Bridging Southern Cultures

A multicultural, interdisciplinary panorama of past and contemporary southern society are captured in "Bridging Southern Culture" by some of the South's leading historians, anthropologists, literary critics, musicologists, and folklorists. Using the best of recent scholarship, this collection demonstrates a revitalized energy in southern studies. A showcase of preeminent southern intellectuals, this book is is a heady mix of observations that draw new connections between eras, groups, races, and subregions. Lowe and his peers present a timely assessment of the state of southern studies in the twenty-first century.

Transcending familiar categories of "black" and "white," this volume of The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture complicates and enriches our understanding of "southernness" by identifying the array of cultures that combined to shape the South. This exploration of southern ethnicities examines the ways people perform and maintain cultural identities through folklore, religious faith, dress, music, speech, cooking, and transgenerational tradition. Accessibly written and informed by the most recent research that recovers the ethnic diversity of the early South and documents the more recent arrival of new cultural groups, this volume greatly expands upon the modest Ethnic Life section of the original Encyclopedia. Contributors describe 88 ethnic groups that have lived in the South from the Mississippian Period (1000-1600) to the present. They include 34 American Indian groups, as well as the many communities with European, African, and Asian cultural ties that came to the region after 1600. Southerners from all backgrounds are likely to find themselves represented here.

Chronology in Context -- The Spanish Borderlands: An Overview / by Jesús F. de la Teja -- The Indigenous Borderlands: Cultures without Boundaries / Daniel J. Gelo -- Defining Heritage Continuity and Contemporary Values in the Built Environment -- The Architecture of the Twentieth Century: Management of a Cultural Tradition of Modernity / by Enrique X. de Anda Alanis -- The Many Values of Cultural Heritage / by William A. Dupont -- The Question of Modern Heritage: Mid-Twentieth Century Architecture of the Texas-Tamaulipas Border / by Stephen Fox -- Picturing Reynosa: Visualizing the Past of a Rio Bravo Mexican Border Town / by Daniel D. Arreola -- Continuity of Cultural Heritage -- Extended Borders and Cultural Citizenship / by Harriett Romo and Gabriel Aguilar -- The Enduring Practice of Quinceañeras in the Borderlands: How a Timeless Ritual Maintains Culture, Language, and Latinx Identities / by Patricia Sánchez and Melinda Vargas -- Texas Borderlands Artists: A Modern Perspective / by Ricardo Romo -- Traversing Beloved Topographies of Immanence: Storying the Borderlands Imaginary / by John Phillip Santos -- Discontinuity of Cultural Heritage -- Militarized Borders and Digital Bridges: Ethnography, Art Exhibitions, and Archives / by Margaret E. Dorsey and Miguel Díaz-Barriga -- A History of Conflict and Resilience: Borderlands Transformations / by Harriett Romo and William A. Dupont.

From the very beginning the South was different. The source and significance of this difference has been debated and discussed for over 200 years. In recent decades, the demise of the South as a regional culture has frequently been predicted, although now some scholars and journalists are maintaining that it is proving to be remarkably resilient and is actually having an ever greater influence on the broader American culture. Southern Culture examines the origins and evolution of the region's culture and focuses on six key patterns that have defined it: agrarianism, class relations, race relations, gender and family traditions, evangelical Christianity, and political traditions. Southern Culture also explores the products of the culture with major sections on dialect, painting, architecture, pottery, music, literature, and icons and myths. It concludes with essays by each of the authors in which they reflect on where Southern culture is headed. Professors, to see an annotated list of helpful links to accompany Southern Culture, click here "Three community college instructors combine their long experience in teaching English, history, and sociology in North Carolina (Vance-Granville Community College) to provide an interdisciplinary introductory text well worth adoption. Beck, Frandsen, and Randall meet well the challenge of merging humanities and social science approaches to regional studies by examining six focal areas: race, class, politics, family, religion, and agrarianism. ... Highly recommended." - Choice Magazine ". . . a scholarly resource that also is fun to read." -- Durham Herald Sun

Flashes of a Southern Spirit explores meanings of the spirit in the American South, including religious ecstasy and celebrations of regional character and distinctiveness.

Still the South.