PDF: Michael Naimark: Ifugao Question Journal, recorded 5–7 March 1983, Banaue, Ifugao Province, Luzon, Phillipines

In 1982 we were contemplating an encyclopedic that was so “complete” that you could ask any question and have a bit of confidence that you would get a useful answer. The only problem was that we had no idea what the range of possible questions might be. Realistically at that time most questions that might have occurred to you would flit quickly out of consciousness because you knew that getting an answer would be impossible or not worth the prodigious effort. So, we bought a bunch of micro-tape recorders which we gave to people and asked them to be conscious of those fleeting questions and record them. Michael Naimark, one of my colleagues at the lab took some tape recorders to a rural area of the Philippines. This is his report.