Southern Style, Southern Culture


Anthropology/Folklore 40 - Fall 2002
Glenn Hinson, Professor
Dan Duffy & Drew Kenworthy, Teaching assistants
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

     What is the South?  At first hearing, the question seems simple, elementary, perhaps a bit unsophisticated.  Everybody knows what the South is.  Or at least that's what they say. 

     So we listen to the answers, hearing first one and then another.  And as they multiply, the presumed simplicity begins to fade, until finally all that remains is a thick cloud of words, with everyone agreeing only to the fact that they're all talking about the same place.

     To some, the South is a geographic region, an area whose boundaries were set by the Confederacy's secession more than a century ago.  To others, it is a state of mind, an attitude that transcends space and place, a mental stance that is as much at home in Chicago as it is in Tuscaloosa.  To some, the South is a way of life, a set of traditions that guides every day's encounter with faith and family, work and leisure.  To others, it is a place of mysterious paradox, an enigmatic land where harsh inequities stand in uneasy peace, where hospitality hides hatred and intolerance wears the mask of morality.  To some, the South is the glittering skylines of Atlanta and Dallas.  To others, it is the steamy waters of the Louisiana bayous, the praise houses of the Carolina lowcountry, the migrant camps of south Florida, the piney woods homelands of the Creek Indians.  To still others, it is the highland hideaways of the Blue Ridge and the folksy fakery of Gatlinburg.  Everyone seems to disagree on definitions.   But all insist that the South—as a region set apart from the rest of the country by history, attitude, and lifeways—is very real. 

     In the coming semester, we will collectively explore this reality, taking as our guide the methods of cultural anthropology.  In a broad sense, anthropology defines itself as the study of humankind and the diversity of human experience.  For our purposes, we will pursue this study through the particular lens offered by the South.  Our journey will take us across time and space, history and cultures, all the while challenging us to question the assumptions that guide our definitions of meaning and values. 
OUR GOALS
GROUP FIELD PROJECT
INTERVIEW LOGS
GRADING
CONSENT FORM
PROJECT ABSTRACT
EXAMS
PACKET
SAMPLE LOG PAGES
PROJECT PAPER
TIMELINE
NOTATING TAPES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
READING ASSIGNMENTS
PROJECT
GUIDELINES
CLASS OUTLINES

 
. . . so what exactly do we hope to accomplish?

     I'm not interested in having you leave the course with a head full of facts but little sense of how these facts relate to your own experience.  My goal is to foster insights into the working patterns of Southern experience, and to cultivate ways of thinking that will allow you to critically assess these and other patterns that you'll encounter in your everyday world.  Towards this end, we'll treat class materials not simply as data to be repeated for a grade, but as knowledge to foster understanding and provoke thought. 

     Our approach to the South will be issue-oriented, allowing us to explore selected themes in Southern culture.  We'll make no claims to comprehensive scope.  Instead, we will investigate a discrete set of cultural features that lend the South a measure of its uniqueness.  By the end of the course, we should be able not only to identify these central themes, but also to show how they relate to one another and how they continue to shape Southern experience. 

. . . how will we go about "studying" that which is all around us?

     By looking at old ways with new eyes.  By periodically stepping into the role of "outsider" and making that which we take for granted seem strange.  Try imagining what someone from another region must think when they first encounter chopped barbecue.  A lump of pulverized, stringy meat served from an ice-cream scoop.  With odd-shaped blobs of fried cornmeal on the side.  A bit strange?  Now extend this sense of strangeness to the visitor's first encounter with velvet renderings of Elvis, with the frills and lace of a debutante ball, with preachers in the UNC pit.  As anthropologists, we'll spend the semester engaging in the actof "strange-making," ever turning the familiar on its head to see how unfamiliar it really is.
 
(1) Group field project:  For the process of "strange-making" to work, we'll have to constantly test our ideas in the real world.  Library work simply won't suffice.  Hence, we'll all engage in field projects that will take us beyond the isolated confines of the university.  By the end of the second week of class, we will divide into a set of small groups, none of which will hold more than seven people.  Each group will be assigned a general topic, which they will then narrow and begin to explore through library and field research.  On the days marked in this syllabus, each group will have 20 minutes to present their findings to the class; further, on the day of their presentation, each group—as a group—will hand in a jointly written twelve-page paper elaborating on (but not rotely repeating) the arguments set forth in their presentation.

     The prospect of conducting independent fieldwork—of making contacts, conducting interviews, reviewing ideas with your field consultants, and crafting a presentation that analytically captures some aspect of what they find meaningful—might at first seem somewhat intimidating.  It should.  Sensitively conducted ethnography isn't easy.  But it is—as we hope you'll discover—remarkably rewarding.  To help you take your first steps as ethnographers, I'll assign each group an advisor to assist you with fieldwork, analysis, and presentation.  I will fill that role for six groups, while Dan Duffy and Drew Kenworthy will work with the rest.  I expect each group—as a group—to meet with your advisor at least three times before your presentation. I recommend meeting at least once before your first interview, and then at least once after receiving comments on each of your first two (and perhaps after all three) logs.  You 'll probably also want to review your presentation with your advisor.  Not only does s/he has expertise to share, but s/he also will play a major role in determining your grade.  Each advisor will be keeping a log of group meetings (which will include the number of members actually present), and will add this to the pot when we come up with the final group grade. 

     What are the keys to crafting a successful group presentation?  The first key is focus.  To begin with, you'll need to avoid addressing broad traditions or generalized trends.  A few years ago, for example, one of the "Southern Foodways" groups attempted to "focus" their presentation on the history and meanings of brunswick stew.  A "Vernacular Music" group, in turn, tried to craft a presentation around the history of bluegrass.  Both topics were far too broad for coherent, 20-minute presentations.  Consequently, both presentations were—in the eyes of myself and most of the class—unsuccessful.  Remember, ethnography is people-centered research.  It works best when limiting itself to thickly textured description and tightly focused analysis.  Accordingly, you should limit your inquiry to a well-defined topic.  And you should build your presentation on the careful analysis of your consultants' words. 

     The second key to presentational success is analysis.  Whatever your topic, you should treat the presentation as an opportunity for creative analysis and compelling argumentation.  Do not simply repeat and review material drawn from library and/or field sources.  That may qualify you as collectors or reporters, but it doesn't make you anthropologists.  Hence, I'd like you to use your presentation to frame a ethnographic argument.  Focus your presentation on an issue rather than on collected facts; set forth an argument, defend it, and show why it's important.  In so doing, be sure to relate your analysis to matters we've discussed in class.  Remember, our goal is to further understanding.  So don't just to repeat what we've already read or heard; instead, take us someplace new, using what we know as a foundation, and what you've learned as the stepping-stones to new insights. 

     In past years, no problem has plagued presentations more consistently than lack of analysis.  Many a time, groups have complained about their grades, arguing that they put a lot of work into their projects, and that their scores didn't fairly reflect this.  In most such instances, our answer was (unfortunately) quite simple—that their presentations relied almost wholly on description, with no questions posed and no issues explored.  We usually recognized the effort that went into fieldwork; what we didn't see, however, were the ends to which that effort was put.  Fieldwork has a way of luring folks into a kind of analytic lull; the excitement of meeting new people and entering their worlds tends to overshadow the interpretive side of research.  There's so much to see, so much to understand, so much too experience, that pressing inquiry any further seems unnecessary.  This holds true for even the most experienced ethnographers; it's no surprise, then, that it affects first-time fieldworkers.  Unfortunately, this interpretive stall produces enthusiastic description but analytic emptiness.  As observers, we come away wondering why we had to know what was presented, and how it fits in the broader scheme of class discussion. 

     To help you conceptualize your group project, so that you might better engage your classmates in your argument, you should carefully consider the following guidelines.  We'll be evaluating both your presentation and your paper according to these criteria. 

  • Clear statement of your thesis.  What is your key argument?Why is it important?How does it relate to issues that we've discussed in class?  You must begin your presentation by clearly articulating your thesis statement—by writing it on the board, projecting it onto the screen, or passing it out in handout form. 
  • Coherent development of your thesis.  Does your introduction tell what you're going to present and how you will do so?  Does your material flow from point to point, pulling the hearer/reader along every step of the way?  Do you avoid repetition and internal disagreement? 
  • Full exposition of your argument.  Does your evidence support your thesis?  Do you draw material from a range of sources?  Do you address the realworld complexities of your topic, avoiding the pitfalls of black-and-white presentation? 
  • Clear statement of your conclusions.  Do your conclusions review your arguments and then suggest what insights your project offers about key themes we've covered in this course?
  • Creativity and originality.  Feel free to play with form and concepts.  Take chances.  Don't be stifled by rules.  Remember, you're in control here, so there's no need to retreat to stodginess or some distanced academic voice.  We'll be reading lots of papers and watching lots of presentations; please try to keep us awake. 
     Notice that throughout this discussion I've talked about "consultants."  This is a field project; at its heart are interviews that you'll be conducting with individuals whom you think can contribute to the research.  These persons, as active participants in the process of discovery, are your consultants.  They're the ones to whom you'll turn with questions; they're the ones whom you'll engage in dialogue; they're the ones, hopefully, who will become your friends.  And, perhaps most importantly, they're the experts.  Not necessarily in the sense of academic credentials, but in the sense of realworld experience.  You are asking these folks to speak from their own histories and from the understandings they have developed over the course of their lives.  You're not looking for knowledge gleaned from books, lectures, or technical manuals.  Your goal, remember, is to investigate Southern culture as lived experience.  This means that you must step into communities outside of the university sphere and choose consultants who are members of these communities. Then let them guide you on the path towards fuller understanding. 

     If your consultants are to be your guides, you must treat them, and their words, with respect.  The former is a matter of courtesy, consideration, and deference.  They are your teachers; please treat them as such.  Remember, they're taking time out of busy schedules to help you—someone they don't even know—in your inquiry.  In return, you should make every effort to meet their schedules and abide by their wishes.  As to respecting their words, you should question with care, listen with appreciation, and record the conversation.  The recordings you generate will allow you to share the interview with fellow group members, review the conversation before going back a second time, and ponder the points as you prepare your presentation.  Tape recorded conversations are critical to your success as ethnographers. 

     This call for respect doesn't mean that you must always agree with your consultants.  Or that you should hesitate in disagreeing when you offer their views in your presentation.  In past years, for example, some students have uncritically presented consultants' remarks that denigrated women or members of various cultural groups.  One group, for example, repeated sexist jokes about women's skills on the racetrack.  Feeling that these were valid ethnographic findings, and that ethnographers shouldn't publicly critique their consultants, group-members presented the jokes without comment.  What these students forgot was that they too have voices worth hearing. Respect for others doesn't mean silencing the self.  Rather, it means that consultants' words should be presented with integrity and sensitivity, and that this presentation should occur alongside that of the ethnographers.  If you treat ethnography as a conversation, you shouldn't hesitate to present the differing perspectives that conversation might yield. 

     Finally, we come to the matter of time.  In past years, many presentations have stretched beyond the twenty-minute limit.  Some folks, when facing a classroom of peers, just can't seem to relinquish the floor.  With three presentations scheduled for a single period, this means that the last group invariably gets cut short.  This year, I hope to avoid this by lowering a group's grade for each two minutes they extend beyond the assigned time.  I know this seems rather harsh, but I suspect that after all the work you'll be putting into these presentations, you won't want your grade sabotaged by another group that goes on too long.  By the same token, your grade will suffer if you fail to fill the required twenty minutes.  Some of your predecessors have tried to slide by with presentations as short at twelve minutes.  This year, I'll expect all to fall between eighteen and twenty.  This means that each group will probably want to conduct a full dress rehearsal before their actual presentation, so that you can work out any bugs (particularly if you include audio-visual elements) and tighten your time before the final showing. 

     Further discussion of our expectations for these presentations, and instructions on the nature of the fieldwork and analysis, are included later in this packet.
 
(2) Group project abstract:  So that you aren't tempted to put off project research until the last minute, and so that I can advise you on your choice of topic, I would like each group to hand in a detailed, printed abstract—of two full double-spaced pages—on Sept. 17, four weeks after class has begun.  The abstract should open with a succinct thesis statement.  It should then thoroughly explain your line of inquiry, include a prose outline of your research plan (e.g. , specify whom you have already interviewed, whom you intend to interview, why you are doing so, and how many times you will speak with them), and close with a working bibliography of library sources relevant to your research.  Please don't look on the abstract as a place to parrot the suggestions in the exercise guidelines.  Remember, I wrote those questions, and will know when you're taking the easy way out.  Instead, you should view the abstract as an opportunity to pose a research question, and then to explain how you are proceeding with your investigation.  Don't hesitate to speak with your advisor about the abstract.  After all, that's why we're here. 
(3) Group project paper:  One week after your presentation—or, for the "Place, Memory & Meaning" and "Cultural Tourism" groups, on the day of your presentation—each group will hand in two copies of a single, collectively-written 12+ page paper elaborating on the issues addressed in the fieldwork.  I expect this to be an incisive and coherently written essay on your group's fieldwork conclusions, focusing—as in the presentation—on an argument rather than on description.  As with the presentation, the paper should begin with a clear thesis statement, proceed with analysis that draws upon fieldwork, library research, and class discussions, and close with a conclusion that sets your research in the broader frameworks of cultural study.  At the paper's end, you should suggest what implications your findings have for other studies of Southern culture.

     Please be sure to conclude your paper with a full bibliography.  I expect you to cite at least five non-web-based scholarly sources in your paper, alongside at least as many sources drawn from your own interviews.  You can certainly use references from the net; these, however, must be in addition to the five sources from scholarly publications, and they must be cited with both web-address and date.  Treat taped conversations just as you would any other source; they are, after all, as valuable as anything you will find in the library.

     You'll notice that I ask that this paper be “collectively written."  Last year, many students argued that this demand made the paper-writing next to impossible; too many cooks, they explained, inevitably spoil the broth.  While I understand the problems that joint writing entails, I also see its advantages—not the least of which is a solid product that represents the group effort, and that can archived for future use by other students and scholars.  But the process isn't easy.  Group writing means that every group-member must contribute materials that both address a single issue and relate to the research theme.  This means a lot of coordination, so that you avoid unneccessary overlap and insure some semblance of analytic flow.

     It also means that you'll need to choose one member to serve as your editor.   Many of last year's papers came in like poorly executed patchwork quilts, with lots of discordant pieces but little sense of the whole.  This year, I'd like your essay to flow with a single voice, as if it only had one author.  To achieve this end, you'll need a good editor, someone who can craft eloquent prose, and in return can be relieved of some other group responsibilities.  The editor, for example, might not log any interviews, or might not actually stand before the class in the presentation (though s/he should still participate in fieldwork and in creating the overall project).  Whatever the arrangement, you should make sure that each contributor submits material to the editor at least one to two weeks before the presentation, so that the editor has time to pull it all together and that the group can then review the final product.  I realize that the prospect of collaboratively writing a research paper is rather daunting; I assure you, though, that the effort and editing will make your final presentation much stronger.

     The paper should be printed on an easily readable computer printout, with double-spacing and margins not exceeding one inch.  And it should include twelve full pages of text, not including the title page, bibliography, and any images or tables you might choose to add. As mentioned above, please hand in two copies of the paper.  One will be returned with comments; the second will be submitted—along with your interview tapes and logs—to the Southern Historical Collection in Wilson Library, where it will become part of the University's permanent collection.
 
(4) Interview tapes and logs:  In addition to the abstract and presentation, each group must hand in tapes and detailed logs from three recorded interviews.  The tapes should capture conversations with consultants in the community you are investigating; they should not be interviews with professors or other secondary sources.  Each interview should be taped on one or more standard-sized 60- or 90-minute cassettes; no mini-cassettes will be accepted.  Please do not record more than one conversation per tape.  Each tape should be accompanied by a fully notated label, filled out according to the model presented later in this syllabus.  The logs, in turn, should be detailed notes on every topic discussed in the interview, written so that anyone could pick up the log, find a topic of interest, and then quickly locate that topic on the tape.  There's no need to develop any special timing or numbering system to match tape and log; just report the progress of the conversation, noting what takes place on each side of the cassette.

     The point of the log is to grant easy access to the recorded conversation.  It should be detailed enough to cover all important topics, but not so detailed as to include every word.  In other words, the log should be a guide, and not a transcript.  Just look upon this as an exercise in paraphrase and summarization.  (For an example that contrasts a log with a transcript—drawn from an actual interview—click here.)  As in this example, be sure to include all of your questions in the  log.  Though they might strike you—when you listen back to the tape—as a bit clumsy (mine almost always do!), they do show your line of thought, and will prove helpful as you review the tape before going back for further interviews.

     Please preface each log with a clear guide to the conversational context, listing participants (including yourselves), date, location, and the consultant's phone # (see the example).  Follow this with a short statement identifying your group project, and explaining the goals that you carried with you into the interview.  At the end of the log, on a separate sheet, add a half- to one-page analysis explaining what you learned from this conversation, what points you will pursue in further conversations, and what issues raised in this conversation will find a place in your group presentation.

     Each log should be no less than six double-spaced pages, not including title materials and the appended analysis.  And each should be printed on an easily readable computer printout, with margins not exceeding one inch.  The first log & tape set is due on October 3, the second on October 22, and the third on November 7.

     The fact that I'm asking each group for only three logged interviews does not mean that you should limit yourself to this number.  Ethnography is a process of gradually developing friendships and then coming to a fuller understanding of the issues being pursued.  Three interviews—no matter how complete—can only begin this process.  I fully expect the group to do more interviews than this, but am only asking that three be handed in.  If individuals in the groups wish to hand in additional tapes and logs, you can do so for individual extra credit (granted to the logger rather than the group).  I've found that doing logs for every interview I conduct really helps me to pull out the ideas contained therein.  If you choose to hand in such logs, it can only help your grade.  Please hand in any extra credit logs and tapes by Nov. 14.

     Along with every tape, I would like you to submit two additional documents.  The first is a signed consent form from the consultant(s) interviewed.  (You'll find a copy of this form by simply following the link.)  With this form in hand, we'll be able to submit the tapes to the Southern Historical Collection over in Wilson Library.  This will grant other scholars access to the research you've conducted, and will insure that the best of your work will live on long after your stay at the university has ended.  Many of your interviews will offer telling insights into Southern culture.  I, for one, would like to see them treated as the valuable resources that they are.

     The second thing I'd like is a copy of the thank-you note that you write to your consultants after each interview.  Remember, our consultants are going out of their way to help us—folks they don't even know—complete a project for our class.  The least we can do is let them know how much we appreciate their time and effort.
 
(5) Examinations:  In addition to the group presentation, class responsibilities include three tests, the last of which will be an hour-and-fifteen minute "final" covering material discussed in the last month of the course.  All three tests—the first two scheduled for Sept. 26 and Nov. 5 during the normal class period, and the last slated for Tuesday, Dec. 10, during finals' week—will include short and long essay questions.  The short essay questions will essentially ask you to briefly discuss the significance of selected terms or issues that we'll have defined during class.  The long essays, in contrast, will address broader topics, and will ask that you synthesize materials drawn from lectures, class discussions, and readings.  All of the essay questions will be selected from a larger list that I'll hand to you a week or so before each test.  That way, you'll have a chance to consider possible responses before actually facing the questions.
. . . when are the assignments due?

Though flexibility is built into the system, some dates are set. Here's a timeline for your convenience. The same information is integrated into the day-by-day syllabus.

  • Sept. 17        Group project abstract due (one abstract per group)
  • Sept. 26       Exam #1 (Reviewing material covered from 8/20-9/24)
  • Oct. 3             First interview tape & log due (1 for each group)
  • Oct. 22          Second interview tape & log due (1 for each group)
  • Oct. 22          "Vernacular Religion" group presentations
  • Oct. 29          "Southern Folklife" group presentations
  • Nov. 5           Exam #2 (Reviewing material covered from 10/1-10/31)
  • Nov. 7            "Vernacular Music" group presentations
  • Nov. 7            Third interview tape & log due (1 for each group)
  • Nov. 14          Final date to hand in tapes & logs for extra credit
  • Nov. 14          "Southern Foodways" group presentations
  • Nov. 21          "Place, Memory and Meaning" presentations—groups #1-3
  • Nov. 26          "P, M & M" group #4 & Cultural Tourism presentations
  • Dec. 10         Exam #3 (Reviewing material covered from 11/7-12/3)
 
. . . with all of these assignments, how will we be graded?

     As I suggested earlier, my goal is to help you develop perspective and critical tools.  Not to send you out with a head full of forgettable facts.  Unfortunately, facts are easier to measure than knowledge.  Facts translate easily into grades.  And that's what they want over in Hanes Hall.  So we'll play the game, throwing in a few variations of our own. . . .

     Perhaps the best way to assess knowledge is to see how it is creatively employed.  Knowledge seems to foster flexibility; it invites new applications, leading one to question and explore in realms never before considered.  That's why I've put so much emphasis on writing and presentation.  I want to see how you apply what you've learned.  Towards that end, I'll be using the criteria presented earlier to evaluate the presentation, the essay, and the exams.

     So what about grades?  Flexibility is the rule here.  Your grade will be based on the aforementioned assignments and on class participation.  The latter is critical.  If forced to break down your final grade according to assignments, I would estimate that the abstract, group project and logs would contribute about 30%, the exams about 55%, and class discussion and attendance about 15% (though consistent absenteeism—especially during group presentations—will balloon this figure).  Notice all the "abouts."  These figures are guidelines, not rules.  I'll try to base grades on evidence of individual learning, and not strictly on scores.

     I should add a final note about grading the presentations.  This is always a rather subjective decision, as so many variables come into play.  To make the process a bit more democratic, I'm adding two components that draw you into the process.  First, each group will grade the contribution of its own members, with every individual confidentially assessing her/his peers.  This lets me know, for example, if certain group-members ended up doing most of the work, or if some took the presentation as a chance to slide by while others labored.  I'll explain this process in more detail later in the semester.  Second, every class member will numerically grade each presentation other than their own.  At the end of the three presentations on "Vernacular Music," for example, everyone will hand me a score for the presenting groups.  You are to grade them according to the five criteria presented above.  I'll then take these scores into consideration when determining a final group grade.
 
. . . what will we be reading this semester?

     You've probably already discovered that there are no textbooks assigned for this course.  Instead, I've compiled a thick packet that includes all the assigned readings.  Multiple copies of this packet are on two-hour reserve at the Reserve Desk in the Undergraduate Library.  To check out a copy, ask for folder number X0-1675.  I strongly urge you to copy the packet as soon as possible, xeroxing all the contents at one time rather than trying to copy article by article.  Many of the local copy centers have automatic feeding copiers that make the copying process quite simple.  I recommend that groups of you work together when copying the packet, so that you can run off five or more full copies at a time.  This will save everyone lots of time and frustration.  Eventually, the entire packet will available through e-reserves; we're facing a backlog there, however, and the library is telling us that we may have to wait until late September.  So you might want to copy only the packet's first part . . .

     If you're looking for a single reference work that will help you throughout the course, I strongly recommend that you invest in the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, a fine compendium published by UNC Press.  If a group of you are interested in obtaining copies of this excellent resource, let me know and I'll talk with the press about getting a group discount.

. . . what if we need additional assistance?

     If you need assistance, guidance, or just some reassuring words, drop by during office hours to see me, Dan Duffy, or Drew Kenworthy.  I'll be in my office in 228 Greenlawi on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:15 until 1:30, and on Wednesdays from 10:00 until 11:30.  My phone number there is 962-4065.  The graduate assistants will announce their office hours during the first week of class.  If we're not in, you can always leave a message for us via e-mail (I'm at.ghinson@unc.edu).

     If you're having trouble doing fieldwork or developing your presentation, please call upon your advisor.  We'll be glad to discuss topics and approaches with you.  And if you find you're having difficulty with writing (on the tests, or for the paper) I recommend that you contact the Writing Center here on campus (962-4060).  Their excellent staff is ready to help you shape your ideas into compelling prose.

. . . so where does all this leave us?

     Hopefully, ready to begin our journey down the byways of Southern culture.  As with any journey, I fully expect to meet some detours and rough traveling along the way.  This is, after all, a course that's always "in development"; we're still charting some untested ground.  But if we work together and treat each other with respect, I think we'll negotiate the difficulties with ease.  Remember, we're all colleagues in this undertaking.  I intend to enjoy myself.  I hope you'll do the same.

- Glenn Hinson
 
READING ASSIGNMENTS

Aug. 20    A People Born of Dream and Slander - An Introduction

Aug. 22    Southern Ways, Southern Style - The Dynamics of Culture 
          Charles Joyner.  1999.  Southern Folk Culture: Unity in Diversity.
          Trudier Harris.  2000.  Summer Snow.
          Allen Tullos.  1989.  Life As We Knew It.

Aug. 27    The Art of Ethnography - A Practicum on Group Projects
          James Spradley and David McCurdy.  1972.  Cultural Informants.
          Edward Ives.  1974.  Excerpts from The Tape Recorded Interview.

Aug. 29    Group Project Sessions - Meeting Your Advisors

Sept. 3 & 5  No Turning Back - Race and the Lasting Legacy of Jim Crow
          Lillian Smith.  1949.  When I Was a Child.
          George M. Fredrickson.  1988.  Social Origins of American Racism.
          Nell Irvin Painter.  1988.  "Social Equality," Miscegenation, Labor, and Power.

Sept. 10    Donning the Minstrel Mask - A History of Exchange and Appropriation
          Michael Bane.  1982.  If Beale Street Could Talk.
          Peter Guralnick.  1979.  Elvis Presley and the American Dream.

Sept. 12    Creolization and the Hidden History of Cultural Exchange

          Peter H. Wood.  1988.  Re-Counting the Past.
          Charles Joyner.  1993.  A Single Southern Culture: Cultural Interaction in the Old South

Sept. 17    Moonlight and Magnolias - The Persistent Myth of the Plantation South
    * GROUP PROJECT ABSTRACT DUE *
          Wilbur J. Cash.  [1941] 1989.  Of Time and Frontiers: The Myth of "Cavalier"
               Confederate Leadership.
          Stephen A. Smith.  1982.  The Old South Myth as a Contemporary Southern
               Commodity.

Sept. 19    You Can't Rise Above Your Raising - Southern Structures of Class

          J. Wayne Flynt.  1989.  Social Class.
          Kristin Collins.  1999.  Storefront Churches Face Zoning Bans.
          Estes Thompson.  2000.  Wealthy Enclave Fights Housing Homeless. 
          John Easton, Sarah Easton, Mary A. Hicks, and Willis S. Harrison.  1939.  You're
               Gonna Have Lace Curtains.
 
Sept. 24    "Dumb, Dangerous, and Full of Likker" - The "Hillbilly" as a Class-
                      Bound Stereotype
          John S. Otto.  1987.  Plain Folk, Lost Frontiersmen, and Hillbillies.

Sept. 26    EXAM #1 (Reviewing material covered from 8/20 - 9/24)
 

Oct. 1      Hoop-Skirted Belles and Aproned Mammies - The Social Construction
 & Oct. 3   of Gender
    * Oct. 3 - 1st INTERVIEW TAPE & LOG DUE *
          Drew Gilpin Faust.  1996.  Introduction, & Enemies in Our Households.
          Deborah Gray White.  1985.  Jezebel and Mammy.
          Susan Tucker, ed.  1988.  Narrative accounts of Leigh Campbell, Willie Mae
               Fitzgerald, Louise Webster, and Aletha Vaughn.

Oct. 8     Give Me That Old Time Religion - The Heritage of Faith

          Samuel S. Hill.  1989.  Religion.
          Sandra H. Flowers.  1980.  Hope of Zion
.
Oct. 10     When the Holy Ghost Comes Down - Talking with Southern Evangelists
          Unnamed elders from Tennessee.  [1945] 1969.  "I am Blessed but You are Damned,"
               "My Jaws Became Unlocked," and "Behold, I am a Doctor."

Oct. 15     High John, Hoodoo, and a Plastic Dashboard Jesus - Magical Means
                   and Sacramental Worldviews
          James Kirkland.  1992.  Talking Fire Out of Burns
          Zora Neale Hurston.  1935.  Excerpts from Mules and Men, pp. 192-99, 221-29

Oct. 17     NO CLASS - FALL RECESS

Oct. 22     Studies in Vernacular Religion - Group Presentations
    * 2nd INTERVIEW TAPE & LOG DUE *

Oct. 24     Captured Passion & Created Meaning - Art as Cultural Self-Presentation

          Alice Walker.  1977.  In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens.
          Charles G. Zug III.  1989.  "New" Pots for Old: Burlon Craig's Strategy for Success

Oct. 29     Exploring the Spirit of Community - Southern Folklife Presentation

Oct. 31     Bluegrass Breakdown - A Case Study in New South Creolization

         Readings to be announced
 
Nov. 5      EXAM #2 (Reviewing material covered from 10/1 - 10/31)

Nov. 7     Sounds So Good To Me - Vernacular Music  Presentations
    * 3rd INTERVIEW TAPE & LOG DUE *

Nov. 12    Barbecues and Brunswick Stews, Gumbos and Goo-Goo Clusters -
                    Southern Food and Southern Tastes
          S. Jonathan Bass. 1995. "How 'bout a Hand for the Hog": The Enduring Nature of the
               Swine as a Cultural Symbol in the South.
          C. Paige Gutierrez. 1984. The Social and Symbolic Uses of Ethnic/Regional
               Foodways: Cajuns and Crawfish in South Louisiana.

Nov. 14     Southern Food as Performance and Symbol - Foodways Presentations

    * FINAL DATE TO HAND IN LOGS & TAPES FOR EXTRA CREDIT *
 
Nov. 19     Homecomings and Homeplaces - The Southern Sense of Place
          Barbara Allen. 1990. The Genealogical Landscape and the Southern Sense of Place.
          Stephen W. Foster. 1993. Politics, Expressive Form, and Historical Knowledge in a
               Blue Ridge Resistance Movement
.
Nov. 21     Place, Memory and Meaning #1-3 - Presentations

Nov. 26     Place, Memory and Meaning #4 / Cultural Tourism - Presentations

Nov. 28     NO CLASS - THANKSGIVING RECESS

Dec. 3     Towards a New South - Anthropology as Cultural Critique

Dec. 10     EXAM #3 (Reviewing material covered from 11/7 - 12/3)
                   Tuesday at 12:00 noon
READING PACKET RESOURCES

Allen, Barbara.  1990.  The Genealogical Landscape and the Southern Sense of Place. In

     Sense of Place: American Regional Cultures, eds. Barbara Allen and Thomas 
     Schlereth, pp. 152-163.  Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.
Bane, Michael.  1982.  If Beale Street Could Talk.  In White Boy Singing the Blues, pp.
     51-63.  New York: Penguin Books.
Bass, S. Jonathan.  1995.  "How 'bout a Hand for the Hog": The Enduring Nature of the
     Swine as a Cultural Symbol in the South.  Southern Cultures 1: 301-320.
Cash, Wilbur J.  [1941] 1989.  Of Time and Frontiers: The Myth of "Cavalier" Confederate
     Leadership.  In Myth and Southern History, Vol. I: The Old South, eds. Patrick Gerster
     and  Nicholas Cords, pp. 81-89. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Collins, Kristen.  1999.  Storefront Churches Face Zoning Bans.  The News & Observer,
     December 13, 1A, 10A.
Easton, John, Sarah Easton, Mary A. Hicks, and Willis S. Harrison.  1939.  You're Gonna
     Have Lace Curtains.  In These Are Our Lives, pp. 3-17.  Chapel Hill: University of North
     Carolina Press.
Faust, Drew Gilpin. 1996.  Introduction: All the Relations of Life, & Enemies in Our 
     Households: Confederate Women and Slavery.  In Mothers of Invention: Women of the
     Slaveholding South in the American Civil War, pp. 3-8, 53-79.  Chapel Hill: University
     of North Carolina Press.
Flynt, J. Wayne.  1989.  Social Class.  In Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, eds.
     Charles Reagan Wilson and William Ferris, pp. 1383-90.  Chapel Hill: University of
     North Carolina Press.
Foster, Stephen William. 1993.  Politics, Expressive Form, and Historical Knowledge in a
     Blue Ridge Resistance Movement.  In Fighting Back in Appalachia: Traditions of
     Resistance and Change, ed. Stephen L. Fisher, 303-315.  Philadelphia: Temple
     University Press.
Fredrickson, George M.  1988.  Social Origins of American Racism.  In The Arrogance of
     Race: Historical Perspectives on Slavery, Racism, and Social Inequality, pp. 189-205.
     Middletown, Conn. : Wesleyan University Press.
Flowers, Sandra Hollin. 1994.  Hope of Zion.  In The Christ-Haunted Landscape: Faith
     and Doubt in Southern Fiction, ed. Susan Ketchin, pp. 174-83.  Jackson: University
     Press of Mississippi.
Guralnick, Peter. 1979.  Elvis Presley and the American Dream.  In Lost Highway: Journeys
     and Arrivals of American Musicians, pp. 118-40.  Boston: David R. Godine.
Gutierrez, C. Paige. 1984. The Social and Symbolic Uses of Ethnic/Regional Foodways:
     Cajuns and Crawfish in South Louisiana.  In Ethnic and Regional Foodways in the
     United States: The Performance of Identity, ed. Linda Keller Brown and Kay Mussell,
     pp. 169-82.  Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.
Harris, Trudier.  2000.  Summer Snow.  The Chapel Hill News.  May 10, A1, A8.
Hill, Samuel S. 1989.  Religion.  In Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, eds. Charles Reagan
     Wilson and William Ferris, pp. 1269-71.  Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Hurston, Zora Neale. 1935. Mules and Men.  Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company.
Ives, Edward D. 1974. The Tape-Recorded Interview: A Manual for Field Workers in
     Folklore and Oral History.  Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.
Kirkland, James. 1992.  Talking Fire Out of Burns: A Magico-Religious Healing Tradition. 
     In Herbal and Magical Medicine: Traditional Healing Today, eds. James Kirkland, Holly
     F. Matthews, C. W. Sullivan III, and Karen Baldwin, pp. 42-52.  Durham: Duke University
     Press.
Joyner, Charles Winston.  1999.  Southern Folk Culture: Unity in Diversity.  In Shared
     Traditions: Southern History and Folk Culture, pp 11-25.  Urbana: University of Illinois
     Press.
________.  1993.  A Single Southern Culture: Cultural Interaction in the Old South.  In Black
     and White Cultural Interaction in the Antebellum South, ed. Ted Ownby, pp. 3-22.
     Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
Mebane, Mary E.  1981. Mary.  New York: The Viking Press.
Otto, John Solomon.  1995.  Plain Folk, Lost Frontiersmen, and Hillbillies: The Southern
     Mountain Folk in History and Popular Culture.  Southern Studies 26:5-17.
Painter, Nell Irvin.  1988.  "Social Equality," Miscegenation, Labor, and Power.  In The
     Evolution of Southern Culture, ed. Numan V. Bartley, pp. 47-67. Athens: University of
     Georgia Press.
Smith, Lillian.  1949.  When I Was a Child.  In Killers of the Dream, pp. 15-31.  New York:
     W. W. Norton & Company.
Smith, Stephen A.  1982.  The Old South Myth as a Contemporary Southern Commodity.
     Journal of Popular Culture 16(3):22-29.
Spradley, James P. and David W. McCurdy.  1972.  Cultural Informants.  In Cultural
     Experience: Ethnography in Complex Society, pp. 41-55.  Chicago: Science Research
     Associates.
Thompson, Estes.  2000.  Wealthy Enclave Fights Housing Homeless.  The Detroit News,
     February 21 [http://detnews.com/2000/nation/0002/21/02210063.htm]
Tucker, Susan, ed.  1988.  Leigh Campbell, Willie Mae Fitzgerald, Louise Webster, Aletha
     Vaughn [Narrative accounts].  In Telling Memories Among Southern Women: Domestic
     Workers and Their Employers in the Segregated South, pp. 47-51, 153-54, 128-31,
     207-10.  Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
Tullos, Allen.  1989.  Life As We Knew It.  Southern Changes 11(3): 1, 3-6.
Unnamed Elders from Tennessee. [1945] 1969.  "I am Blessed but You are Damned," "My
     Jaws Became Unlocked," and "Behold, I am a Doctor."  In God Struck Me Dead:
     Religious Conversion Experiences and Autobiographies of Ex-slaves, ed. Clifton H.
     Johnson, pp. 15-18, 22-23, 150-52. Philadelphia: Pilgrim Press.
Walker, Alice.  1977.  In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens.  Southern Exposure 4(4): 60-64.
White, Deborah Gray.  1985.  Jezebel and Mammy: The Mythology of Female Slavery
     (excerpts).  In Ar'n't I a Woman?: Female Slaves in the Plantation South, pp. 27-28,
     46-61. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
Wood, Peter H.  1988.  Re-Counting the Past.  Southern Exposure 16(2):30-37.
Zug, Charles G. III.  1989.  "New" Pots for Old: Burlon Craig's Strategy for Success. In
     Folklife Annual 88-89, eds. James Hardin and Alan Jabbour, pp. 126-137.  Washington,
     D. C. : Library of Congress.

 
 
NOTATING YOUR CASSETTE TAPES

     Inadequate documentation is one of the most common pitfalls faced by ethnographers.  All too often, researchers record conversations in the field and then put off labeling the tapes, reasoning that they can do that when they get home.  Then when they do get home, they toss the tapes in a drawer and let them sit until it's time to do a log or transcript.  When the tapes finally surface, they bear no identifying information-no names, no dates, no indication of sequence in interviews that stretched beyond a single tape.  All of which means lots of time wasted reconstructing information that was once readily accessible.

     As suggested in the project instructions, you should make your recordings on standard-sized 60- or 90-minute cassettes.  Normal bias cassettes are fine for most interview material; there's no need to use the more expensive chrome or metal tapes.  But please avoid el-cheapo cassettes by non-brand-name manufacturers.  Your best bet is to stick with such tried-and-true brands as Maxell, Sony, BASF, TDK and Fuji.

     On the front of the cassette label, TYPE OR PRINT the following information: 1) name of consultant(s) interviewed; 2) name of interviewer(s); 3) date of the recording; 4) site of the recording (address & identifying information); 5) project title; 6) indication of sides (e. g. , "Side 1 only," or "Sides1 & 2"); tape number (e. g. , "Tape 1 of 1," or "Tape 1 of 2").  If you used dolby or dbx noise reduction in the taping, please also indicate this on the label.

     On the cassette label top (the part that faces upward when the cassette lies on end), write the name of the recorded consultant(s), the date, and the tape number (e. g. , "Tape 1 of 1").  And on the cassette itself, include at least the consultant's name and the tape #.  Use this mock-up as your model: