Appalachian Folkways

Erscheinungsjahr 2004
ISBN: 978-0-8018-7879-4
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 368 Seiten, Format (B × H): 163 mm x 244 mm, Gewicht: 653 g

Winner of the Kniffen Award and an Honorable Mention from the Professional and Scholarly Publishing Awards in Sociology and Anthropology

Appalachia may be the most mythologized and misunderstood place in America, its way of life and inhabitants both caricatured and celebrated in the mainstream media. Over generations, though, the families living in the mountainous region stretching from West Virginia to northeastern Alabama have forged one of the country's richest and most distinctive cultures, encompassing music, food, architecture, customs, and language.

In Appalachian Folkways, geographer John Rehder offers an engaging and enlightening account of southern Appalachia and its cultural milieu that is at once sweeping and intimate. From architecture and traditional livelihoods to beliefs and art, Rehder, who has spent thirty years studying the region, offers a nuanced depiction of southern Appalachia's social and cultural identity. The book opens with an expert consideration of the southern Appalachian landscape, defined by mountains, rocky soil, thick forests, and plentiful streams. While these features have shaped the inhabitants of the region, Rehder notes, Appalachians have also shaped their environment, and he goes on to explore the human influence on the landscape.

From physical geography, the book moves to settlement patterns, describing the Indian tribes that flourished before European settlement and the successive waves of migration that brought Melungeon, Scotch-Irish, English, and German settlers to the region, along with the cultural contributions each made to what became a distinct Appalachian culture. Next focusing on the folk culture of Appalachia, Rehder details such cultural expressions as architecture and landscape design; traditional and more recent ways of making a living, both legal and illegal; foodstuffs and cooking techniques; folk remedies and belief systems; music, art, and the folk festivals that today attract visitors from around the world; and the region's dialect. With its broad scope and deep research, Appalachian Folkways accurately and evocatively chronicles a way of life that is fast disappearing.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Rehder, John B

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Soziologie des Brauchtums und der Traditionen
• Geowissenschaften Geographie | Raumplanung Geographie: Allgemeines, Karten & Atlanten
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Volkskunde: Sitten, Traditionen, Mythen, Legenden
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Architektur Garten- und Landschaftsarchitektur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface
Chapter 1. The Real Appalachia
Chapter 2. The Shape of Appalachia
Chapter 3. Ethnicity and Settlement
Chapter 4. Folk Architecture and the Cultural Landscape
Chapter 5. Ways of Making a Living
Chapter 6. Foodways
Chapter 7. Folk Remedies and Belief Systems
Chapter 8. Folk Music, Folk Art, and Folk Festivals
Chapter 9. Folk Speech: Terms and Sayins
Epilogue
Notes
Glossary
References
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Rehder, John B
John B. Rehder is a professor of geography at the University of Tennessee. His previous book, Delta Sugar: Louisiana's Vanishing Plantations, won the Vernacular Architecture Forum's 2000 Abbott Lowell Cummings Award and is also available from Johns Hopkins.