"More relevantly, he did not rate Sharp's theory much and he described it as Darwinian as opposed to Spenserian"
That again is a hastily snatched totally undigested quote - go read rge whole book
Wilgus's 'Folk Songs Scholarship.... is an overview of 20th century folk song reasearch - it is unequaled by any other study in my opinion
He examines the collectors and researchers in the context of their time, (which Harker totally failed to do) and highlights the weaknesses and the strengths
Taking a single criticism to use as a stone to hurl in an argument more or less sums up the attitude of the Harker- worshipers
I have little doubt that if Destructive Dave's interest had been in science or medicine he would have chosen Galileo or Faraday, or Boyle or Newton as his targets
We should be capable of learning from those who came before - not pulling down their work in order to replace it with the latest theory

Thank you Cj - much appreciated
Jim Carroll