Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Topics about appalachian culture
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Topics about appalachian culture
“Appalachia is the land of sky.”(Williams 19) Appalachia considered one of the top ravishing regions in the whole world. Once you visit this rich land, you will always want to retrieve those memories and visit it over and over. Its charming mountains will reflect its beauty and restore a feel of relaxation and purity in your soul. Appalachian is in the southeastern of United States and located in North America (The Appalachian Region paragraph 3). In this paper, we will dig more deeply in the rich Appalachian culture that existed in the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. We will focus on variety of interesting Appalachian cultural aspects such as music, dance and food.
Before we ponder in the exquisite Appalachian cultural practices and beliefs, let us know more about its geographic region. “Appalachia is a 205,000-square-mile region that follows the spine of the Appalachian Mountains from southern New York to northern Mississippi. It includes all of West Virginia and parts of 12 other states: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia” (The Appalachian Region paragraph 1) . Appalachia is the name of a Spanish empire that was drilling for gold and plunders (Williams 19). It is considered the second largest mountains of North America (Brescia 40). The Appalachian towns that include the mines have its own fascinating history. Appalachia is a place that you can visit in all seasons and each season has its unique spirit and mood. So, if you are seeking spring break, it would be a brilliant idea to visit the holy Appalachian Mountains to enjoy some refreshing outdoor entertainment and relaxation activities such as, fishing or eve...
... middle of paper ...
...X&ei=398oU47HNoOGyAHP_IDwBQ&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=appalachia&f=false
2. http://books.google.com/books?id=Q2qzBUEWxpoC&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&dq=appalachia+is+considered+the+second+largest+mountains+of+north+America.&source=bl&ots=G9fkvfdUNT&sig=k-FyfXcpc-y6Ohh2NqUphVnUgv4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=m4IrU8mVBaTuyQGJyYCgBQ&ved=0CHsQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=appalachia%20is%20considered%20the%20second%20largest%20mountains%20of%20north%20America.&f=false
1. http://books.google.com/books?id=AoWlCmNDA3QC&pg=PA18&dq=appalachian+traditional+food&hl=en&sa=X&ei=_k0vU-7MEMbhyQHp1IG4Bw&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=appalachian%20traditional%20food&f=false
2. http://www.arc.gov/appalachian_region/TheAppalachianRegion.asp
3. http://books.google.com/books?id=QgBtsr_SVv0C&pg=PA572&dq=appalachia+music&hl=en&sa=X&ei=4Z4rU_uOGoWCyQHTu4HICA&ved=0CHYQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=appalachia%20music&f=false
After the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492, the powerful Old World scrambled to colonize it. The three major nations involved in this were Spain, France, and England. Spain took more to the south in the Central American and Mexico areas while France went north in the Canada region. The English came to America and settled in both the New England and Chesapeake area. Although the people in these regions originated from the same area, the regions as a whole evolved into different societies because of the settlers’ purpose for coming to America and the obstacles faced in both nature and with the natives.
In the introduction, Hämäläinen introduces how Plains Indians horse culture is so often romanticized in the image of the “mounted warrior,” and how this romanticized image is frequently juxtaposed with the hardships of disease, death, and destruction brought on by the Europeans. It is also mentioned that many historians depict Plains Indians equestrianism as a typical success story, usually because such a depiction is an appealing story to use in textbooks. However, Plains Indians equestrianism is far from a basic story of success. Plains equestrianism was a double-edged sword: it both helped tribes complete their quotidian tasks more efficiently, but also gave rise to social issues, weakened the customary political system, created problems between other tribes, and was detrimental to the environment.
The Appalachian mountaineers have been discovered and forgotten many times. Their primitive agriculture disrupted by foragers and incessant guerrilla warfare, thousands of them straggled out of the mountains in search of food and shelter. Their plight was brought to the attention of President Lincoln, who promised that after the war a way would be found to aid the poor mountain people whom the world had bypassed and forgotten for so long. The war ended, President Lincoln was assassinated, and so therefore Appalachia was forgotten. Appalachian people are considered a separate culture, made up of many unique backgrounds - Native Americans, Irish, English and Scotch, and then a third immigration of Germans and Poles - all blended together across the region. The mountains also figure into the uniqueness of Appalachia. The mountains kept Appalachia isolated from the rest of the country and from other people's involvement in their lives that they developed a distinctive culture. (arministry.org)
In 1608, a group of Christian separatists from the Church of England fled to the Netherlands and then to the "New World" in search of the freedom to practice their fundamentalist form of Christianity (dubbed Puritanism). The group of people known as the Native Americans (or American Indians) are the aboriginal inhabitants of the Northern and Southern American continents who are believed to have migrated across the Bering land bridge from Asia around 30,000 years ago. When these two societies collided, years of enforced ideology, oppression and guerrilla warfare were begun. The great barriers of religion, ethics and world-views are the three largest factors which lead to the culture clash between the Puritans and the Native Americans.
Appalachia is notoriously known for being one of the poorest regions in the United States. There are many contributions to the financial burden of the Appalachian region, especially education. Appalachia is frequently at the receiving end of many jokes that undermine their education system, as well as, the intelligence level of the people that live there. The financial instability, along with the education quality presents an important question to be answered. How does education affect Appalachia, financially and from an employment standpoint? The Appalachian region has suffered tremendously. Through research, reports show that the region has been negatively impacted by the lack of emphasis put on receiving a quality education.
Native American literature from the Southeastern United States is deeply rooted in the oral traditions of the various tribes that have historically called that region home. While the tribes most integrally associated with the Southeastern U.S. in the American popular mind--the FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole)--were forcibly relocated to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) from their ancestral territories in the American South, descendents of those tribes have created compelling literary works that have kept alive their tribal identities and histories by incorporating traditional themes and narrative elements. While reflecting profound awareness of the value of the Native American past, these literary works have also revealed knowing perspectives on the meaning of the modern world in the lives of contemporary Native Americans.
The Native Americans of the southeast live in a variety of environments. The environments range from the southern Appalachian Mountains, to the Mississippi River valley, to the Louisiana and Alabama swamps, and the Florida wetlands. These environments were bountiful with various species of plant and animal life, enabling the Native American peoples to flourish. “Most of the Native Americans adopted large-scale agriculture after 900 A.D, and some also developed large towns and highly centralized social and political structures.” In the first half of the 1600s Europeans encountered these native peoples. Both cultures encountered new plants, animals, and diseases. However, the Indians received more diseases compared to the few new diseases to the Europeans. The new diseases resulted in a massive loss of Native Americans, including the Southeast Indians which had never encountered the new diseases. Three of the main tribes in the southeast were the Cherokee and the Creek. They were part of a group of southeast tribes that were removed from their lands. These tribes later became known as “The Five Civilized Tribes because of their progress and achievements.”
Waller, Altina. "Two Words in the Tennessee Mountains: Exploring the Origins of Appalachian Stereotypes." Journal of Social History 32 (1999): 963.
Travelling was very common in this tribe and they covered land all over the eastern United States. Prior to the European settlers the Osages’ active region included southeast Colorado to north Texas through most of Kansas and Missouri into southern Michigan, Indiana and Ohio; as well as the northern border of Kentucky and West Virginia and lastly south...
Montana is a part of the country that many people do not know much about its history. Montana is divided into two parts, East and West. Eastern Montana is part of the Northern Great Plains and has played pivotal roles in American history since the early 1800’s. Western Montana is a history made up of gold rushes and the Copper King Marcus Daly. The history of Montana is that of many tales from Montanan Indian Tribes going back hundreds and thousands of years before American expansion into the region. On the other side we have white settlers from areas throughout the US and European countries, especially settlers from Germany and the Scandinavian countries. The settlers were brought to Montana by the promise of the American Dream of having a chance at striking it rich from mining or having the chance of owning your own piece of land from the Enlarged Homestead Act.
Plantation life in Virginia required a large family and slaves for agriculture labour. As most of the settlers coming to Chesapeake colonies caught diseases and died. Also, between 1619 and 1622, 3570 people arrived in Jamestown but only one-third of them were alive. This was caused by Powhatan warriors who attacked and killed 347 of the settlers. By 1622, after the population had almost been wiped out in 1622, they imported women to Virginia to get married to the settlers, which did not bring any sign of growth in population by nature increase. So when the settlers had family, usually women were supporting their families by cooking, gardening, childcare, and laundries. Also, men took in part of helping their wives with the laundry, drying,
Appalachian culture is as broad and far reaching as the counties included in Appalachia. Appalachia is poverty stricken communities, found in the Appalachian Mountains that is defined by their levels of poverty. What is odd is the fact that they can add more counties to the region but they never take any out of it. Farmers, coal miners, old time religions, and even musicians help form the culture within the region. A land for many years that was in a sense cutoff from the outside world, the absolute poorest places in America were in the Appalachian Mountains.
In the 1800’s and first half of the 1900’s the WASP was seen as unjust and cruel by many European immigrants in America. Every single one of those terms however was necessary for full acceptance into the American mainstream: white, Anglo-Saxon (from northern Europe although the Irish are the exception) and Protestant. In the nineteenth century America was undergoing a dramatic transformation; the rise of industrialization, a massive influx of immigrants and urbanization caused racism to become a powerful force in American culture, affecting all parts of the political spectrum. American culture became obsessed with crude and cruel racial and ethnic stereotypes in literature, the arts and in the press.
Appalachian Music Appalachee - people on the other side Folk music - What is folk music? Traditional songs existing in countries. Handed down through generations. Passes on by word of mouth, not written in musical notation. Don't know who wrote it. Melody and lyrics change as they are passed on.
The setting constitutes for a key element and important role in the story, as it is carefully aligned with the main character. It is noteworthy to know that the Kaatskill Mountains are part of the Appalachian chain, which run through a series of states in the in the mid eastern section of the United States. Yet, the Kaatskills are not an immediate link to the rest of the chain. Instead they stand apart, ostracized by the natural terrain of the land, instantaneously suggesting that they encompass a greater status than anything else within their surroundings. Their reverence continues, as Irving describes these mountains as being noble and lording; having "magical hues and shapes, [and are] regarded by all the good wives, far and near, as perfect barometers," (Irving 702). The language used in these opening paragraphs emphasizes the setting with an easily recognizable connotation, which compares the mountains to a god of sorts, ruling over the land. This attention that Irving ...