Finnegan Ruth. Oral traditions and the verbal arts: A guide to research practices

Routledge, 1991. — 304 p.This is a book about the study of human communication, or, to be more precise, of that aspect of it which involves the performance of songs, myths, stories, folktales, and similar forms of verbal artistry. Folklorists have always had to face the theoretical and methodological issues posed by collecting, transcribing, and analysing such material, of course, but there can surely be no social or cultural anthropologist who has not also grappled with similar problems, and few indeed who would not say with hindsight how much they would have benefited from this clear, thoughtprovoking statement of how best to go about it.