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FOLKLIFE
AND FIELDWORK: A Layman's Introduction to Field Techniques
When
the first edition of Folklife and
Fieldwork was published in 1979
there were only a handful of professional state folklorists. Today nearly
every state has a program for documenting and presenting its own folk cultural
heritage. Folklife fieldwork has gone beyond its early missions of preservation
and scholarship to serve new uses, such as providing information to economists,
environmentalists, and community planners. New technologies for preserving
and presenting traditional cultural expression have been developed. A new
generation of professionally trained folklorists have emerged from university
programs, and many now work in state and local organizations to sponsor
concerts, website presentations, exhibits, and other cultural heritage
programs.
But regardless of the number of folklorists available for professional
projects or the sophistication of the technology, there is still a need
for the participation of all citizens in the process of documenting our
diverse traditional culture.
Published in print by The Library of Congress: [Display
Bibliographic Information] First Edition Prepared
1979 by Peter Bartis; Revised 2002. Publications of the American
Folklife Center, no. 3;
First printed 1979; revised 1990; 2002. Translation of the Spanish languge
version by Pampa Rótolo, 2004. Both printed versions are available.
Caption for the image: During a July
1994 American Folklife Center field school project in San Luis, Colorado,
participants Laura Hunt (left) and Beverly Morris (right) interview rancher
Corpus Gallegos on the vega, a cattle grazing area held in common by the
community. Photo by Miguel Gandert
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