Cemeteries and the Life of a Smoky Mountain Community

Zusatztext

<p></p><p>In one of the few studies to draw upon cemetery data to reconstruct the social organization, social change, and community composition of a specific area, this volume contributes to the growing body of sociohistorical examinations of Appalachia. The authors herein reconstruct the Cades Cove community in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, USA, a mountain community from circa 1818 to 1939, whose demise can be traced to the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. By supplementing a statistical analysis of Cades Cove¿s twenty-seven cemeteries, completed as a National Park Study (#GRSM-01120), with ethnographic examination, the authors reconstruct the community in detail to reveal previously overlooked social patterns and interactions, including insight into the death culture and death-lore of the Upland South. This work establishes cemeteries as window into (proxies of) communities, demonstrating the relevance of socio-demographic data presented by statistical and other analyses of gravestones for Appalachian Studies, Regional Studies, Cemetery Studies, and Sociology and Anthropology.</p><p></p>

Autorenportrait

<p></p><p>Gary S. Foster is Emeritus Chair and Professor at Eastern Illinois University, USA. At EIU, he taught environmental sociology and sociology of cemeteries. His recent publications have appeared in <i>Illness, Crisis, and Loss</i>; <i>The Journal of Aging and Identity</i>; <i>The Florida Journal of Environmental Health</i>; <i>Markers</i>; and <i>The Association of Gravestone Studies Quarterly</i>.</p> <p>William E. Lovekamp is Professor of Sociology at Eastern Illinois University, USA. He is co-editor of the book <i>Social Vulnerability to Disasters</i>, (2nd ed). His recent publications appear in the <i>International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters;</i> <i>The Association of Gravestone Studies Quarterly;</i> <i>Markers;</i> <i>Teaching Sociology;</i> and <i>The Journal of Criminal Justice Education</i>. He is also producer of the documentary called <i>Nature's Fury and the Human Spirit</i>.</p><p></p>

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