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Essentiality. the thesis hopes to document the "folk history" ofone community's<br />
involvement in the Labrador fishery. According to Dorson. folk history is oral traditional<br />
history which seeks out the topics and themes \\hich the people wish to talk about the<br />
personal and immediate history with which the) are concerned.56 A key aspect oforal<br />
folk history is that more than one "folk" exists and each folk group regards events and<br />
personalities ofthe past through its own particular lens. 51 cholarly disciplines have<br />
endlessly debated the trustworthiness of folk hislory. Ho\\cvcr, folk memory is reliable.<br />
particularity when the following conditions have been mel:<br />
continuity of residence in the area ofthe lradilion<br />
reinforcement oflhe traditions with reference to surrounding landmarks<br />
the training, fonnal or informal. oforal chroniclers within the society.<br />
What the folk historian wishes to record is not just the plain unvarnished fact but<br />
all the motions, biases, and reactions aroused by the supposcd fact. for in them lay the<br />
historical perspectives."<br />
A good example of this approach is John W. Blassingamc's 71,c Slal'c<br />
COllllllunity: Planll/tioll Life in the Antebellllm SO/lth. I Ie uses lIutobiogmphics ofsJavcs<br />
as his prime source and provides a critical essny on all his sources. Ilis chapter on culture<br />
56 Richard Dorson, "The Oral Historian and the Folklorist," quoted by Larry Danielson in<br />
"The Folklorist. the Oral Historian, and Local History:' in David K. Dunaway and Willa<br />
K. Baum, Oral History: An Inlerdisciplinary Anthology (Nashville, TN: American<br />
Association for Stale and Local History. 1984) p. 179.<br />
51 Richard Dorsan. "The Oral Historian and the Folklorist:' in David K. Dunaway and<br />
Willa K. Baum. Oral HislOry: An Imerdisciplinary Anthology (Nashville. TN: American<br />
Association for State and Local HiSlory. 1984) p. 299.<br />
n Ibid.<br />
34