Between texts and contexts: the concept of «community» and its historical sources

Abstract

This paper comprises three different parts. First, it is centered on a discussion of the concept of «community» in the framework of the convergence between the approaches of history and the social sciences, with particular attention devoted to local history. In the second part, it offers several examples of analyses made possible from Portuguese historical records, and stresses the dangers arising from the full acceptance of the image reflected in the documents themselves prior to a theoretical reinterpretation of those data. The last section concludes it is possible to employ the concept of «community» in local historical studies as long as the records used are not regarded as mere products of the community, but are placed in the framework of the articulation between the community and the «outside world», and some comments are made on the necessity to replace the discussion on the representativeness of the chosen community by one which focuses on the internal consistency and the external congruency of its analysis.