Collectors’ biases shape which non-European tales survive and how they sound

Evidence

The stories in this volume come from every part of the world, and on purpose: Europe is one tradition here among many, not the centre. But a story rarely reaches us untouched. The African and Native American tales especially come down through collectors who were often outsiders — colonial officers, missionaries, travelers — who chose what to keep and how it should sound. The tale may be ancient and true; the hand that wrote it down had its own time, place, and power. — , A Year of World Stories, 17

Categorization

• QUESTION: Which specific collectors and what choices did they make for the African and Native American tales in this volume? Worth chasing the named translators.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s knowledge of colonial-era ethnography and how Tempels and other outsiders framed African thought. — connects to: Identical tales arising at opposite ends of Europe raise the travel-versus-independent question — , A Year of World Stories, 14038; Surviving records bias our picture of ancient child-rearing toward literate cultures. — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 1212; Antiquarian collectors prized books whose content contradicted their conservative values — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 548 (+2 more)

Related

• Surviving records bias our picture of ancient child-rearing toward literate cultures. (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Surviving records bias our picture of ancient child-rearing toward literate cultures. #corroborates (0.60) — , The Rod and the Child, 1212
• Antiquarian collectors prized books whose content contradicted their conservative values #exemplifies (0.50) — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 548
• Identical tales arising at opposite ends of Europe raise the travel-versus-independent question #complicates (0.40) — , A Year of World Stories, 14038
• For centuries listeners have prized tales where cunning defeats brute strength #exemplifies (0.30) — , A Year of World Stories, 14594