[Air-l] a little off topic; but help is needed

[Ed Lamoureux]

I'm sorry that this isn't directly on list/topic . . . but I suspect 
that someone on the list might know this one.
Our computer tech has a question about some "old" linguistic 
anthropology work. I don't have a good guess on this, let alone an 
answer.

thanks for helping if you can. He asks:

I remember something about a story where someone was making recordings 
of
a primitive tribe.  The tribe didn't understand why anyone would want
a recording of a song because they were always creating new songs.
The person making the recordings left a tape or record player with the
tribe.  When they revisited the tribe sometime later, they found they
were still singing the songs that had been recorded and had very few
new songs.

Any idea what book that was in?

Edward Lee Lamoureux, Ph. D.
Director, Multimedia Program and New Media Center
Associate Professor, Speech Communication
1501 W. Bradley
Bradley University
Peoria IL  61625
309-677-2378
http://hilltop.bradley.edu/~ell
http://gcc.bradley.edu/mm/