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I agree that Chattanooga is a transitional area. I'd say culturally it is upper south with some Appalachian influence. Knoxville has more clearly defined appalachian roots.
I think of Greenville Spartanburg as being a blend of Upper and lower south, with Greenville being more upper south - big business etc. - even though Spartanburg is geographically to the north. They might have some Appalachian influence - I'd like to hear from someone more familiar.
I agree that Chattanooga is a transitional area. I'd say culturally it is upper south with some Appalachian influence. Knoxville has more clearly defined appalachian roots.
I think of Greenville Spartanburg as being a blend of Upper and lower south, with Greenville being more upper south - big business etc. - even though Spartanburg is geographically to the north. They might have some Appalachian influence - I'd like to hear from someone more familiar.
I dated a girl from Spartanburg, SC in college while at the Univ of Virginia for about two years. She had a bit of an Appalachian drawl like myself...not too thick but certainly noticeable. Her family wasn't riddled with hillbillies like my family but they certainly had some Appalachian traits. Her father and grandfather made moonshine fairly regularly just like my grandfather did. The only difference was the type of still used to produce it. The food is very similar, the accents are very similar, and the general way of life is fairly similar. Obviously the way of life has SOME differences because Spartanburg, SC is a little bit bigger of a city so they have a few more ammenities than my hometown of Grundy, VA (less than 1500 people) but the general mannerisms/behaviors of the people are very similar.
I'm not 100% certain about Greenville but I know that Knox-Vegas/Roanoke/Charleston/Asheville/Tri Cities VA and TN/border mountain towns of VA,WV,NC,KY,SC are THOROUGHLY Appalachian
Eastern Tennessee, Western NC and SW Va are what I consider the "upland Appalachian south." I've been to Chattanooga and Knoxville, and both are solid southern towns. However, Eastern Kentucky is more similar to West Virginia. I see very little similarities between eastern Ky and East Tn. The poverty and drug use here is terrible. Political corruption is terrible. To put in bluntly, Kentucky's stereotypical perception is because of the the trash heap that is eky.
Central and western Kentucky are "upper southern" areas. Far northern Kentucky,near Cincinnati, are more midwest influenced.
Southern Appalachia seems more like the South, though, maybe not Northern Appalachia. Is Pittsburgh itself really Appalachian though?
While Pittsburgh itself is kind of its own thing at this point, there is essentially no difference between the outer counties surrounding it and nearby northern West Virginia. I've met many people from as close as Fayette County with southern-sounding accents.
Those considering Appalachia's cultural heritage and way of life unique might want to consider and compare the cultural heritage and way of life of the Ozarks as well. These areas are very similar
in ancestral ethnicity and topography (yes, they do mine coal near and in parts of the Ozarks), with parallels in traditional music and dance, vocabulary and accent, cookery and foodways, gardening and hunting, construction, animal husbandry, folklore, and much more.
One of the oft-cited possible reasons is that the Ozarks were settled by people moving from Southern Appalachia who brought their customs with them, about a century after the Southern Appalachians first experienced settlers of Scots-Irish background.
However, the Scots-Irish were not the only ethnic group of European background to be found in the mountains. English, Scots, Germans, and some French also came to this area early on, and intermarriage was common. The Scots-Irish heritage does appear to have been the strongest cultural influence, whose legacy in both the Appalachians and the Ozarks can be seen, heard, and tasted today.
I dated a girl from Spartanburg, SC in college while at the Univ of Virginia for about two years. She had a bit of an Appalachian drawl like myself...not too thick but certainly noticeable. Her family wasn't riddled with hillbillies like my family but they certainly had some Appalachian traits. Her father and grandfather made moonshine fairly regularly just like my grandfather did. The only difference was the type of still used to produce it. The food is very similar, the accents are very similar, and the general way of life is fairly similar. Obviously the way of life has SOME differences because Spartanburg, SC is a little bit bigger of a city so they have a few more ammenities than my hometown of Grundy, VA (less than 1500 people) but the general mannerisms/behaviors of the people are very similar.
I'm not 100% certain about Greenville but I know that Knox-Vegas/Roanoke/Charleston/Asheville/Tri Cities VA and TN/border mountain towns of VA,WV,NC,KY,SC are THOROUGHLY Appalachian
I don't think of Greenville and Spartanburg as completely Appalachian since they are actually in the foothills and not in the mountains themselves. They do have the influences though.
South of Kentucky and Virginia, Appalachian culture is a subset of the South and is becoming increasingly more like other portions of the South. When it comes to eastern Kentucky, western Virginia, southern WV, and on a FAR lesser degree, the middle portions of WV and western Maryland, it seems to have its own culture.
South of Kentucky and Virginia, Appalachian culture is a subset of the South and is becoming increasingly more like other portions of the South. When it comes to eastern Kentucky, western Virginia, southern WV, and on a FAR lesser degree, the middle portions of WV and western Maryland, it seems to have its own culture.
Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia culture is essentially indiscernable from one another.
**Disclaimer: I'm specifically referring to Southern WV, Southwestern VA, Eastern KY, Western NC, Upstate SC, and North GA as these are the areas that emphasize the "thickest" Appalachian culture**
Appalachian culture and Southern culture share a lot of similarities and a lot of differences. The mountains of Appalachia are naturally rugged and difficult to cross...which has served as a natural isogloss and cultural boundary for many years. The cuisine, music, dialect, and general way of life was blocked off from it's flatland neighbors for hundreds of years until roads became more accessible. Appalachian cuisine is distinct, Appalchian "story-telling" isn't common elsewhere, Some old-timers use an Appalchian dialect that is almost incomprhensible to "out of towners," bluegrass style music is native to the area and differs from the music that is prevalent beyond the confines of the hills, and moonshine culture is quite distinct as well. Further...the means of providing for one's family is different in that farming isn't quite as common because the lack of useable land therefore mineral extraction/moonshine running became the bread and butter of Appalachia in their respective times.
These differences also stretch a bit further back to our ancestors. Most people from Appalachia have a mixture of Scots-Irish ancestry and some have a blend of native American indian as well with very few of African ancestry like the rest of the lowland South. Personally...I am almost entirely Scots-Irish (like most of my Southwest VA neighbors) with exception to my great-grandmother who was 100% cherokee from Western NC. This can be contrasted from most people from the lowland south who have a mixture of general "american", african, french, and english ancestry.
So...this brings me to my question. Is Appalachian culture a unique American culture all to it's own that has developed in close proximity to Southern culture or a sub-set of greater Southern culture that has evolved within it's boundaries and influenced it?
If you are Scots-Irish, ( this term, I think arose, because at the time of the revolution, being English went from being a solid pioneering expression, to a title that conjured up Upper-crust officer types, with dandy and nasty tendencies. See Mel Gibson`s crap film. And quite rightly they downplayed being English), real English people ( from the North) , as well as Scots, protestants, ( The Irish ( Eire) arrived mainly from 1840, were the ones who settled Appalachia, don't forget most Welsh, Devonians, Cornish, Cumbrians ( Cumberland Gap) settled in vast numbers throughout that region, very few Germans, don't forget.I would add, despite being British ( part Irish), that Southerners have mainly British Isles qualities, ( and blood), that makes them the real pioneering Americans. Strangely, if you went to a Football game in Scotland and watched Rangers, there are more British flags than at a Royal Wedding. Scots-Irish, though verbally correct ( having come from Ulster) are basically British.
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