An Appalachian Community in West Virginia Univ., Morgant

184 Pages·2011·2.63 MB·English

DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 076 297
RC 007 007
AUTHOR
Kaplan, Berton H.
TITLE
Blue Ridge: An Appalachian Community in
Transition.
INSTITUTION
West Virginia Univ., Morgantown. Appalachian
Center.
PUB DATE
Jan 71
NOTE
182p.
AVAILABLE FROM
West Virginia University Book Store, Mountainlair
Building, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506 ($2.50)
EDRS PRICE
MF-$0.65 HC-$6.58
DESCRIPTORS
*Cultural Factors; *Economic Disadvantagement;
*Educational Needs; Employment Problems; Family Lit
Natural Resources; Occupational Choice; Religion;
*Rural Areas; *Social
= tructure
IDENTIFIERS
*Appalachia
ABSTRACT
Stressors created by social change were studied in
the Appalachian community of Blue Ridge, West Virginia. Data were
gathered through open-ended interviews of community informants.
Informants invariably described 3 distinct ways of life; data
analysis therefore provided for the possibility of different crises
in each stratum. Interview topics covered sources of change, family
life, jobs, education, family status, and religion. The information
was analyzed using a model of structural differentiation containing
the following steps: dissatisfaction or threat to goal achievement,
symptoms of disturbance, attempts to solve problems through the
existing system, encouragement of new ideas, positive attempts to
specify a process, implementation of new ways of doing things, and
development of performance patterns. Major suggestions for further
research indicated the need for studies of: mental disorders and
maladaptive behavior in the community; well and sick families as
defined by the extent of social and medical health; crises and
problem solving in the religious life of the community; and the
socialization process. (PS)
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EDUCATION & WELFARE
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JESUS
He lives in the ocean,
He lives in the sea
He lives in the !curd,
He lives in the free
He lives in the birds,
And He lives in me
Written by Mona Gail George of Blue Ridge
Born November 3, 1941
Died November 8, 1946
no shortage of books
and articles
There is
based on minute observations of that deviant
sub-culture called Appalachia. But most of
available to those wis:ling to gain
what is
some insight into the people of Appalachia
consists of writers' and specialists' views, re-
flecting their
values and emphases. This
own
book differs, however, because it is based
on
something approaching a counselor-patient re-
lationship. The author went to the people of
Appalachia and, in effect, asked them "What's
happening here?"
i
So we hove in these pages first person assessments direct
from the "horse's mouth," interwoven with factual detailsuch
os in the historical and economic spheresto supply the rcader
with sufficient background to perhaps arrive at some firm con-
clusions of his own.
Two significant points come to mind when reading Kaplan's
study. First, labels such os "poor" or "disadvantaged" cannot be
applied indiscriminately to the Appalachian people. They are not
on amorphous lump of humanity, huddled disconsolately together
among telltale statistics proving they fall
short of the outer
society's norms. Instead, this so-called "bottom" group has its
own sub-classes, each with its own peculiar assets, deficiencies,
and values. Despite o commonality of sutstondord education, in-
come, and socialization with society at
Vie, the "sorrys", the
I
"get bys" and the "betters" appear to be
if pole, reflections
of similar groups found all over tne notion.
The lesson for the outsider wanting to do "good" for these
people, then, is that they can no more be treated as o discrete,
homogeneous group than any collection of more prosperous, more
"typical" Americans. In short, the people of Appalachia hove a
culture that is every bit os diverseand delicately balanced and
interwovenos the so-called more advanced culture of the larger
society. Needless to soy, this diversity, which gives evidence of
strengths as well os weaknesses, will hove to be taken into account
by agencies wishing to improve the environment of these folk
A second significant finding in these pagesone that is clear
by its obvious invisibilityis that the fortunes of Appalachia's
people have been largely determined by quite casual forces, by
an interplay of influences which have been thrust on them almost
by occident. Kaplan points up the effects of wars, roods, the Great
Depression, and the temporary stimulus of job-producing extrac-
tive industries whose prosperity hinged on fluctuating world mark-
et prices and the kind of inexorable natural law which decrees
that trees can be harvested faster than they con be grown.
But among these casual forces that brought many Appalach-
ians to the edge of social, economic, and even psychological dis-
integration, the reader finds barely a trace of formalized influence
for good. Yet the region hos had its share of county ageurs.
welfare and social workers, and representatives from various public
and private agencies reputedly dedicated to helping people improve
their lotfrom the CCC and WPA of the Thirties to 4-H and Boy
Scouts.
ii
And yet, as Koplon shows, none of these formal groups
excepting the schools to o very limited extentseems to have
hod any influence whatsoever on the amelioration of the serious
problems these people faced and continue to face. This is food
for thought when contemplating the introduction of new bureau-
cracies into areas needing help, because it prompts the question
of what pricr bureaucracies, equally intellectually committed to
helping, were influenced by to render them largely if not toto.ly
ineffectual.
Aware of both Appalachia's problems and the negligible
impress of intentional forces to offer solutions, Kaplan discusses
o model for organized change, one that anticipates the pitfalls of
the conventional bureaucracy, and which takes into account not
only the vogories and diversities of the client groups but also the
equally critical vagaries and diversities of those who would help.
The problem, in short, is whether those ooenciesboth old
or newcharged witt. tni" responsibility for helping those with
problems con, after de:odes of neglect and no more than o few
short years of random, :poradic, and often disorganized (though
well-intentioned) octivisf, contribute meaningfully to Blue Ridge
and its many counterparts.
The author has done more than mostdefining in indigenous
terms what the people of Appalachia are and offering a blueprint
for o rational and cohesive approach to the introduction of struc-
tured, goal- oriented change in place of a continuing casual process
that takes for too long, is for too random, and costs for too much
in human terms.
BELCK
JACK
Morgantown, West Virginia
September 1970
iii
Blue Ridge:
An Appalachian Community in Transition
by
Berton H. Kaplan, Ph.D.
Departments of Epidemiology and Mental Health
School of Public Health
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Ns)
Office of Research and Development
0
Appalachian Center
0
West Virginia University
Morgantown
fs-t,
4)
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DEDICATION
To three great teachers
Harvey L. Smith, Ph. D.
E. P. Oh le, M.D.
John Cassel, M.D.
WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY BULLETIN
Series 71 No. 7-2
January 1971
Second Class Postage !mid at Morgantown, W. Va.
2006
vi
Contents
i
Introduction
vi
Dedication
viii
Preface
CHAPTER 1
Reference
The Research Problem ana Frame of
1
CHAPTER 2
13
Methods and Procedures
CHAPTER 3
Problem
19
The Historical and Regional Setting of the
CHAPTER 4
26
The Community Setting
CHAPTER 5
31
"The Old Timey Period" and Sources of Change
CHAPTER 6
46
"Families aren't Close Anymore"
CHAPTER 7
70
"Jobs are A Problem Here"
CHAPTER 8
82
"Now A Man Needs an Education"
CHAPTER 9
94
"Family Name No Longer Carries You"
CHAPTER 10
105
"Religion - Traditional and Modern"
CHAPTER 11
123
The Problem of Social Development
CHAPTER 12
134
Summary and Conclusion
APPENDIX A
150
Review of the Literature
APPENDIX B
Community 158
Role of Participant Observer in Appalachian
185
BIBLIOGRAPHY
vii
PREFACE
This monograph represents a part of my continuing inter-
est in the problems and processes of modernization.' Specifical-
ly, Blue Ridge provided me with a laboratory to study the crises
and modes of adaptation of a people experiencing rapid social
change.
Hopefully, this case study will contribute to our under-
standing of developmental problems in the southern Appalach-
ian region. In this respect, while a number of important works
have appeared on the Appalachian region since
my research
was completed,2 I find it impossible to document that my study
is accumulative to these various recent studies. It is not. In fact,
the emerging diversity of approaches for studying Appalachian
culture is long overdue. Appalachia is, apparently,
a diversity of
sub-cultures. Apparently there
are a variety of questions to be
asked about the factors which facilitate
or interfere with order-
ly modernization in this region.
The reader must realize that this study was ccnceivea and
completed during 1957 to 1959. Consequently, certain limita-
tions were imposed upon me, especially the conceptual, metho-
dological, and field constraints operating ac that time. In any
case, the limitations and deficiencies of this work are my res-
ponsibility. For example, I must point out that the richness of
our data obviously varied. The chapter on religion, for example,
contains far richer material than the chapter on family,
an
area which was somewhat closed to effective investigation.
On the positive side, I have provided some ethnographic
material on an Appalachian community undergoing social
change. This should be a contribution to
an informationally
sparse region.' Secondly, I think this material has considerable
value for those interested in the development of the region.
For
Hierton II. Kaplan. Issue Fthun "Otgani/ations and Social Deselopment." VI-
minislrative Science Quarterly,
13 (December 1968), pp. 370-512.
2Thomas Foil, ed.,
7'lle Southern Appalachian Region, (Lexington:
1 ni5c1
site of Kentucky Press, 1962); jack Weller, Yesterday's People:
Life in Contem-
porary
Film:nits/ of Kentucky l'Ics,
Appalachia.
(I exington:
1965), Harts M.
Caudill,
Night Conan to the (,u..oerlaruls,
tlioston
ktlantic,
Little.
Brown,
1962): Richard %. Bell. -.1 Polo', Case:
The thalgesic Wm ulnae of the Southet 11
Appalachians,"
American Sociological Review.
33. (December 1968) , pp. 888-895.
'John Stephenson,
A Mountain Community,
Shiloh:
Univeisit
(t exington:
of Kentucky Press, 1968). This is a follow-up of my oun work in the
sam com-
munity.
viii