Brev och belägg i jakten på folkminnen

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Abstract

The focus of this article is Karl-Gösta Gilstrings (1915–1986) folklore collection at the Department of dialectology and folklore research in Uppsala. The aim is to investigate Gilstring’s collection, with emphasis on how he selected and transformed folklore in the collecting process. The article con guided by a devolutionary principle and theories of diffusion and evolution, it is not straightforward. The collection is shaped by a wide range of factors, scientific, academic, and personal as well as incidental, not the least by the relationships Gilstring established with the informants. The article argues that understanding the complex process of collecting folklore, gives knowledge of the premises that shaped folklore archives. In addition, this knowledge makes it possible to formulate new research questions about collections, and to gain new knowledge of the past, not the least about earlier research practices and collecting methods.