Previous historical and cultural geographic studies of the cemetery suggest that gravemarkers are surrogates for ethnicity and cultural assimilation. While studies of this type among single ethnic groups are common, examination of the multiethnic cemetery has largely been ignored. This study focuses on the necrogeography (regional burial practices) of the Melungeons, an understudied and underrepresented minority group. Their diverse ancestry purportedly includes a mixture of European, Native American, and African heritage. They have settled primarily in the Central Appalachian region, and more specifically within Hancock County, Tennessee. Their traditional burial practices include the construction of a unique gravehouse. I conducted personal interviews with Melungeons, religious leaders, and cemetery workers to determine the social meanings attached to these unique gravemarkers. I inspected 116 cemeteries located within Hancock County. A Melungeon Burial Index (MBI) was calculated based on the number and type of gravemarkers in individual cemeteries. The MBI acts a cultural inventory to measure varying degrees of Melungeon burial assimilation. Next, I interpreted the spatial patterns of assimilation to describe qualities of material cultural diffusion in the area. My findings show that traditional gravehouses are gradually being abandoned by the residents and over 93% of cemeteries exhibit complete burial assimilation. This suggests that gravehouse construction, a material and cultural practice of a U.S. minority group, has ended. / Master of Science

Excerpt: A majority of the early settlers on the Appalachian frontier were immigrants from Lowland Scotland or from Northern Ireland (the Scots-Irish, who descended primarily from Lowland Scots).

No description available.

This thesis examines the history of the Folk Festival of the Smokies, which sought to preserve old-time music as an expression of southern Appalachian regional culture. The study uses qualitative methods, including personal interviews with one of the founders and significant festival participants, supplemented with archival and historical research into photographs, festival performances and literature regarding the festival. Since the festival operated for thirty-three years as a small festival in a relatively isolated location in eastern Tennessee, this case study serves as an example of the role of festivals in intangible cultural heritage preservation in relatively rural settings. The legacy of the festival is examined, along with its impact on succeeding festivals. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the role and future of music festivals in the old-time music community.

This dissertation discusses the intersection of first-year composition instructors and Appalachian language and culture at the two-year college level. Very little of the existing literature discusses pedagogy as it pertains to Appalachian students, and virtually none of the literature focuses on either instructors or the two-year college. This study attempts to address that gap and to explore the attitudes about Appalachia that accompany the teaching of writing in two-year colleges in agricultural (as opposed to coal) Appalachia. This study finds that professors express very negative ideas about Appalachian culture and language, and sometimes about Appalachian students themselves. These attitudes do not, however, contribute dramatically to differences in grades and pass/fail rates for the region as a whole. Appalachian students overall are slightly more likely to fail and less likely to make A grades. The more surprising finding, perhaps, is that students from certain either highly stigmatized or highly isolated communities are far less likely to pass the courses, with failure rates between 50-68%. These rates are far higher than non-Appalachian failure rates, and substantially higher than the rates for non-stigmatized communities and do, perhaps, stem from their instructors' inherent biases. The privileging of standard academic English above other Englishes informs the teaching of every respondent in this study and invites a consideration of how a more rhetorical approach to composition pedagogy might change outcomes for Appalachian students in writing classes and in college itself. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation examines the attitudes of composition professors at the two-year college level toward Appalachian language and culture to determine if there is a correlation between professors' beliefs and students' grades and success rates. First-year composition courses are required of all students at the community college level, and these courses are designed to prepare students for the kinds of writing expected of them in college, both at the two-year level and after they transfer to four-year institutions. The study determined through interviews that professors tend to stigmatize both language and culture, but these attitudes do not necessarily result in a higher failure rate for students. While Appalachian students are 16% more likely to fail and 17% less likely to earn A grades, they still pass first-year composition courses at roughly the same rate as their non-Appalachian peers. The more successful students, however, are those who are willing to code-switch—that is, to exchange their Appalachian English for standard academic English. The study also determined that students who participate in incentivized tuition reimbursement plans (like the Access to Community College Education program) are more likely to be successful in composition courses and in college in general.

No description available.