Fumblefingers! I meant "preserved".

But I do think that the relationship to a folk song, in a folksong singer, goes deeper than simply how that person was brought up, or which society (s)he now inhabits. That's the whole thing about "roots". If that is not so then it may be inferred that it is also so for other cultural historical matters, then the whole process of roots discovery for African-Americans is unfounded.

I tend to think that the process for African-Americans to discover and link to their roots, and take pride in their lineage and cultural history, is a good thing (but isn't it odd how people who say they are reincarnated have only ever been rich or famous in their previous lives?). But if (as I think is right) we reject the falsity of those who wake up in Wigan one morning and suddenly decide to be an Indian chief, then we must say the same about those who wake up one morning in Salford and suddenly decide to be Scottish.

The cultural past that one has includes the cultural past of ones forbears, it seems to me, and nature cannot be wholly supplanted by nurture although it may be influenced.