Born digital records of mexican indigenous people: A proposal to preserve sound and audiovisual documents of Raramuri´s culture

Abstract

Each day increases the amount of digital born sound and audiovisual documents as collections in libraries, archives and museums. However are unaware how these collections must be preserved for the future. Therefore, the risk of loss is increased. All types of sound and audiovisual recordings in risk if they are not documented and preserved properly, highlights the recordings of the indigenous peoples. This is serious phenomen becuase with the loss of an indigenous language will be lost knowledge, worldview, and the way of understanding the world of a social group. The diversity of the indigenous languages of Mexico as cultural heritage and as information resource, is under threat. Indeed, it has been noted that when concluded this century half of 6 thousand languages spoken in the world be it extinguished (UNESCO, 2003). Of these the most vulnerable are those who speak are in indigenous communities. Of the various strategies that have been proposed to preserve indigenous languages, emphasizes the recording of music, rituals, stories, among others. For this reason, sound and audiovisual documents of the indigenous peoples are valuable resources of information. Recordings of indigenous peoples of Mexico have a high documentary value, precisely as endangered documents. Therefore, this paper will present the progress of the project Digital preservation of born digital audiovisual and sound collections developed by UNAM and the École européenne Supérieure de l'image, Poitiers France; and sponsored by the PAPIIT (Programa de Apoyo a Proyectos de Investigación e Innovación Tecnológica). This international project will focus on addressing one of the priority issues in libraries and archives: the preservation of sound and audiovisual collections digital born. This project responds to the global trend characterized by the search for solutions to ensure that the sounds and images that reflect our identity should be preserved in the future.