Southern Appalachian Community Research Articles

Unveiling the scientists and engineers in the Southern Appalachian community

Unveiling the scientists and engineers in the Southern Appalachian community

The Hanging of David Creigh: The Civil War and Union War Policies in a Southern Appalachian Community

The Hanging of David Creigh: The Civil War and Union War Policies in a Southern Appalachian Community

The Association of Different Cyber-Victimization Types With Current Psychological and Health Status in Southern Appalachian Communities.

Research on cyber-victimization has primarily focused on cyberbullying conducted in urban and suburban (metropolitan) settings. We explore a range of cyber-victimizations, including financially motivated offenses and cyberbullying, and their associations with current psychological and health status in a nonmetropolitan sample from southern Appalachia. The forms of cyber-victimization were drawn from focus groups and interviews, and then self-report data on 14 types of cyber-victimization were collected from 478 individuals (57.1% female; age M = 36.44, SD = 16.61). Approximately 3 out of 4 participants (74.7%) reported experiencing at least one cyber-victimization. Cyber-victimization made many participants feel "very upset" (average 55.7%). Many forms of cyber-victimization were associated with elevated trauma symptoms, and lower subjective well-being and health-related quality of life. Cyber-victimization is common in this southern Appalachian community, with financially motivated incidents leading to higher prevalence rates than found in many other studies. In these data, numerous specific types of victimization, including cyber-theft, fraud, and legal-but-intrusive privacy invasions, were associated with worse psychological and physical health. More research is needed on technology-mediated victimization and these types of victimization should be more routinely included in violence assessments.

The emergence of a new pronunciation variant in a culturally changing appalachian community

The dialect spoken in the small southern Appalachian community in Western North Carolina, formally a part of the Inland South, represents the most archaic features of Southern English, including monophthongization of the diphthong /ai/ to [a:]. While Southerners produce the monophthong before voiced consonants (“prize”) all across the South, pre-voiceless monophthongization (“price”) is more restricted and still occurs in the Inland South. However, as the local culture is gradually shifting toward new mainstream sociocultural norms, so does the local dialect. To document the sound change in progress, this acoustic study examined the /ai/-monophthongization across several generations of local speakers ranging from 8 to 91 year olds, 58 males and 60 females, using a style shifting paradigm. Older generations produced the monophthong irrespective of speaking style and consonant context. Young adults introduced the diphthongal variant in pre-voiceless context. The actual departure from the monophthong occurre...

Physiological Characteristics of Southern Appalachian High-Elevation Rock Outcrop Herbs on Clear and Cloudy Days

ABSTRACT High-elevation species in some Southern Appalachian communities have been shown to be dependent on frequent cloud immersion. However, little is known about the influence of clouds on rare and endemic species native to high-elevation rock outcrops. These outcrops are characterized by shallow soil and high insolation, exposing species to frequent water stress, which might be partially ameliorated by cloud immersion. We compared leaf gas-exchange characteristics of two rock outcrop specialists (Hydatica petiolaris and Sibbaldiopsis tridentata) and two forest-edge herb generalists (Potentilla simplex and Solidago flexicaulis) growing at a high-elevation outcrop in the Craggy Mountains in North Carolina. At least 1 hr of cloud immersion occurred on 67% of days, mostly in the morning hours, whereas most (54%) daylight hours were cloudy. Temperature was lower and humidity higher on cloudy days. Light response curves did not reveal differences among species. Diurnal gas-exchange curves revealed that lea...

God and Man at a Southern Appalachian Community College: Cognitive Dissonance and the Cultural Logics of Conservative News Talk Radio Programming

God and Man at a Southern Appalachian Community College: Cognitive Dissonance and the Cultural Logics of Conservative News Talk Radio Programming

Palliative Sedation in a Southern Appalachian Community

Of 1200 palliative care patients, 28 received palliative sedation. They were more likely than patients without palliative sedation to have an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of at least 3, a cancer diagnosis, an expected survival of weeks or less, to have been monitored by the palliative care team for at least 1 week, to have delirium as the cause of decreased communication, to have dyspnea as a non-pain symptom, and to be less able to communicate symptoms. Almost 90% received palliative sedation for at least 24 hours for a median of 3 days (range, 0 to 24 days). Home patients received palliative sedation longer. Symptoms were controlled in 82% and improved in the rest. Sedation developed in 79% but was not required for symptom control in 5. Patient survival from palliative care consultation was a median of 8 days (range, 0 to 32 days).

Property and Gender in the Inheritance Patterns of a Southern Appalachian Community: Boone County, West Virginia, 1865-1924

This article reviews the wills recorded in a rural county in southern West Virginia over a seven-decade period. It analyzes changes through time in the division of property by gender and implications about the meaning of gender within the context of the history of the United States and the women’s movement. The analysis is grounded in studies of Southern Appalachian culture and argues briefly for an ecological model in the examination of inheritance and property distribution.

Southern Heritage on Display: Public Ritual and Ethnic Diversity within Southern Regionalism

This provocative collection draws on extensive ethnographic fieldwork to shed light on the role that public ceremonies play in affirming or debunking cultural identities associated with the South. W.J. Cash's 1941 observation that "there are many Souths and many cultural traditions among them" is certainly validated by this book. Although the Civil War and its "lost cause" tradition continues to serve as a cultural root paradigm in celebrations, both uniting and dividing loyalties, southerners also embrace a panoply of public tituals - parades, cook-offs, kinship homecomings, church assemblies, music spectacles, and material culture exhibitions - that affirm other identities. From the Appalachian uplands to the Mississippi Delta, from Kentucky bluegrass to Carolina piedmont, southerners celebrate in festivals that showcase their diverse cultural backgrounds and their mythic beliefs about themselves. The ten essays of this cohesive, interdisciplinary collection present event-centered research from various fields of study - anthropology, geography, history, and literature - to establish a rich, complex picture of the stereotypically "Solid South." Topics include the Mardi Gras Indian song cycle as a means of expressing African-American identity in New Orleans; powwow performances and Native American traditions in southeast North Carolina; religious healings in southern Appalachian communities; Mexican Independence Day festivals in central Florida; and, in eastern Tennessee, bonding ceremonies of melungeons who share Indian, Scots Irish, Mediterranean, and African ancestry. Seen together, these public heritage displays reveal a rich "creole" of cultures that have always been a part of southern life and that continue to affirm a flourishing regionalism. This book will be valuable to students and scholars of cultural anthropology, American studies, and southern history; academic and public libraries; and general readers interested in the American South. It contributes a vibrant, colorful layer of understanding to the continuously emerging picture of complexity in this region historically depicted by simple stereotypes.

Locals on Local Color: Imagining Identity in Appalachia

Certain Appalachian stereotypes were widely accepted by the early twentieth century, yet most people in the United States had never visited the region. Although information about the area was limited and came largely through a few channels, a general consensus about Appalachia nonetheless emerged in the popular culture: Appalachia was a place apart, a different and sometimes dangerous place, a place whose people possessed only the mere rudiments of civilization. Largely created by outsiders, this popular image of the region emerged during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries in the writing of short-story authors, novelists, missionaries, social workers, handicraft organizers, and academics whose work forged a remarkably enduring stereotype of the region and its people. Where were Appalachian people in this process? Much recent analysis of the social construction of Appalachian identity has them silent and passive, objects of description and scrutiny who themselves contributed little to the popular conception of Appalachia. Were they in fact unaware of the stereotype, as the notion of Appalachian ignorance and illiteracy might suggest? Did their isolation hinder access to the media that perpetuated such stereotypes? There was in fact an Appalachian reaction to the social construction of identity, but because it occurred on a local rather than a national scale, its influence on popular conceptions of Appalachia was muted. Instead, the writings of outsiders, mainly local colorists and the early academics who studied the region, created a canonical set of ideas about Appalachia. Using similar descriptive language these authors freely exchanged themes and imagery across the boundary between fiction and nonfiction, creating tropes that continue to resonate in American popular culture, influencing depictions of mountain folk in movies, television shows, and comic strips. One specific descriptive essay about a southern Appalachian community, written in 1913 by Harold W. Foght, an educational reformer and academic, illustrates this process. His depiction of this community owes more to imagery borrowed from local-color novels than to first-hand observation. An explanation for this seeming violation of academic integrity, can be found in the ideology of rural educational reform and the then-current methodology for promoting it. The republication of the essay within the mountain community itself gave this group of Appalachians a chance to read and comment on a highly stereotyped depiction of themselves. Editorials and letters printed in the county newspaper provide a rare opportunity to assess Appalachian awareness of the dynamics of information and power that dominated the region's relations with mainstream America. Local reactions vehemently rejected Foght's depiction of the Appalachian stereotype, but the unequal access to information networks by Appalachians and outsiders ultimately determined whose version of Appalachia was accepted. Stock images of Appalachians permeate popular culture. Movies, television, comic strips, and postcards feature the lanky, gun-toting, grizzle-bearded man with a jug of moonshine in one hand and a coon dog at his feet, the archetypal patriarch of the mountains. Other familiar characters include the sallow matriarch, corncob pipe planted firmly between her lips; a genial and gangling youth, physically powerful but intellectually naive; and a buxom and almost equally dim female counterpart. Snuffy Smith, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Li'l Abner informed America about hillbillies. (1) Through such portrayals, the media transform everyday objects of mountain life into icons of popular culture. Shotgun, corncob pipe, and banjo serve as shorthand for a host of preconceptions about Appalachians. The corncob pipe perpetually upon Granny's lips transgresses female behavioral norms, underscoring the degradation of mountain culture. Most people outside the region would have viewed hunting as a leisure activity rather than a vital contribution to subsistence; thus, shotgun and coon dog become emblematic of the Appalachian male's shiftlessness. …

Southern heritage on display: public ritual and ethnic diversity within southern regionalism

This provocative collection draws on extensive ethnographic fieldwork to shed light on the role that public ceremonies play in affirming or debunking cultural identities associated with the W.J. Cash's 1941 observation that there are many Souths and many cultural traditions among them is certainly validated by this book. Although the Civil War and its lost cause tradition continues to serve as a cultural root paradigm in celebrations, both uniting and dividing loyalties, southerners also embrace a panoply of public tituals - parades, cook-offs, kinship homecomings, church assemblies, music spectacles, and material culture exhibitions - that affirm other identities. From the Appalachian uplands to the Mississippi Delta, from Kentucky bluegrass to Carolina piedmont, southerners celebrate in festivals that showcase their diverse cultural backgrounds and their mythic beliefs about themselves. The ten essays of this cohesive, interdisciplinary collection present event-centered research from various fields of study - anthropology, geography, history, and literature - to establish a rich, complex picture of the stereotypically Solid South. Topics include the Mardi Gras Indian song cycle as a means of expressing African-American identity in New Orleans; powwow performances and Native American traditions in southeast North Carolina; religious healings in southern Appalachian communities; Mexican Independence Day festivals in central Florida; and, in eastern Tennessee, bonding ceremonies of melungeons who share Indian, Scots Irish, Mediterranean, and African ancestry. Seen together, these public heritage displays reveal a rich creole of cultures that have always been a part of southern life and that continue to affirm a flourishing regionalism. This book will be valuable to students and scholars of cultural anthropology, American studies, and southern history; academic and public libraries; and general readers interested in the American It contributes a vibrant, colorful layer of understanding to the continuously emerging picture of complexity in this region historically depicted by simple stereotypes.

The Pond Mountain Chronicle: Self Portrait of a Southern Appalachian Community by Leland R. Cooper and Mary Lee Cooper (review)

Leland R. Cooper and Mary Lee Cooper. The Pond Mountain Chronicle: Self Portrait of a Southern Appalachian Community. Jefferson, North Carolina, 1998. 226 pages. Index. Paper. $25.00. This is a most interesting oral history collection of thirty interviews with thirty-two traditional folk ofnortheastern Avery County, North Carolina. All are residents of a six-mile-long valley below Pond Mountain. McFarland and Company, a scholarly reference publisher, is wholly owned by neighbors ofDr. and Mrs. Cooper, who felt that "there is much to be learned from the people of rural Appalachia." Dr. Leland Cooper is Professor Emeritus of Leadership and Higher Education at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, and his wife, Mary Lee, had a distinguished secretarial career, including tenure with ASU's College of Education, and the outdoor drama, Horn in the West. In early 1989, the Coopers began seeking "a scaled-down retirement home," then bought, and extensively repaired, a farmhouse plus acreage in the Flatwoods, Big Laurel Creek area below Pond Mountain. In the course of repairing their house and getting acquainted with the neighborhood, Dr. and Mrs. Cooper began their interviews. Though not trained anthropologists or oral historians, the Coopers were guided by Jan Myrdal's Report from a Chinese Village and Ronald Blythe's Akenfield: Portrait ofan English Village. The result is this interesting and revealing collection of oral history interviews. Most ofthe interviews were made between the spring of1992 and the fall of 1993, though two were made in the late winter of 1994, and seven during the summer of1996. The Coopers interviewed thirty-two oftheir neighbors, ages thirty-eight to ninety-four. All were traditional rural folk, most with a long association with the Flatwoods area. The data is wonderful, but its "raw state" is both its strength and its weakness. The Coopers were careful to get the approval of each of the interviewees before allowing that interview to appear in print. The language of the transcriptions appears to be fairly close to the language used by the interviewees, yet it is easily read. And the authors' twelvepage intro-duction sets an adequate context for the interviews that follow, as well as including illustrations and two very helpful maps. As editors, however, the Coopers leave several important questions unexplored. For example, where in the Flatwoods area are the interviewees located? And what is the total picture ofthe population ofthe area, and where are nontraditional newcomers like themselves located? Furthermore, some presentation ofthe kin relationships would have been helpful, rather than have the reader struggle through each interview for relationship clues. 70 Finally, the location of key traditional institutions, such as the stores mentioned as well as the often-referred-to schools and Mountain View Baptist and other churches, would have been most helpful. But the interviews here are a treasure. The Coopers claim that "ifwe look for a mountain culture, we will not find it. We find instead that the people resemble people in other parts of the United States in some ways, and are different in others." Yet the interviews revealed to me a people with an unusual loyalty to place, and a remarkable persistence ofold-style "yeomanesque farming" well into the 1960s. In those days, these traditional folk "just farmed," and grew their oats, corn, vegetable gardens, hogs, chickens, and milk cows, and raised large families mostly on their own acres. Ofcourse some prospered and moved into various enterprises . After "the War" (World War II) when the roads became better, more and more they took jobs in surrounding towns, mostly in furniture and textile plants. Today the people ofthe Flatwoods area don't really live by farming, though they live in a rural place. Other important institutions besides kin and the family farm are clearly revealed also. Several interviews indicate the importance of the church and religion. And thanks to the questions asked by the Coopers, the role of the school is rather well explored. Actually, high school graduates and those who have some exposure to higher education appear only among the younger persons interviewed. The recent establishment of a volunteer fire department in the heart of this extensive and formerly ignored portion ofAvery County seems to reveal...

School censorship experiences of teachers in southern Appalachia

The impact of censorship experiences on 13 public school teachers in southern Appalachian communities was studied. Qualitative interviews with the teachers focused on the nature and meaning of censorship experiences and their impact on educational philosophy and curriculum practices. The 13 teacher‐participants experienced a total of 55 censorship events which spanned an array of topics, teaching methods, and materials. Only a few of the incidents became public. Most were unreported events that took place between a teacher and parent or other objector, suggesting that censorship may be more pervasive than is estimated by quantitative approaches. Conflicts between traditional values and the pressures of modernity within a culturally homogeneous region are examined.

Cades Cove: The Life and Death of a Southern Appalachian Community, 1818-1937.

Cades Cove: The Life and Death of a Southern Appalachian Community, 1818-1937.

Cades Cove: The Life and Death of a Southern Appalachian Community, 1818-1937.

Cades Cove: The Life and Death of a Southern Appalachian Community, 1818-1937.

Cades Cove: The Life and Death of a Southern Appalachian Community, 1818-1937

Cades Cove: The Life and Death of a Southern Appalachian Community, 1818-1937

Cades Cove: The Life and Death of a Southern Appalachian Community, 1818–1937. By Durwood Dunn The Appalachian National Scenic Trail: A Time to Be Bold. By Charles H. W. Foster A History of Mount Mitchell and the Black Mountains: Exploration, Development, and Preservation. By S. Kent Schwarzkopf

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook Reviews By Durwood Dunn By Charles H. W. Foster Cades Cove: The Life and Death of a Southern Appalachian Community, 1818–1937. By Durwood Dunn The Appalachian National Scenic Trail: A Time to Be Bold. By Charles H. W. Foster A History of Mount Mitchell and the Black Mountains: Exploration, Development, and Preservation. By S. Kent SchwarzkopfJane B. BroaddusJane B. Broaddus Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 33, Number 2April 1989 Published for the American Society for Environmental History and the Forest History Society Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/4005107 Journal History This article was published in the Journal of Forest History (1974-1989), which was continued by Forest & Conservation History (1990-1995). © 1989 Forest History Society, Inc. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Cades Cove: The Life and Death of a Southern Appalachian Community, 1818-1937. Durwood Dunn

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsCades Cove: The Life and Death of a Southern Appalachian Community, 1818-1937. Durwood Dunn Michael Ann WilliamsMichael Ann Williams Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Winterthur Portfolio Volume 24, Number 1Spring, 1989 Published for the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc. Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/496408 Views: 1Total views on this site Copyright 1989 The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Cades Cove: the life and death of a southern Appalachian community, 1818-1937

Cades Cove: the life and death of a southern Appalachian community, 1818-1937

New Appalachian Books

New Appalachian Books by George Brosi* Cockrell, Amanda. The Moonshine Blade. New York: Bantam Books, 1988. 263 pages. Mass market paperback. $3.95. The heroine of this action/romance is a professor at a small college in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The author holds a graduate degree from Hollins College and lives in nearby Roanoke, Virginia. Dickinson, Jack L. Jenkins of Greenbottom: A Civil War Sage. Charleston, West Virginia: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, 1988. 100 pages, illustrated with a bibliography and index. Oversized trade paperback. $7.95. This- attractively presented book tells the story of a plantation owner in the Huntington, West Virginia, area who became a Confederate officer. Douglas, John. Shawnee Alley Fire. New York: St. Martin's Press, first paperback reprint, 1988. 215 pages. Mass-market paperback. $3.50. A "thoroughly seductive mystery debut . . . quietly enthralling and memorably evocative, the most auspicious or the many recent mystery debuts." -Publisher's Weekly. I enjoyed it, and felt that the author, a native of Cumberland, Maryland, now living in West Virginia, did a great job evoking his native ground. Dunn, Durwood. Cades Cove: The Life and Death of a Southern Appalachian Community: 1818-1937. Knoxville, Tennessee: The University of Tennessee Press, 1988. 319 pages. Trade paperback, illustrated, index and bibliography. $12.95. *George Brosi owns and operates the Appalachian Bookstore in Berea and publishes the bimonthly Appalachian Mountain Books. He also sells books through mail orders to clients in all parts of the country. If readers need more information about any of the above listings, write him at 123 Walnut Street, Berea, Kentucky 40403. 71 This is an important contribution to regional scholarship and popular understanding of our region-since it focuses upon one of the communities which is most dearly loved by tourists. It has both the strengths and weaknesses which come from being written by a scholar who has personal roots in the community he is studying. Cades Cove is located in Blount County, Tennessee, and Dunn is a professor at Tennessee Wesleyan. Frazier, Tom. "You Can Go Home Again" and Other Mountain Moments. Williamsburg , Kentucky: Mountain Moments Productions, 1988. 56 pages. Staplebound paperback. $3.50. The author grew up in a Harlan County coal-camp and is presently an English professor at Cumberland College in Williamsburg, Kentucky. This book is a compilation of his syndicated column carried by rural newspapers across America . Topics include: "Four Rooms and a Path, Screen Doors," and "Rasslin'." Garza, Amy. Retter. Nashville, Tennessee: Winston-Derek Publishers, 1988. 226 pages. Trade paperback, illustrated. $12.95. This first novel is fictional biography of the author's grandmother. It has an appealing, down-to-earth charm, and it portrays mountain people as neither saintly nor especially sinful. Those who read widely will have to get used to a writing style which some may consider idiosyncratic and others, amateurish. It is set in the high mountains of Jackson County, North Carolina. Giardina, Denise. Storming Heaven. New York: Ballantine Books, the first paperback reprint, 1988. 293 pages. Mass-market paperback. $3.95. "Brilliant, diamond-hard fiction, heartwrenching, tough and tender." -Los Angeles Times. This novel, based on the struggle to unionize the coal mines of southern West Virginia, is written by a gifted young author who grew up in a West Virginia coal camp. It was a co-winner of the Weatherford Award as the outstanding Appalachian book for 1987, and selected as the book of the year by the Appalachian Writers Association. Glen, John M. Highlander: No Ordinary School: 1932-1962. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1988. 309 pages, illustrated with a bibliographical essay and index. Hardback in dust jacket. $30.00. Highlander was founded in Grundy County, Tennessee, in 1932. Shut down by the state of Tennessee in 1961 and moved to Knoxville, it has been operating in Jefferson County, Tennessee, since 1972. This scholarly study of Highlander illuminates not just local history, but also the field of adult education and the social movements Highlander has been involved in-from Civil Rights to CIO to the Appalachian Land Ownership Study. Hagan, Chet. Redemption. New York: Richardson and Steirman, 1988. 263 pages. 72 Hardback in dust jacket. $16.95. "Redemption takes place, like James Dickey...