Fieldworkdeals with the practical, mechanical, ethical, and theoretical aspects of collecting data. Jackson discusses how fieldworkers define their role, how they relate to others in the field, and how they go about recording for later use what occurred in their presence. This treatment offers an abundance of useful information to those who do folklore fieldwork as well as those who work in any of the other social sciences or humanities. An appendix relates the author's own experiences while documenting Texas's death row.
Bruce Jacksonis director of the Center for Studies in American Culture, State University of New York at Buffalo. A past president of the American Folklore Society, he is the editor of theJournal of American Folkloreand the author, editor, producer, and director of numerous books, articles, records, and films.