From the project to the archives: changes and methodological strategies while assembling a documentary corpus

Abstract

This article shows the process of assembling a corpus of historical documentsto study the Malfín and Andalgalá native groups in the Province of Tucumán during the 17th and 18th centuries. I will focus on the difficulties and challenges of reconstructing their history through fragmentary and scattered documentation, reflecting on two experiences that might be enlightening to other researchers. The first one involves the Archivo Histórico de la Provincia de Córdoba where most of the colonial papers were not available for consultation due to conservation restrictions, which led me to redefine my investigation. The second experience revolves around an unpublished handwritten notebook, in which the scholar Samuel Lafone Quevedo transcribes and comments historical documentation from Catamarca. This manuscript, held at the Museo de La Plata, was photocopied and annotated by Ana María Lorandi, making it a multivocal source that required a careful methodological approach.