuscripts were bequeathed to Figure 2. Dorothy Garrod (1892-1968). Photograph the MAN along with Saint-Mathurin’s papers. This courtesy of Fonds Suzanne Cassou de Saint-Mathurin, material, not yet completely accessioned, is kept Musée des Antiquités Nationales. At the end of her only under Saint-Mathurin’s name. life, an acquaintance suggested to Garrod that she had The depth and literary wealth of this archive is been lucky. “Pas la chance,” Garrod replied, “C’est astonishing (Smith et al. 1997). In the early 1990s, courage et perseverance.” “It wasn’t luck, it was cour- only a few photographs of Garrod had been well age and perseverance”. known; now hundreds are available. There is also

Complutum, 2013, Vol. 24 (2): 163-171 168 A Guide to Oral-historical Evidence Pamela Jane Smith an extensive photographic archive held at the Pitt be helpful if the process were deconstructed. A Rivers Museum, which Jane Callander and I identi- moving intimacy develops but I have not yet delin- fied based on the original prints held at the MAN. eated how that works or what happens to make me This archive is now on-line. Her field notes and dia- feel that I am getting to know someone so well so ries from excavations and expeditions to Kurdistan, quickly. I can only say that I do very much enjoy Anatolia, Bulgaria, France and Lebanon detail ex- meeting the fine people I interview and they often citing personal experiences. Crucial archaeological become my friends for life. I fall in love. I have discoveries can now be better reconstructed, includ- been told that this happens to other interviewers. ing the 1932 discovery at , Palestine, There is no good theoretical literature which ex- of the female skeleton, Tabun I. amines this. Among Garrod’s photographs were numerous I suggest that the emotional depth available images of three Palestinian villages, taken during and present in oral history evidence is its greatest the 1930s when the villagers worked with Garrod at value. In any interview I conducted (Smith 2009), nearby Mount Carmel, now in Israel. The villages in the end, people wanted to be remembered for were completely destroyed in 1948 and the families whom and what they loved, not for what they had were widely dispersed. I was often told that it would accomplished. Their uniform passion unites pre- be impossible to trace them. However, after I load- history at Cambridge. From Burkitt, who believed ed images on the web, descendants have recently that the soul was illuminated by a knowledge of the contacted me. Hopefully their memories may now past, to Clark, who believed that prehistory could be added to the history of archaeology in Palestine be the great leveller and therefore must be profes- and Israel. sionalised, to Garrod, who named the Neanderthal My early (Smith 1994) work on the history of child, Abel, and came to prehistoric archaeology the Fenland Research Committee is another exam- as if converted to a religion, the common thread ple of how structured interviews may be applied. is a certain belief that this subject will enlighten This research is available on-line at , but is also published evident and expressed by all interviewed. Shaw, (Smith 1994, 1997b). Burkitt, Clark and Garrod were strikingly differ- The committee, which occupied a mythical pres- ent, individualistic personalities. Yet they were all ence in British archaeological minds, existed just committed to prehistory as if to a faith. It is clear beyond living memory. When I started my inves- that this deep emotional and philosophical com- tigation in 1993, little was known as to how it was mitment was one of the major reasons for the suc- founded, its day-to-day goals and activities, who cess of prehistoric archaeology as an academic and was involved, what excavations were conducted public subject in Britain. and what publications resulted. Few realised that the Oral history teaches us that human relationships committee was the predecessor of the Cambridge are important in creating archaeological knowl- Sub-department for Quaternary Research and that it edge and in creating a history of our subject. The developed the stratigraphic-geological approach for Cambridge Archaeology Faculty was known as the archaeology so widely used in Britain today. most successful archaeological centre in Britain for In search of sources, I interviewed a sample of much of the twentieth century. One of its strengths 34 people, including the then only surviving com- was its intimate endogamous smallness. In figure mittee members, such as the late . 3,we see an afternoon party of Faculty members Events snowballed as each person put me in touch dressed in Museum artefacts. The photograph was with others. In this case, the structured interview taken before Fortes’s and Leach’s arrival, when led to considerable relevant information. A mass of Burkitt and Garrod were part of a small, informal, useful information thus emerged. My publications casual group, known for its ‘haphazard’, gentle- based on this information have become the original manly style, none of whom had advanced degrees. scholarly research upon which later work by other Long-committed relationships worked together for authors is now based (Fagan 2001). the advancement of the subject, as well as a com- mitment to the tea-room as a sanctuary. The impor- tance of tea-drinking to the development of British 3.4. Moving intimacy archaeology is another subject explained in detail elsewhere (Smith 2009),but it is clear that some Oral-historians seldom discuss what happens to realities can be best be reached and reconstructed them during an ‘unstructured’ interview. It would through the elegance of personal narrative.

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Figure 3. “The Cambridge Anthropology and Archaeology Faculty was far more interesting than any primitive tribe” (former undergraduate in 1949, I.M.R. Summers, in conversation, 1998).

Dedication

This work is gently dedicated to my husband, the late Professor Thurstan Shaw, CBE, FBA, FSA, Ph.D, Onu N’ekwulu Ora Igboukwu, Onyafuonka of Igboland, Onuna Ekwulu Nri.

Bibliographical References

Daniel, G.(1986): Some Small Harvest: The Memoirs of Glyn Daniel. Thames & Hudson, London. Fagan, B.(2001): Grahame Clark. An Intellectual Biography of an Archaeologist. Westview Press, Boulder. Guba Egon, G.; Lincoln, Y. S.(1981): Effective Evaluation. Improving the Usefulness of Evaluation Results Through Responsive and Naturalistic Approaches. Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco. Humphries, S.(1984): The Handbook of Oral History. Recording Life Stories. Inter-Action, London. Machamer, P. (2000): Scientific Controversies. Philosophical and Historical Perspectives. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Perks, R.(1992): Oral History. Talking about the Past. Historical Association in association with the Oral History Society, London. Perks, R.; Thomson, A. (eds.) (2006): The Oral History Reader. Routledge, London. Ritchie, D. A. (ed.) (2011): The Oxford Handbook of Oral History. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Rudwick, M. J. (1985): The Great Devonian Controversy. The Shaping of Scientific Knowledge among Gentle- manly Specialists. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Smith, P.J.(1994): Grahame Clark, the Fenland Research Committee and prehistory at Cambridge. http://www. arch.cam.ac.uk/~pjs1011/grahame-clark+fenland-research-committee.pdf

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Smith, P. J.(1997a): From ‘small, dark and alive’ to ‘cripplingly shy’: Dorothy Garrodas the first woman Professor at Cambridge. http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/~pjs1011/Pams.html Smith, P. J.(1997b): Grahame Clark’s New Archaeology. Antiquity,71: 11-30. Smith, P. J.(2000): Dorothy Garrod as the first woman Professor at CambridgeUniversity.Antiquity , 74: 131-136. Smith, P. J.(2007): Gathering Roses in Winter. British Archaeology, November/December: 10-14. Smith, P. J.(2009): A Splendid Idiosyncrasy: Prehistory atCambridge 1915-50. British Archaeological Reports 485. Archaeopress, Oxford. Smith, P.J., J. Callander, P.G. Bahn; G. Pinçon.(1997): Dorothy Garrod in words and pictures. Antiquity, 71: 265-70. Smith, P. J.; Mitchell, D. H. (eds.) (1998): Bringing Back the Past. Historical Perspectives on Canadian Archae- ology. Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, Quebec. Thompson, P.(2000): The Voice of the Past: Oral History. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Wylie, M.A.(1989): Matters of Fact and Matters of Interest. Archaeological Approaches to Cultural Identity (S. Shennan,ed.), Unwin Hyman, London: 94-109. Wylie, M.A.(1992): The Interplay of Evidential Constraints and Political Interests: Recent Archaeological Re- search on Gender. American Antiquity, 57: 15-35. Yow, V. R. (2005): Recording Oral History. A Guide for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Alta Mira Press, Walnut Creek.

Web sources

Ethical guidelines for interviewing: Oral History E-mail list: Oral History Society: Pitt Rivers Museum Garrod Photographic Collection: Portable recorders available with detail on how to use them:

Personal Histories Films on the web

A selection of Personal Histories films , for example Sir Tony Rob- inson speaking and on Facebook and on the University of Cambridge SMS for example An oral history of the New Archaeology of the 1960s

Manuscripts

Burkitt Family Archives, in possession of the Burkitt Family, held at the Burkitt home, Merton House, in Grantchester, Cambridge, UK. Burkitt, M.C. Papers: Cambridge University Library. Add. 7959, Boxes 1-5. Denston, C.B. No date, unpublished autobiography in possession of Charles Bernard Denston, Cambridge, UK. Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology Board Minutes 1947-1952, CUAMin.V.95. Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology Board Minutes 1952-1954, CUAMin.V.96. Garrod Papers, Fonds Suzanne Cassou de Saint-Mathurin de la Bibliotheque du Musee des Antiquites Nationales de Saint Germain-en-Laye. Lethbridge, T.C. [1965]. “The Ivory Tower”, unpublished autobiography in possession of P.J. Smith.

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