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Culture, Environment, and Conservation in the Appalachian South
Contributor(s): Howell, Benita J. (Editor)
ISBN: 0252070224     ISBN-13: 9780252070228
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
OUR PRICE:   $21.78  
Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats
Published: January 2002
Qty:
Temporarily out of stock - Will ship within 2 to 5 weeks
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Political Science | American Government - State
Dewey: 363.690
LCCN: 2001003340
Physical Information: 0.61" H x 6" W x 8.96" (0.60 lbs) 216 pages
Themes:
- Cultural Region - Deep South
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
Focusing on the mountainous area from northern Alabama to West Virginia, this important volume explores the historic and contemporary interrelations between culture and environment in a region that has been plagued by land misuse and damaging stereotypes of its people. Committed to taking account of humankind's place in the environment, this collection is a timely contribution to debates over land use and conservation.

Debunking the nature/culture dichotomy, contributors examine how physical space is transformed into culturally constituted "place" by a variety of factors, both tangible (architecture, landmarks, artifacts) and intangible (a sense of place, long-term family habitation of land, tradition, "a way of life worth fighting for").

Archaeologists, cultural geographers, and ethnographers examine how the land was used by its earliest inhabitants and trace the effects of agricultural decline, industrial development, and tourism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Powerful case studies recount past displacement of local populations in the name of progress or conservation and track threatened communities' struggles to maintain their claims to place in the face of extralocal counterclaims that would appropriate space and resources for other purposes, such as mountaintop removal of coal or a power company's plans to export electricity from Appalachia to distant urban centers. Contributors also record successful community planning ventures that have achieved creative solutions to seemingly intransigent conflicts between demands for economic wealth and environmental health.