The project of the Archive of Greek Ethnography (AGE) started at the Ethnographic Laboratory in 2012 as part of the Laboratory’s objective to collect, record and classify ethnographic texts (books, articles in journals and collective volumes, dissertations) and other ethnographic materials which refer to modern Greece. Since 2019, after the signing of a memorandum of cooperation between the Laboratory and the National Documentation Centre (NDC) aiming at upgrading the Archive through openABEKT services, AGE entered a new phase.

The project is currently underway. A significant number of relevant publications are already available in the laboratory archive. In parallel with collecting the texts, the Laboratory is developing a compiled database for the ethnography of Greece.

The creation of a comprehensive database on the ethnography of Greece was supported, from 2013 onwards, through the participation of the Ethnographic Laboratory in a wide Research Action of the University of the Aegean on the “Development of a comprehensive research program on insularity”, in which we attempted a systematic recording, study and dissemination of the ethnographic and anthropological researches that have been carried out in the Aegean region, as well as the compilation of a database of the ethnographic and anthropological work on the Aegean.

(More specifically see, ” Creation of an Ethnographic Archive – Creation of an Oral History Archive”. Research team: Panayotis Panopoulos, Pothiti Hantzaroula [scientific directors], Maria Doukakarou, Despina Hamhale [researchers]. The project belonged to of Action 6 of the wider project: “The University of the Aegean, a key factor for the economic and social development of the Aegean area”, which was implemented under the Operational Program: “Education and Lifelong Learning” and co-funded by the European Union and National Resources [Scientific director: Nikolaos Soulakellis]. For the findings of the Action, see “Ethnographic and Historical Research in the Aegean: The Contribution of the Department of Social Anthropology and History” [In Greek]. Panayotis Panopoulos, Pothiti Hantzaroula, Maria Doukakarou & Despina Hamhale. In Insularity and sustainability: The case of the Aegean islands. Spilanis, G., Kizos, Th. & Karabela, S. eds. Mytilene: University of the Aegean ISBN: 978-960-88031-2-1, pp. 200-207. gr / images / Syllogikos_Tomos.pdf)).

This Action focused on the collection, recording, documentation, categorization and presentation of published (but also unpublished) ethnographic, anthropological, studies related to multiple aspects of social and cultural reality, as well as the everyday life, of the inhabitants of the Aegean region, the structural factors, the historical processes, the human-geographical components, the gradual transformations and the radical changes that contemporary living conditions (tourism, urbanization, etc.) bring to the islands and the islanders.

The production of a complete Database of the ethnographic work concerning the Aegean aspires to be the background for further research by researchers of the University of the Aegean, as well as by others, Greeks and foreigners, making the Department of Social Anthropology and History and the Ethnography Laboratory an international reference pole and field of attraction for anthropological research in Greece in general, and the Aegean area in particular.

Objectives of the Archive Greek Ethnography

1. Establishment of a Database of ethnographic material that presents a wide range of thematic fields (kinship, family, domestic space, inheritance, popular religion, pilgrimage, ritual, local identity, community, memory, work, politics, gender relations, music, dance, migration, refugee crisis), on which there is available research material that has been collected through the application of anthropological qualitative methods.

Categories / forms of material:

1. Printed material

– Books, articles in journals and collective volumes, special volumes in journals.

– Academic theses (doctoral dissertations, graduate theses, undergraduate theses), research group reports, research proposals.

1. Ethnographic archival material

– Ethnographic calendars

– Visual material (photos, videos)

– Audio material (recordings)

– Material evidence of research missions

2. Selective digitization.

3. Spatial mapping of ethnographic research in Greece in a special Atlas of Greek ethnography.

4. Development of cooperation with the summer schools of the University of the Aegean.

5. Development and support of research that will capitalize the existing stock of ethnographic knowledge for the Greek area in the wider, Greek and international, academic environment, aiming at consolidating the specifics and comparative advantages of the Department of Social Anthropology and History of the University of the Aegean , as well as expanding future goals and strategies for further development of the research and educational role of the University of the Aegean.

6. Dissemination of the knowledge that will be documented by this project to the local communities, through collaboration with local documentation foundations [local archives, municipal and other libraries, clubs, associations].

The Archive currently includes a large number of digital items of various content. The collection and distribution of all documents is done on the basis of the principles for copyright, while the continuous enrichment of the Archive with new material is achieved through collaborations with individual researchers and institutions.