This article discusses how poststructuralism changes the concept of sources in the field of history. Translating the postcolonial debate about representation of the Acultural Other@ to the question of the historian representing the Apast Other@, the article draws on Jacques Derrida's theories of translation to form a concept of historical sources as "un/original events." Such events create Ahypothetical equivalences@ in their translation of conflicting discourses. Methods emphasizing this performative aspect of sources are discussed in relation to an interpretation of sources informed by Clifford Geertz’ hermeneutic cultural history.