Assembling Culture Archives Documents Exhibitions

Assembling Culture

Assembling Southern Appalachian Belief Culture from the Foxfire Archive

This project looks at the belief structure of people in the Southern Appalachian mountains as recognized through the Foxfire archival project, documentary evidence and artistic interpretation. Through an examination of belief systems it is believed that unique cultural aspects of this isolated group of people can be determined. The Foxfire project is an archive that documents how the people lived prior to the mass introduction of outside influences that happened concurrent to the ability of residents to electrify their houses which occurred from approximately 1935 and into the 1950's. Prior to this time the residents of these southeastern mountains were isolated due to the remoteness of villages, and they were able to remain relatively self-contained even though some sections were being encroached by industry. The belief systems in this examination include religion and healing, but mainly relate to how stories of hauntings and ghosts provide a glimpse into the cultural norms of the community. It is argued that these stories, which were prominent throughout the region provided a means for cultural survival despite evidence of its breakdown during the beginnings of the industrial and electronic ages. The examination of this evidence demonstrates how certain types of tales are used in primitive and modern communities to shape norms and other forms of belief through a look at the verbal recounting of the beliefs themselves, and then a comparison to other belief systems that produce an isolated culture of similar belief systems and ideologies.

Background

Culture derives from a shared language, experience and belief system. Over time this may not remain exactly the same, but the society as a whole does move, somewhat synchronously, over the same period to develop communally. The language can be altered to such an extent that what came before is almost unrecognizable to the people in the present such as with Old English vs. New English, but the fact is that the culture which grew up with Old English has also evolved to accept the more complex and deliberate language which has adapted to chaining political and social times. The experiences can be seen in the history which the culture shares. In the United States, for example, there are necessarily (because of the great influx of many cultures) a variety of shared experiences when a group of people first arrives in North America, but over time the experiences of earlier Americans are taught to the new raft of people, and this helps them to assimilate/acculturate. Belief system though, that may be the most difficult to instill when a culture is as vast and diverse as that with in the United States of America. This could be one of the main reasons that many believe that there is no true American culture, but a conglomeration of small offshoots of other cultures that have remained intact amongst the vast colorless mass of humanity that gloms onto whatever comes to its shores (Schmidt 4).

However, there are those European-American cultures which have survived in the United States and researchers have provided a vast archive of their cultural reality in present times, and the roots from which they sprung. The Foxfire Project began as a class project started by a social studies teacher, Eliot Wigginton, in which he tasked his class with scouring the nearby communities for people who had grown up with the pioneering ways of the region. The class collected stories from people who had lived during a time when the Appalachian Mountains were so isolated that a distinctive culture grew up which was hardy, self-sufficient and superstitious. The archive first included first-hand accounts of everything from how the people raised a barn to when they planted corn. There was a reason for every technique and these generally had to do with some notion of signs for which the people looked. These beliefs and methods for conducting life grew into a cultural construct that extended even into the pidgin English dialect spoken by the people in the Southern Appalachians.

While the archive provided in the Foxfire set of books, and the subsequent museum and web pages is important to the success of any study of the Southern Appalachians and how the culture was influenced, it is also necessary to look at other source material to fully understand the archive. The most powerful and all-encompassing aspect of the Southern Appalachian culture explained in the Foxfire series and similar archival information is that the culture was shaped by values and beliefs more than any other element. Thus, it is important to gage the parallels that occurred in the experiences of other cultures in order to draw a true comparison, such as the surrealist movement in European culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is interesting to compare the surrealist movement in art and culture, and the culture in the Southern Appalachians to discover how powerful belief is in every phase of development.

The archive concerns itself with the physical needs of the people as a primary means to understanding how they lived and survived in the harsh conditions of an isolated, mountainous region, but information regarding the unexplainable that turned into foundational belief is even more cogent regarding cultural heritage. Many people interviewed for the series remembered being taught morals related through tales of "haints" (a colloquial version of the word "haunts" or ghosts), planting began at certain times and harvest could only occur when weather and plant signs pointed to a fruitful gathering, and medical remedies were passed down that related more to metaphysics that physiology and practical medicine. In this isolated culture in which people had to rely on common resources and where the modern world did not intrude to an large extent until the middle of the twentieth century, the Foxfire archive demonstrates how people used their force of belief to conduct every part of their lives. This system continues to have a great deal of influence even in the early twenty-fist century with regard to political affiliation, religion, healing, and many other areas of life. The fact that many of these behaviors came from superstitious Scotch-Irish and American Indian ancestors is, in large part, what the archive discusses.

Excerpts from the Foxfire Archive Relative to the Topic

The archival information that has been gathered over the past 40 years tells a story about the people who have inhabited Southern Appalachian mountains, but it is also provides a means to look at an American pioneer heritage that had been lost in most other areas of the country. Culture has a way of quickly moving past what it formerly was, and forgetting about that past (De Caro 1). The fact that this area of the country (and some others that have mountain ranges equally as old such as the Ozarks and the Ouachita's) was behind the cultural development of the rest of the country can be explained by the fact that it was so isolated (Green & Best 3). But, it can also be framed in the ideas of a culture that wanted to remain isolated as it saw what the rest of the country was becoming. Due to the simplicity of this rural life and the fact that it was relatively unspoiled, people wanted to be left to themselves, and, though poor in terms of financial accouterments, the people who remained in the Southern Appalachian region for generations were also proud and suspicious of other areas of the country. The reasons for this hiding are easily gleaned from the Foxfire archive.

Religion

The people in this area have practiced a very conservative form of Christianity that has remained unchanged for centuries. Although there were different denominations in the mountains, they all were believers in the that the Bible was infallible and this prompted many of the beliefs and images that have become a part of Southern folklore. It was important to document what the archives said about the religion of the people, and to examine documentary footage, to determine how isolation has formed beliefs that are still practiced, even in places where they are illegal.

Pentecostal churches in the area are known for their belief that God will save the people from any form of illness, physical danger or possession (Cheek & Nix 24). Throughout the collection of data for the Foxfire project, the researchers conducted interviews with people who were either involved in the religious practices mentioned, or the researchers attended services during which various observances were practiced. The church services observed were fairly commonplace for the most part, but there were certain practices which are common only to certain regions in the Southern Appalachians. Among these were snake handling, poison drinking, fire handling and speaking in tongues. It must be noted that speaking in tongues is a common practice throughout the United States among Pentecostal and Free Will congregations, but they are not coupled with the other rituals.

A metaphysical belief in a monotheistic God who controls all actions whether animal, plant or mineral is not uncommon. Christianity, Judaism and Islam (these being the monotheistic religions with the largest number of adherents) account for approximately 4 billion people with a religious affiliation worldwide. These beliefs bring comfort and promise a better life for most, but they also protect the believer in this world and the one to come.

The Christian adherents seek the wisdom written in their Bible which is divided into two major sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament, and 66 books scattered amongst the two (39 in the Old and 27 in the New). In the gospels of the New Testament is the book of Mark. From this book, the Christians in some Southern Appalachian churches have selected a verse that tells them to what extent they are protected by God. The verse, Mark 16:17,18, says;

17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

Documentary evidence on PBS, the National Geographic Channel and other outlets has shown these practices, and the Foxfire archives also mention fire handling (Cheek & Nix 56). A documentary from the Nat Geo Wild show Animal Underworld presented the use of snake handling and speaking in tongues during a church service. The snakes were both copper heads and rattle snakes of different varieties, and the host showed various people both handling the serpents and seemingly coming away unharmed. The people talked about how their belief kept them safe (Snake Handling). Cheek and Nix discuss the processes of fire handling and drinking poison in much the same way. The people in the church believed, due to the words of the verse in Mark, that they would not be harmed no matter what dangerous action they performed (57). The caveat to this, from the people performing the actions, was that if the person did not have faith in God they would be harmed just as anybody would. One gentleman, called Brother Huff, stated that "When I hold fire, it feels cool, just like there's no fire there" (Cheek & Nix 57).

Tales

There are many methods used to discover cultural development among a people, but none is considered as significant as how history and belief are passed to future generations (Parsons). The history of a people used to be entirely passed, regardless of the culture, from mouth to mouth. American Indian tribes had a rich tradition of creation tales and other significant information passed in this way. All believed in an intelligent spirit that created the world and the tribe as a favored people. The same type of creation stories written by the early Jewish tribes have been recorded in cultures all around the world. The amazing fact is that many of these diverse stories are closely related. The historic movements and wars that a culture had been engaged in were also fodder for the tales that passed from one generation to the next. Often the people trained storytellers or they were selected for their ability to relate the most important events of the people. If the story was a recent one, it may be told around the campfire through the use of interpretive dance or another form of pantomime, but deep history was relegated to the old central story teller who was well-versed in all of the legends of the people. In his book discussing the methods of dispensing a culture's folklore, Frank de Caro says that "sometimes the singer or teller or speaker was largely forgotten; sometimes the circumstances of the singing or the telling were ignored" (91), meaning that tale was the important thing; the teller of the tale and even the meaning were often secondary.

But meanings are often the reason for the tale in the first place. In her article about Cinderella stories and their use as a means to accentuate gender norms for young girls, Parsons says that;

"Although fairy tales are certainly not solely responsible for the acculturation of children, they are an integral part of the complex layering of cultural stories and influences that affirm and perpetuate cultural norms" (135).

This thought is echoed by Jack Zipes in his book exploring the tales and motivations of the Brothers Grimm. The German people were very fond of telling tales to their children as a means of both entertaining them and instructing them. The brothers Grimm collected the stories during a time when the German people were greatly influenced by the French (as a result of the Napoleonic Wars) and the tales were a means to inspire a German nationalism and a sense of pride in German values. Zipes argues that "[Wilhelm Grimm] and his brother had a distinct concept of home and socialization in collecting and rewriting the tales" (114). The tales then were not necessarily German, but they conveyed a sense that the brothers Grimm believed was important to provide new generations with the concept of German-ness. To this point;

"What fascinated or compelled the Grimms to concentrate on old German literature was a belief that the most natural and pure forms of culture -- those which held the community together -- were linguistic and were to be located in the past" (Zipes 10).

These folktales, and those told by other cultures have thus been very important for expressing what the culture is, and how the people within the culture are to comport themselves. Although this is very important for children to understand, they are not the only ones who listen to the repeated telling of the tales, so they are not the only people who find meaning in them. That is probably the primary reason that the adults will actually ensure that the stories continue from one generation to the next.

Of course, it is simpler for the tale to maintain the important nationalistic or culturalistic component if it is written down, but it loses some of its effect also. A story should be owned by the teller. He or she should be able to emboss the parts on the minds in attendance that are deemed important by the teller, but also the tale sounds more authentic if it is related as if it were being told for the first time. In searching archives it is important to have a written, or in some other way recorded, version of the tale, but it is also important to allow the teller to express themselves through the relating of the tale. The Foxfire archive is constructed with just such a purpose in mind.

As stated above, most of the archive is constructed of interviews that were collected over a period of approximately 20 years. The people were willing to talk about all aspects of their lives, but the bulk of the interviews offered narrative rather than practical happenings. The people were able to discuss how they had survived since the first Scotch-Irish emigrants inhabited the hills that reminded them of home, but they also provided interviewers with legends and ghost stories that had been passed down since the same time.

One resident told interviewers "That the people of these mountains should have a rich supply of 'haint' tales is not at all surprising. They had conquered the land -- but only in a small area around their doors" (Wigginton 324). Throughout history it is not a surprise that people would invent tales to account for sounds, lights and other oddities that they could not explain. The people lived in mountains that were covered with dense foliage which remained in a twilight even during the middle of the day just beyond the reaches of their cabins. The mountains remain wild even to this day, with predators such as bear and pumas in abundance. Many of the tales adopted by the European settlers came from the American Indians who had first populated the area, so they contained the cautions for the land that were first dreamed of by those inhabitants.

The tales of the original settlers of the area provided both fodder for the stories of the new inhabitants and the means to protect themselves. In African culture, people would hang empty bottles from dead tree branches to ward off what they believed were evil spirits (Goldstein & Thomas). The native cultures in the United States had the same belie that malicious spirits could be warned off the same way. Many times they would hang some type of material that would make noise around their encampments so that they would remain safe while they slept. The natives passed this practice on to the Scotch-Irish who settled the region after them. Many of those interviewed told stories of their parents or grandparents hanging pots from the porch, or glass bottles from the trees. When asked about it the old people would say that it was to keep the "critters" at bay, but they also believed in the practices efficacy against harmful spirits (Cheek & Nix 87).

The exercise of the tales was to provide a justification for the sights and sounds that happened in the nights around the cabins, but they also provided a means of entertainment for the folks. The communities were generally small (Green & Best, 3) and did not have any outside means of entertainment. People would gather in each other's houses at night or they would meet in the country store that every community had. During these times the residents of a small community would either listen to new tales from a person who was traveling through or they would retell those that each had heard since birth. The students and instructors gathering the archival material note that it was not uncommon for the people to allow the participation of all people in attendance, regardless of age, because they wanted every person there to remember be a part of the community they were creating. This type of camaraderie was built through the communal activities that the residents participated in and many residents did not travel greater than a few miles from their local community their entire lives because of the closeness these tales and actions engendered in the people.

Besides the cautionary sort of tale that knitted communities were those that instructed the young of the community in morals and the values of the people there. Many of the haint stories revolved around someone who had either committed some type of wrong or a person who had been betrayed so was left to walk the Earth until their restlessness could be satisfied. The stories with morals were not the same as those told in the Germanic tales gathered by the Brothers Grimm. The stories told in the Foxfire archive are meant to scare the hearer into compliance with a cultural norm. For example, one resident told the archivists of a time that he was up on a mountainside with some friends when he was young. The mountainside had apparently been the site of an American Indian massacre before the white settlers came to the area, and the people who had died in the battle were restless and unsettled. The group consisted of about ten people, teenage boys and girls, who were up there to get away from their parents and other adult supervision so that they could drink, smoke pot and "carouse" with one another. The man relating the tale said that the day was hot and that there was no wind because they were amongst the trees, so the teens were surprised when the wind started to pick up, and then it began howling. He said that he could hear people's voices in the wind as if they were "growling, shouting and hissing." The teens later related that they could also hear chains rattling and other noises from the wind that had no place in a mountain glade. They became scared, got into their vehicles and hurried back to town. The man telling the story said that there were a lot of people from the town who gathered that night and said that they had heard the same thing, and were wondering where it came from. The man seemed to believe that it was a true experience with the Devil of demons at the very least, and that the message was for the teens to stay away from the evil they were doing (Green & Best 194). This story is like many told to the archivists to describe the moralistic nature of culture. There were also many tales that were meant to help young people understand the benefits of love and believing in the conservative religious philosophies the country people espoused. In many ways the tales were not far removed from those told to the Brothers Grimm and other archivists. There is a hint of truth to all of them, but there also has to be the horrifying bit that reminds the listener what will happen if they stray from the norms of the community.

Comparisons for the Foxfire Archive

Many systems of belief exist that have begun due to people's attempt to understand their environment and contain it into a usable form. The archivists examination of the people in the Southern Appalachian mountains revealed a consistent theme. The people of the mountains were not averse to the outside progress of the rest of the world (especially the United States), but they also wanted people to respect their rights and the issues that they thought were important. For example, the snake handlers were interested in the free practice of religion as they saw fit, but most have been stymied in this because laws, meant to protect citizens, have encroached upon that belief. The people in these communities told tales and made crafts that were useful in some way to the furtherance of the community and the same can be said for other systems of belief.

The archive provides a constant reminder that the people of the Southern Appalachians were very much interested in the metaphysical world that was just beyond their grasp. The reader can see this in the ghost stories and the religion of the people, but also in the way that they lived. Houses were raised at certain times of the year, crops were planted according to the stages of the moon and astrological signs, and people believed that healing was as much a product of the subconscious as it was the conscious endeavors of a doctor or healer. The beliefs also shaped the politics of the region into a belief that is very mistrustful of outsiders and of authority that does not coincide with their own metaphysical beliefs. The similarities to the stories gathered by the Brothers Grimm have already been examined, but there are other parallels that can be drawn to more modern belief systems. One of these that exhibits itself in the ethereal tales of haints and other metaphysical beings is surrealism.

Surrealist beliefs were drawn from the writings of Andre Breton and others who had lived in Paris prior to the beginning of the First World War. The primary belief of the artists and writers who made up this culture was that that rationalism was the enemy of pure thought and that they, the artists had a duty to examine the true world as they saw it. One of the primary beliefs of the movement was that people could see beyond what was right in front of them and that there were other worlds beside the shady truth that most people looked were always asking other to look at. It was also a belief that wanted to banish the prevailing tides of political and religious conformity that the world existed under (Cohen 3). For the surrealists, this took the form of Marxism, a system that they could believe in because it was the opposite of the Western democracies that they believed were responsible for war, poverty and other negative aspects of life.

It is interesting to draw see how the people documented in the Foxfire archive move in consort with the people of the surrealist movement. The artists in Paris were just as insulated and isolated as the people who lived in the mountains of Southern Appalachia. It was a choice that the artistic community made, but some of the ideas it generated were little different, at least from the metaphysical side, as those the mountain people believed. The surrealists were Marxists because they believed in the superiority of humans over government and of the thought life over what others believed to be reality. In one passage from Cohen's book she relates that "disregarding the dream language in which Benjamin describes the products of the superstructure, Habermas uses the passage to echo Adorno's opinion that Benjamin's interest in ideological 'expression' takes him from the realm of materialism to the realm of myth" (29). The thought is that Walter Benjamin worked to see the world from his own non-conformist construction. He worked more in fantasy than the mountain people did, but the way in which they framed their beliefs is similar to Benjamin and Breton.

Another of Bretons' works is a novel called Nadja. This may book may demonstrate an even better match between how the mountain people felt and the world in which Breton and other surrealists also existed. He writes "Such a word [haunt] means more than it says, makes me, still alive, play a ghostly part, evidently referring to what I must have ceased to be in order to be who I am" (Breton 11). The character in the book is discussing the world that now exists for him. He feels like he is a person apart, as the surrealists believed, and not someone who is connected to this world. It is interesting that he uses the word "haunt" because it the feeling of haunting can be seen in many of the images in pictures taken of the Appalachian people during the visits of the archivists. Breton's character is alive, but is forced to play a "ghostly part." The people of the mountains often felt the same way in the stories that they related to the students conducting the interviews.

The surrealist art is also reflected in some of the hex symbols that people would paint on their barns and other outbuildings. A belief in the supernatural was strong in the mountain people, and they believed that there were signs they could use which would protect them from harm from the Devil and other fallen angels. Many surrealist paintings that demonstrate and alternate reality are akin to the hex symbols that the mountain people used. It was believed that certain shapes and symbols were the most effective and these often came to people in their dreams. Breton used written imagery to portray his understanding of the subconscious, but there were other members of the surrealist movement, such as Salvador Dali, who painted what they dreamed or saw in visions. Although the surrealists did not believe that the artwork had any significance beyond a glimpse into what they believed reality was, they painted what they saw in their subconscious or dreams. The symbols painted by the Appalachian mountain people to ward off evil bear some resemblance to these paintings. They are often geometric, but often they take on the more abstract shapes of fractals and other mathematical representations of what the particular man or woman saw. These symbols were often blessed by a minister so that they could achieve a desired potency.

This connection of art and, in some ways thought, is a commonality between the people archived by the Foxfire project and surrealist adherents, but that is where the similarity ended. It is necessary to make the distinction that the disgust felt by the surrealists for the world outside of their ideology does not come across in the interviews that were conducted with the hill people during the Foxfire project. Interestingly, these people were proud of the life they lived, and proud of the fact that they were considered outsiders by many in the "real" world. However, some of the images bely this interpretation also. The life in the mountains, even during the 1970's and 1980's when the archival information was collected was not easy. The people who were being documented lived a depressing, difficult life because of the poverty cause by the isolation they experienced. The reason that the old ways still existed for many people was not because they did not want better, but, in many cases, because they could not afford better. This is a departure from the surrealists. Many of the artists in the movement were poor, but only because they chose to be. They wanted to live apart from the world and to be a thorn in the side of the establishment. But, it was also a mainstream movement. In other words, the artists haunted the edges of society out of choice; the people who lived (and live) in the Southern Appalachian mountains has no choice whether they lived in poverty or not. The poverty was as much a part of the culture as the stories they told and the beliefs that they held. This also made the people feel like ghosts rather than a part of the real world.

The archive paints a pleasant picture, for the most, part of the people in the Appalachians, but it was not always successful in masking how the people actually felt. One story recounts how one man had to go to school during the warm days of early Fall and late Spring without shoes. He said that he was never dirty because his mother would the family clothes in the creek behind their house every Tuesday. He did not believe that there was anything different about how he and his family lived until he had to change from the country school where they had gone to a new elementary school closer to a larger town. The principal and teachers would not allow he and his brothers to enter the school until they were appropriately attired. He found out that this meant that they not only had to wear shoes every day, but that they had to have clothes without patches in them. Even though the people at the school knew that he and his brothers were, of necessity, forced to wear the clothes that they did, they were still made to accept the charity of others. This fact alone was difficult for a self-reliant person from the mountains, but it also opened the boys up to criticism from their classmates (Cheek & Nix 161). The man admitted feeling like an outcast and a "ghost" because of the way that he and his brothers were treated. Many of the people from the mountains could relate similar stories because it was not uncommon for there to be no money in the house for weeks on end. The people had to subsist on what they could hunt and fish for. Many also had large gardens, and the hill communities worked together to provide for each other's families when there was enough to go around. This sense of community may have helped produce the attitude that was explained by those who felt like ghosts when they were out of their usual element. The feeling is similar to that which Ralph Ellison speaks of in Invisible Man.