Collaboration, Multivocality, and the Unfinished Story of a Tale Collection

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-1-2019

Publication Title

Journal of American Folklore

Volume

132

Issue

523

First page number:

61

Last page number:

73

Abstract

From 1976–1978, UCLA PhD student Ronald B. Melton travelled to the state of Sonora in Mexico with his wife, Lily Villanueva Melton, to record legends and folktales for his dissertation research, though he died before he was able to complete the project. Historian Miriam Melton-Villanueva (their daughter) and folklorist Sheila Bock discuss key considerations framing their attempts to present the unfinished story of this tale collection, attending specifically to the role of “women's work” and the dynamics of presence and absence shaping their participation in an ongoing, collaborative research process.

Keywords

Ethnographic Archives; Family Archives; Fieldwork; Gender

Disciplines

Anthropology | Folklore | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Language

English

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