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The Northern culture is very different from the Southern Culture. The South eats more fatty food then the North, Also older people think they can get away with things just because they are older and think they can talk down to younger people. There you have it.
The Northern culture is very different from the Southern Culture. The South eats more fatty food then the North, Also older people think they can get away with things just because they are older and think they can talk down to younger people. There you have it. ok
I did have a sensible response up first but decided this post didn't deserve a sensible response.
It also depends on what is Northern Culture and what is Southern Culture, especially since there is more than one version. Then you have places that are different from both and/or is a mixture of both.
Northern culture? No such thing. Northern society is way too varied to have a singular culture. "The North" is kind of a default concept created by Southerners. They define it as "any place but the South". A LA hipster? A Northerner! A Maine lobsterman? A Philadelphia office worker? A Northerner! A Montana cowboy? A Northerner! An Arizona copper miner? A Northerner! An Indiana farmer? A Northerner! Even a Fort Lauderdale soccer mom... Yup, a Northerner!
Northern culture? No such thing. Northern society is way too varied to have a singular culture. "The North" is kind of a default concept created by Southerners. They define it as "any place but the South". A LA hipster? A Northerner! A Maine lobsterman? A Philadelphia office worker? A Northerner! A Montana cowboy? A Northerner! An Arizona copper miner? A Northerner! An Indiana farmer? A Northerner! Even a Fort Lauderdale soccer mom... Yup, a Northerner!
This post makes a good point. Southerners like to refer to yankees and northerners as if they are all the same no matter whether they come from New York or Indiana. While the south does have a somewhat similar culture and accent, the north does not. In fact there is no such region as "the north" The north is really at least two seperate regions, the northeast and the midwest. The culture of Grand Rapids Michigan is completly alien to someone living in Boston Ma. In fact a thick New England accent may be tough for someone in the midwest to even understand. The values of the two regions are different, as are the ethnic makeup of them. The northeast is far more urban, far more politically liberal, while the midwest is slower and less densely populated. It is funny that southerners do not see this fact, as they are constantly lumping all northerners together as if they share a common culture. I challenge any southerner to travel to rural Michigan or Wisconsin and still claim that the north is one big fast paced concrete jungle where people talk fast. I think most of them would be shocked at what they saw there. No skyscrapers, no rude fast paced people, lots of woods and farms, and yes far better fishing and hunting than they could EVER hope to see down south. If you are from down south please dont take me wrong, I am no south basher. In fact I love the south. I am just baffled how so many people down there think we midwesterns are the same as those people out east southerns are constantly lumping us in with.
I'm about a year away from graduating with a sociology degree from Middle Tennessee State University and really want to leave Tennessee. I moved here when I was 5 years old from my original home state, New Jersey. Me and my family lived in Mercer County, which was the best since we were right in between Philadelphia and New York City (30 minute and 1 hour commute, respectively).
I know that a lot of people from the North (particularly the BosWash megalopolis) have moved to the South in the past 10 years, with Georgia, Tennessee, the Carolinas and Florida being the popular destinations. I just would like to get an opinion from the people originally from up North who ventured south: Do you miss your original home-state?
I go back to New Jersey every summer to visit family and absolutely love it. This past summer I probably had my best vacation ever. With my college education ending soon, I'm really contemplating about whether I should make the move back up north. I know about the taxes, the colder weather, etc. But I just find the South too boring and overly religious. Am I looking at New Jersey with rose-colored glasses or what?
It's easy to love NJ when you're not paying to live here. All of what seems amazing in NJ comes at a cost. The way the government bathes in our tax dollars is sickening.
I love NJ for what it is, but I much rather live somewhere else that offers more of a affordable and less congested lifestyle (but not too far from where are the good memories were spent).
I say if you want to live here, spend some time here and see if the same image lasts. Being homesick can be deceiving sometimes- You might actually miss some of the memories and qualities from TN if you come here-- Even if you don't realize it.
I would never move more than 250 miles from my home town I just can't do it!
This post makes a good point. Southerners like to refer to yankees and northerners as if they are all the same no matter whether they come from New York or Indiana. While the south does have a somewhat similar culture and accent, the north does not. In fact there is no such region as "the north" The north is really at least two seperate regions, the northeast and the midwest. The culture of Grand Rapids Michigan is completly alien to someone living in Boston Ma. In fact a thick New England accent may be tough for someone in the midwest to even understand. The values of the two regions are different, as are the ethnic makeup of them. The northeast is far more urban, far more politically liberal, while the midwest is slower and less densely populated. It is funny that southerners do not see this fact, as they are constantly lumping all northerners together as if they share a common culture. I challenge any southerner to travel to rural Michigan or Wisconsin and still claim that the north is one big fast paced concrete jungle where people talk fast. I think most of them would be shocked at what they saw there. No skyscrapers, no rude fast paced people, lots of woods and farms, and yes far better fishing and hunting than they could EVER hope to see down south. If you are from down south please dont take me wrong, I am no south basher. In fact I love the south. I am just baffled how so many people down there think we midwesterns are the same as those people out east southerns are constantly lumping us in with.
A point I've been trying to make all along... except that you're myopic to think that this doesn't cut both ways.
The culture of Nashville is not the same as the culture of Charleston, SC. Raleigh =/= Biloxi. New Orleans is not the same as Atlanta. And the list goes on and on.
Not to mention the fact that states like Florida and Texas are decidedly in the south but are distinct from it.
Accents vary. Food varies. Customs vary.
Just because you can't tell Kentucky from Eastern NC doesn't mean that folks in those areas can't. There's a huge degree of variety in the South. In many ways, its unity is the result of an adversarial relationship with outside regions that goes back beyond the founding of the United States. At that time, there was no real "west" or "midwest". It was north and south, stretched along the Atlantic. Then again, even that's revisionist history. At the time, most people identified more with their individual states than they did with their nation or their region.
I'm about a year away from graduating with a sociology degree from Middle Tennessee State University and really want to leave Tennessee. I moved here when I was 5 years old from my original home state, New Jersey. Me and my family lived in Mercer County, which was the best since we were right in between Philadelphia and New York City (30 minute and 1 hour commute, respectively).
I know that a lot of people from the North (particularly the BosWash megalopolis) have moved to the South in the past 10 years, with Georgia, Tennessee, the Carolinas and Florida being the popular destinations. I just would like to get an opinion from the people originally from up North who ventured south: Do you miss your original home-state?
I go back to New Jersey every summer to visit family and absolutely love it. This past summer I probably had my best vacation ever. With my college education ending soon, I'm really contemplating about whether I should make the move back up north. I know about the taxes, the colder weather, etc. But I just find the South too boring and overly religious. Am I looking at New Jersey with rose-colored glasses or what?
There's plenty of boring places in the northeast, you simply happened to live in the populated areas. Why don't you just say, "I find living in a mid-size metro area in the South is not as exciting as living in a large metro area in the northeast", as that is what you truly mean. No one coming from Farmville, Vermont, Mountainside, Pennsylvania, or Loggerville, Maine is going to talk about being bored living in Murfreesboro and the Nashville vicinity.
A point I've been trying to make all along... except that you're myopic to think that this doesn't cut both ways.
The culture of Nashville is not the same as the culture of Charleston, SC. Raleigh =/= Biloxi. New Orleans is not the same as Atlanta. And the list goes on and on.
Not to mention the fact that states like Florida and Texas are decidedly in the south but are distinct from it.
Accents vary. Food varies. Customs vary.
Just because you can't tell Kentucky from Eastern NC doesn't mean that folks in those areas can't. There's a huge degree of variety in the South. In many ways, its unity is the result of an adversarial relationship with outside regions that goes back beyond the founding of the United States. At that time, there was no real "west" or "midwest". It was north and south, stretched along the Atlantic. Then again, even that's revisionist history. At the time, most people identified more with their individual states than they did with their nation or their region.
I realize that there are differences in the south, but they are not as pronounced as they are in the north. Yes Louisana is much different than tennessee, and even I can tell the difference between someone from Kentucky and costal NC. However there is still a sense of regional unity and shared culture in the south as a whole that the north does not have, and never did. THe northeast and midwest have always been two totally seperate areas with no common culture and no sense of unity.
I realize that there are differences in the south, but they are not as pronounced as they are in the north. Yes Louisana is much different than tennessee, and even I can tell the difference between someone from Kentucky and costal NC. However there is still a sense of regional unity and shared culture in the south as a whole that the north does not have, and never did. THe northeast and midwest have always been two totally seperate areas with no common culture and no sense of unity.
There's an anecdote a friend of mine likes to share.
(And it was told to me as a true story)
Some Brits were having dinner with some South Carolinians on a trip to the states.
One of the Brits was talking about Scotland and the group was discussing some similarities that exist between the Scots and Southerners. In addition to some direct shared lineage, heritage, culture, one of the Brits offered that both shared an adversarial culture and history.
An older lady at the table, hard of hearing, responded "I'm sorry. What sort of history did you say?"
"An adversarial history."
"Pardon?"
At which point the lady's husband says to her, in that voice you reserve for when you're frustrated with people who can't hear well,
"THEY BOTH LOST THE WAR."
I think that, culturally, the Civil War helped to define the South as a region to a greater extent than before. Perhaps Reconstruction was even more vital in this regard.
And no, I don't want to get into "the South needs to GET OVER that war!" because I fully agree and that isn't what I'm talking about. Losing that war and dealing with the policies that followed gave those states something in common in a way that the rest of the Union didn't have. It was unity in defeat.
So that's where the identity comes from, at least in part.
Now, culture and identity are two different things. Yes, Southerners share a cultural identity that folks from the Northeast and Midwest don't, but I'd argue that the cultures vary just as much throughout the South as they do in the North.
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A LA hipster? A Northerner! A Maine lobsterman? A Philadelphia office worker? A Northerner! A Montana cowboy? A Northerner! An Arizona copper miner? A Northerner! An Indiana farmer? A Northerner! Even a Fort Lauderdale soccer mom... Yup, a Northerner! 
