Michael,
Thanks for this excellent article!
I love that the author included Florida in "the deep South" category, while Tennessee was "Greater Appalachia". When I told AM about this, she balked and immediately accused the author/researcher of being a "Yankee who had never visited Memphis."
Well, at this point, I don't think we know - she certainly didn't know - if the author was a Yankee or not. I pointed out to her that one of the characteristics of Greater Appalachia was residents that are "intensely suspicious of lowland aristocrats and Yankee social engineers." I've never heard someone react so intensely to "Yankees" in my whole life until I met AM. I don't remember many people in Florida saying "Yankees" although I do remember many a rebel flag.
True enough, the "Deep South" is described as: "Dixie still traces its roots to the caste system established by masters who tried to duplicate West Indies-style slave society... The Old South values states' rights [check!] and fights the expansion of federal powers [also check!]."
I confess that in order to complete this blog, I had to consult the map of the U.S. to determine exactly where Tennessee is. I thought part of it touched the Atlantic Ocean; my mistake. Did I mention they dropped Geography as a core requirement in the 70's and 80's when I went to school?
As for the concept of 11 nations in 1, in my Intro to Cultural Analysis class my teacher, who seems generally fascinated by our IS, pointed out that there are often two acknowledged concepts of America. One being the Balkan, many states, many identities. The other being the generalized America any European might pick out in a grocery store. We have similarities and differences. And so many micro-cultures, it may be difficult to discern only 11. But overall, I tended to agree with most of his assessments, having lived now in various parts of the U.S.
I remember reading this when it first came out, or perhaps hearing him on NPR. Hmmm. I don't know if I agree with his assessment that Wisconsin is part of "New Yankeedom" -- don't you think WI fits more with Midland culture? and I'm curious that eastern Arkansas wound up in the deep south. I wonder if it's because it's primarily agrarian. I take issue with the word "Appalachian" simply because the appalachian mountains are geographically so far from Memphis and most of Tennessee. Not to mention Texas! But lord knows I grew up raised on a suspicion of yankees. When my cousin married a woman from Missouri we all thought she was a yankee because of her accent and her abrasive manners. She was held at arms length by all the women in my family.
ReplyDeleteTo the word "Appalachian" which caused me to bristle so: one imagines toothless fiddle players drunk on moonshine, Hatfields and McCoys, forever interbreeding and never leaving their side of the mountain.
I wonder if there are any northern stereotypes as limited and unforgiving as the ones we have for various parts of the south, regardless of the names we give those regions. Perhaps the subcultures of NYC. Beyond that I can't think of any that are as powerful in my imagination.
Wow but that description of the Appalachian stereotype in your mind trumps ALL. So what your saying is, Appalachian culture is to Memphis what Southern culture is to the North: a breeding ground for the poor, dumb, racist boogeyman. Jung would say that shadow indicates what we are most afraid of being. And usually, what we are.
ReplyDeleteBut knowing your sense of humor as I do, I'm sure all of that was written tongue firmly planted in cheek.
ReplyDeletePS I misspelled "you're" in that first post. You can take the girl out of Crackertown but...
ReplyDeleteYes dear, it was Memphis tongue-in-Appalachian-cheek.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I got it and will start posting some comments. I'm sure social geographers have maps like this assessing different histories of America's sub-geographies/cultures. A fried of mine didn't like his assessment b/c it didn't pay any attention to the Native American influences in parts of the country. Appalachian I don't think is pejorative though I know it carries stereotypes but it seems to have a lot to do with Scots-Irish immigration. Pennsylvania is Appalachian just as much as Georgia. And remember people settled here and then moved west so the influences come from the Eastern part of this original American sub-culture. I remember, too, an African American friend/writer/historian talking about how various parts of America are aligned along latitudes--and for example Southern Calif is full of people who originated in the southern part of the US. And for years the police dept of LA was full of men from the south and this contributed heavily to the problems in LA in the 60's and in particular part of the cause of Watts was the viciousness of the police and the hatred African Americans had/have for them.
ReplyDeleteThat's really interesting about Watts -- I didn't know that. Most African-Americans in the Chicago area have family from Mississippi, as that's the path of the Mississippi part of the Great Migration. I often play a game of "Oh what county are your people from" with co-workers because we all had grandparents in the mid-south. We talk about food, and weather, and how nobody up here knows how to cook as good, and did you ever eat squirrel no I never did but I ate deer and goat and quail -- ooh me too I love some fried quail. We talk about do you add sugar or white flour to your cornbread? I don't. And then there's always a kind of sad moment when I remember my people and her people were not equals under the law or in the culture, and then I have to recover my loss of equilibrium, and I have absolutely no idea what sadnesses or angers or regrets she is feeling on the other side of that same realization. And sometimes we have a shared family name, such as Lightfoot (my Grandmother's maiden name) and I feel a great sense of kinship until I recall the way they probably got that name and then a terrible sadness and shame burns at me, and I wonder were my people slave holders, how could they have been when they were so dirt poor, but there's that name, so what does that mean, and I feel angry at my ancestors for the indelible scars they left behind.
Delete