GUIDE English Historia Falada

1- A Brief History of the Museum of the Person: In Search of it's
Essence


Lately, more people, groups, and institutions are discovering the value
of telling their story. This guide indicates how to take part in this
valorization of personal narrative. To this end, it describes the essence
of the work of the Museum of the Person, an online museum that exhibits
life stories. The Museum of the Person is open to everyone who wants to
tell, or "register" their story, as well as get to know the life stories
of other people. The vision of the Museum, created in 1991, is to
contribute to the democratization of social memory, recognizing the value
of the life stories of each and any person. When the Museum of the Person
encourages people to tell and listen to their own life stories, it seeks
to collaborate with the development of a society that recognizes and
values others.


We believe that every life history is valuable, and should be part of
social memory. We also believe that listening to others is essential to
respecting and understanding them, and that every person can play a role
in changing history.


The Museum of the Person is a non-profit public interest organization
based in São Paulo. In 1996, it released its first site and in 2003 it
opened www.museudapessoa.net, which provided online tools for people and
communities to create their own collections of stories. In its 9 years
of existence, the Museum of the Person in Brazil inspired the formation
of three other Museums internationally. Today, the Museum of the Person
International Network includes Museums in Portugal (www.museu-da-
pessoa.net), the United States (www.bloomington.in.us/~mop-i) and in
Canada (www.museedelapersonne.ca).

Over the course of its work, the Museum of the Person has developed a
methodology for the registration and publication of personal narratives.
The Museum bases this methodology on Oral History techniques.[1] This
methodology is the cornerstone of the Museum of the Person's professionals,
and has resulted in a diversification of the historical archive. Today,
the Museum stores more than four thousand stories and six thousand
digitalized photos and documents. The Museum has also produced 80 "memory
projects." These projects document the history of particular institutions,
communities, schools, and companies. Each project is individually
designed; and they often result in community and educational outreach and
development. The final presentation of memory projects can take different
forms. Past projects have resulted in books, educational publications,
thematic museums, expositions, documentaries, virtual museums, and a base
for educational and cultural action that confirms the richness of the
content and the power of life stories.
In the dream of creating an expansive virtual network of life stories,
the Museum of the Person has begun to spread its methodology, by
encouraging schools, syndicates, companies, and social organizations to
construct their own stories. This work has led the Museum of the Person to
review and permanently renovate its working methods.
With this guide, we seek to share with new audiences our way of
understanding and making history. We hope that this guide will stimulate
and strengthen new initiatives, which will certainly greaten our learning.
The objective is to encourage people to tell their own stories; because
stories are related to everybody, and gain a new dimension when they are
connected in a network.





2. Basic Concepts: Memory, History, and Life Stories


To begin, it is prudent to analyze our notions of memory, history,
and life story. The concept of memory is studied in diverse academic
disciplines, such as Anthropology, and Neurology, along with History
and Psychology. From these fields of study spring various
definitions and approaches: short-term memory, long-term memory,
corporal and cognitive memory, and even "ancestral memory," as
discussed by Ailton Krenak in his article in this book.
If we adopt a simple definition of memory, from the Aurélio
Dictionary –"the faculty of having again ideas, impressions, and
knowledge previously obtained" – we can say that memory presupposes
register; even though such register may take place in our own bodies.
But this "register" is not unconditional, as if we were a blank page
printed with our successive experiences. We retain that which, for
one reason or another, has or had some significance in our lives. In
this way, our individual memory is unique; for even if we have lived
the same experiences as others, each of us selects and composes our
own group of registers in a type of "personal patrimony."[2] On the
other hand, it is important to highlight that in spite of being
unique, we are historical beings. That is to say, our language, the
clothes we wear, and our way of deciding what is significant or not
are influenced by the time period and place in which we live. We are
always part of a social web. What a surprise it would be to one day
wake up speaking another language, or considering centuries old
behavior normal. Many films deal with this issue: trips across time
and space that bring the main character to feel like a person from
"another planet." The group of memories registered as significant by
a community ends up establishing one's identity, one's way of being
and seeing the world. These "registers" originate in the historical
and cultural parameters of each group, and they establish what we
call social memory. The possibility of sharing this memory is that
it gives, to each of us, a sense of belonging. It means a creative
and dynamic relationship between the individual and the group.[3]
Our memory and the ways that we remember are formed by collective
experience.[4] But it is important to remember that individuals do
not necessarily "represent" the group, and that the group is not
homogeneous either. Within any given group, there may be multiple
memories.
The way in which a person or a group organizes and narrates what it
keeps brings us to the concept of history. Each culture constructs
its own way of appropriation and organization of the world; and,
certainly, notions of history vary from one culture to another. This
discourse is so great that it forms the base of an academic
discipline: the historical epistemology. Even though the Museum of
the Person does not specialize in this field, it is important to
point out that there is much more behind "making history" than simply
collecting facts, documents, and photographs on a timeline.[5] But
here we will focus on the narrative aspect of history.[6]
Independent of its relationship with the past, every history is a
narrative organized by someone (be it a community, a historian, an
official agency, or the media), over a certain period of time, and
implies a selection of facts and characters. Every story has an
author, or authors that select and articulate the registers of the
memory. Even though everyone agrees that history "speaks" of the
past, the construction of historical narrative occurs invariably in
the present.
And what about life histories? What's special about them? Life
history is a narrative constructed from what each individual stores,
selectively, in his memory. It corresponds to how we organize and
translate for others part of the things we lived and knew. The type
of narrative we construct depends largely upon the situation that
provokes a telling: a job interview, a psychoanalysis session, or a
journalistic interview will certainly lead to different life
histories. Our life stories also change in accordance to the phases
in our lives, and our dreams at the moment. For these reasons, we
say that life histories do not tell only a person's "past," but also
reveal much about their present and indicate, in part, their
future.[7] It is in this fact that the power of life history is
found. In revealing, explaining, and organizing life histories, we
rethink and reorganize standards and values often considered
absolutes.
Just as a personal history is a collection of what was selectively
stored in our memory, group history is a collection of what was
selectively stored in social memory.[8] Normally, what a group
"registers" in its memory is that which, in the present moment, it
considers important.[9] It is the reigning social structure that
determines which memories have value. And normally, it is this same
social structure that subsidizes the construction of official
historical narrative (registered and consolidated in documents,
educational books and movies.)
In one single group various types of "historical narratives" can co-
exist; but certainly some "narratives" dominate the group's ways of
communication and transmitting value. A one-sided history creates
the illusion that the world has "always" been like this. Reviewing
such values, increasing the number of "authors," provides the
opportunity for the construction of multiple historical narratives
and disseminates the protagonist of each one. In this way, we come
to oral history's potential to serve as a tool for social inclusion.
By strengthening the sense of belonging and of authorship, added to
the possibility of making oneself heard is the great social direction
that a memory project can take.[10]


3. Designing an oral memory project: What history to tell?



A life history project can focus on different objectives, themes,
actions, and products. However, be it a personal project or a
community memory project, constructing a history implies explaining,
selecting, organizing and producing narratives. The person that
tells his story perceives the greatness of what he has done and
reaffirms his capacity to decide and participate. In sharing his
statement, the person becomes aware of it's greater context. He
realizes that the situations lived by individuals go beyond
individual experience. His story, added to other people's, creates a
collective story with greater social, political, cultural and
economic meanings. To integrate people by means of telling their
experiences is fundamental to break isolation of some social groups
and encourage change in social, political, and economic relations.

To construct projects that make sense within institutions,
communities, or groups, it is important to begin discussing the
"limits," the intentions and the direction of the project within the
particular group. What story does the group want to tell? The group
or person who produces the history is really the "author" that
transforms "memory registers" into narrative. This group or person's
role is to collect, explain, select, organize and articulate the
history. The movement always has an initial demand, and is always
motivated by a "why" that translates the feeling of memory for the
group. The demand is related to the "for what?" For what purpose do
we want to construct a history? What are the group's objectives?
Depending on the objectives, historians select the "sources" that
define the type of material that will be consulted and the people
that will be interviewed. Finally, it is important to establish the
"for who?" That is to say, for what target demographic is the
initiative directed? Why? For what purpose? Who participates? This
series of questions defines the type of story that will be
constructed. Each of these questions brings a choice. The answers
establish the guidelines for the project. The below diagram shows
the dynamics of this process:






























Memory: The group of registers that will be organized

History/Which history do we want to tell?: The narrative that will be
produced.

Memory meanings: Why? What is the direction of this project for the
group? The action of a project corresponds to the "demand" of the
group. This demand establishes that which we call "meanings of
memory." By means of memory we establish a sense of belonging and
we define the identity of our group. Memory strengthens self esteem,
because we recognize others as a knowledge carriers and also because
a group's intangible knowledge is preserved. To clearly identify
principal demand(s) (what are the memory meanings that move the
project actors?) helps to define time and space parameters/limits, to
identify interviewees, define products, and prioritize actions.

Objectives: For what purpose? Where do we want to go with his
project? The projects can have diverse objectives, like interaction
between different age groups, literacy among children, youths, and
adults, appreciation of the elderly, a new version of history or to
pass along values and knowledge.

Sources: Who will be part of this history? Which people? What
material will we include in the history? If we are developing a Life
Story project, the interviewees will be our main source of
information; but we should not forget that other materials could and
should be used as sources, such as documents and images. Further, we
should think about who will be interviewed.

Public: For who? Who is our final target demographic? Knowing
beforehand to whom we want to tell the story defines, in great part,
the final product and format our research will take.


Example: The Story of the Popcorn Vendors
Let's try a simple example to show how the different responses
to the questions in the diagram provoke different memory projects.


First Project
Let's say I'm the leader of a group of retired street popcorn
sellers. I realize that our profession is dying, because we are
being substituted by Popcorn stands in movie theaters and in shopping
centers. My group's self-esteem is low, rarely are we recognized by
society, and slowly our street carts are disappearing, without anyone
taking note. Many sellers in the group are sick and sad. So I
decide to tell the story of the popcorn sellers!
The direction of the project, in this case, is to bring value to
the group. The objective is also clear: to mobilize the popcorn
sellers and highlight their role in the community, since the popcorn
carts were, and continue to be, a cherished urban memory.
What sources of information will the project use? Certainly
interviewees will include popcorn sellers, along with people who
remember what it was like to play in the public plazas and eat
popcorn before entering the cinema.
Towards what public will the project be directed? It will be
directed to he very group of retired sellers, their families, and
also to future generations. After answering these questions, it is
easier to think about the form of the final product: the project
could result in a book, an exposition, or in a personal album for
sellers.


Second Project
This time I'm an investor and I recognize an opportunity to start a
popcorn factory that sells popcorn with "that old time flavor." So
I begin to research how it was that the vendors made popcorn decades
earlier.
What direction is the memory taking in this scenario? What reason
is fueling the project? I want to learn and to salvage traditional
production knowledge because I realize that popcorn making techniques
have changed and the "old time flavor" is disappearing.
What is the project's objective? We can say that it is knowledge,
since I will find information that will improve my recipies as well
as my marketing actions.
What about my sources? This time, more than the popcorn sellers, I
will use testimonies from the popcorn suppliers and customers of the
era.
And the target demographic? The project will be directed towards
my technicians and work team. The final project will be, basically,
a manual.


Third Project
But let's say that the objective of the project is to mobilize
young people to help construct a more solid city. This means the
project intends to bring together different generations, in order to
pass along virtues and values. The sources will be the "old" popcorn
sellers, the older residents of the neighborhood, and the guards in
the Plaza…In this case, the public will be the very authors of the
project, the youths who will realize the richness found in the life
story of a popcorn seller. The final product may be a theatrical play
or a live story-telling session.
-----------------------
[1] "Interviewing is not simply a way of gathering information. Human
skills are necessary, such as patience, humility, and a desire to learn
with others and to respect their points of view and values, even if you do
not share them." (Thompson, P. and Hugo Slim p.3/4.)
[2] "Every person is unique: his perceptions are, in a way, creations, and
his memories are part of an imagination always in movement." Sacks, Oliver.
In: "The Invention of Memory". Israel Rosenfeld. Flammarion. 1994. p.15
[3] "The principle that memory makes us is also the principle that we make
memory. The representations from history are praxis, and are connected as
formulas in cumulative form." Tonkin, Elizabeth, p. 117.
[4] Our memories remain collective, and they are remembered by others, even
if they deal with happenings in which only we were involved, and with
objects which only we saw. " Halwbachs,M. p.26.
[5] "The events aren't things, consistent objects, substances; they are a
cut in the reality that we operate freely, a group of processes where
substances in interaction, men and things act" Paul Veyne, p.54
[6] "A story is a narration, true or false, based on historical reality or
pure imagination." LE GOFF, Jacques. História e Memória. Tradução de
Bernardo leitão. Campinas: Editora da Unicamp, 1996.
[7] "Our intentions for our future are based in the past. Without memory
we can't imagine. For how would we know what to see? " Tonkin, E. pág.
104.
[8] "Memory plays a part in sense of identity, individual and collective,
in that it is extremely important for a sense of individual or group
continuity and coherence." (POLLAK, 1992: 204)
[9] "It is important to ask: who wants what to be remembered and why?
Which version of the past is registered and preserved?" BURKE, Peter.
"History as Social Memory" in The World as a Theater – Studies in
Historical Antrhopology, Lisboa. Difel. 1992.
[10] "More than attending to everyone's basic necessities, social inclusion
means the valorization each person as an individual and as a citizen and
his integration into groups that evolve his sense of belonging..." Silvio
Caccia Bava –Social Technology and Local Development: A Strategy for
Development p.116

-----------------------
Memory



Author(s)
Who transforms memory into narrative?

Sources


Memory meanings


The Public



Objectives


History