In its modern descriptive sense, literature denotes written texts; by extension scholars have also applied the term to spoken or sung texts ("oral literature"), writings in particular subject areas ("medical literature"), other collections of material in a given language or national tradition ("English literature"), visual texts such as video and illustration, and published ephemera (“campaign literature”). It is often divided into historical periods ("Victorian literature") as well as into formal categories (prose, poetry, or drama) and genres (such as the epic, the novel, or the folktale).
In its more traditional prescriptive sense (that of the 1911 Britannica), literature connotes a particular quality found in the written culture of humane learning, the profession of “letters” (from Latin litteras), and written texts considered as aesthetic and expressive objects. Of “literature”, the current (2012) Britannica states: "The name has traditionally been applied to those imaginative works of poetry and prose distinguished by the intentions of their authors and the perceived aesthetic excellence of their execution." In that sense, the art of “literature” differs from linguistics, the science of “language” as studied by theoretical linguists, cognitive scientists and others.
Unlike scholars in certain fields of learning, such as biology, where the boundaries are fairly well defined, those in the field of literature still debate exactly what the term means. For example, the literature and drama website at the Australian Catholic University begins a long answer to the question “What is literature?” as follows:
The quest to discover a definition for “literature” is a road that is much travelled, though the point of arrival, if ever reached, is seldom satisfactory. Most attempted definitions are broad and vague, and they inevitably change over time. In fact, the only thing that is certain about defining literature is that the definition will change. Concepts of what is literature change over time as well. What may be considered ordinary and not worthy of comment in one time period may be considered literary genius in another. Initial reviews of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights in 1847 were less than spectacular, however, Wuthering Heights is now considered one of the greatest literary achievements of all time. The same can be said for Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851).
When the celebrated 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica defined literature as “the best expression of the best thought reduced to writing,” few dared question it. Now, though, a century of such questioning has broadened the definition so that it can include nearly any text in any human language, even works in other media. Practically speaking, literature’s present-day definition is shaped by the perspective from which one regards it: scholars of a theoretical bent see it as embedded in questions of race, class, and gender, and highly variable over historical time, while those more aesthetically inclined tend to emphasize its continuity within traditions of arts and humane letters. One perspective typically mistrusts the other.
The study of literature
Literature as a subject worthy of academic study was first identified in the nineteenth century. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) traces the English word itself back to the 1200s (when it described familiarity with classical learning); not until the early 1800s was it used in the more modern sense. Classical authors of ancient Greece and Rome generally never recognized the study of “literature” as a discipline per se; rather, they looked at forms such as drama, history, poetry, philosophy, and mythology on their own terms, or in terms of various schools of philosophical or religious thought. With the revival of advanced learning in late medieval and Renaissance Europe, though, the focus of study became classical literature itself—the sense first recorded by the OED; a person of “letters” was one who knew the classical traditions, and could read the classics. Only after literature in modern vernaculars became too significant to ignore did the current sense of the word develop.
European universities long resisted according writers working in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and other vernacular languages the same status in their curricula as that given to writers of classical Latin and Greek. Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, and their contemporaries were always conscious of the perceived inferiority of their native language, even as they rivaled and surpassed the literary achievements of their classical precursors. As scientific learning began to supplant classical learning in the early nineteenth century, universities added philology (the predecessor of modern linguistics) as a discipline, but that field focused more on the historical relationships between languages than on their literature.
In the United Kingdom, for example, the first institutions to offer instruction in literature were not the elite universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, but those geared toward students seeking to move up in the world, such as the London Working Men's College (founded in 1854). There, much to their surprise, sons of London bricklayers and artisans encountered teachers such as F.J. Furnivall, an early editor of the OED, who opened his classes with the dramatic announcement that he was about to return a national literature to its citizens, and then commenced reading aloud in Middle English from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. At the London Society for the Extension of University Teaching, J.C. Collins stressed the influence of classics on English literature, shifting studies of the language away from philology and toward the present-day discipline of comparative literature. In the United States, the study of literature was introduced at normal schools (schools for the preparation of teachers, mostly women at that time), and subsequently at land grant universities, where English literature was given the place assigned at older universities to reading in Latin and Greek.
Early professors of English literature, among them Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch and Henry Morley, devoted much of their attention to establishing a canon of suitable texts for study. In the twentieth century, this led to standardized anthologies, such as the Oxford and Norton anthologies of English literature. With the rise of the New Critics in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s, scholars began looking at the literary text as a cultural object—a living repository of tradition extending across ages and civilizations. This movement coincided with expanding post-World War II college populations and helped elevate literature’s place and prestige in university curricula. In the 1970s and 1980s, however, proponents of poststructuralist theory began questioning the traditional literary canon and accepted hierarchies: Why, for instance, should lyric poetry be regarded as worthy of literary study, when comic books weren’t? Couldn’t we learn important things about contemporary culture from native American storytelling traditions as well as Italian opera? Practically speaking, this has meant that while college English departments still teach courses in Shakespeare and James Joyce, the sense of a highly exclusive canon of “great writers” is much diminished, and more kinds of literature are fair game for scholarly inquiry.
Scope of literature
In its broadest sense, literature came into being with the first use of pictographs, hieroglyphs, cuneiform, or alphabetic scripts, although it is more common to designate as "literature" only those texts which contain a degree of imaginative, emotive, allegoric, didactic, or descriptive content. Thus, business records, tallies, or lists are not generally included, even though such texts, which can be found in the earliest civilizations, are significant from a historical and archaeological perspective. The earliest literature evolved from the transcription of pre-existing oral traditional narratives, and progressed gradually to a point where such materials were first composed in written form.
Religious texts, while they have of course an entirely different significance to the adherents of the faiths to which they pertain, may also be considered literature when their narrative, figurative, or compositional qualities are foregrounded. The earliest instances of literature, therefore, those termed "ancient", include a variety of texts ranging from the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh to the Hebrew Torah, and onward to the Hellenistic Odyssey of Homer. These texts, though clearly recognized as literature, share an origin in pre-literate cultures, and thus predate, in some sense, the modern use of the term. Later in human history, the deliberate writing of imaginary or fanciful texts, disseminated in written form to a literate audience, marks the first fully self-conscious literary traditions. In this context, although still considered ancient, might be placed such compositions as the Latin Aeneid of Virgil, the Chinese Songs of Chu, or the Greek lyrical poetry of Sappho. With improvements in the production and dissemination of written texts, from Roman copyhouses to the invention of the printing press, along with the increase of a literate reading public, a third sense of "literature," and the one most commonly used today, came into being. Specifically, literature encompasses all imaginative writing in any language, as well as essays, criticism, travel writing, biographies, memoirs, diaries, and collections of letters.
Literature was first recorded in pictographic and alphabetic systems of writing, which were either incised on clay tablets or stone, or written with inks or dyes on various flat organic media such as papyrus or parchment. The development of alphabetic systems, in which characters stood for sounds instead of things, by the Phoenician and Greek cultures, enabled a rapid advancement in the variety and dissemination of written literature. In earliest times, such documents were generally prepared and stored on long sheets rolled into scrolls, but beginning in the second century CE, the codex, a bound set of trimmed sheets with a cover, began to predominate; this is the ancestor of the modern book.
The introduction of paper to Western Europe in the later Middle Ages greatly reduced the cost of written manuscripts, and the invention of mechanical printing about 1450 led to the printing of books in large numbers, and still further reduction in cost. Further refinements to the printing process, such as machines which could cast whole blocks of type at once, led to the emergence of print as a mass medium in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with new formats such as magazines and newspapers printed in thousands of copies, both for subscribers and for sale at booksellers and newsstands. Genres such as the novel gained tremendous new audiences through appearances in periodical and serial forms, bringing writers such as Poe, Dickens, Verne, and Edgar Rice Burroughs to a mass audience, and establishing literature as a popular medium.
In the later twentieth century, the field of popular literature continued to expand, both through the introduction of mass-market genres such as the dime novel and the illustrated press, and via the new commitment to public education and developing a literary curriculum of standard school texts. Established genres, such as detective fiction and science fiction, gained new audiences through the introduction of the paperback book, printed on inexpensive paper with a thin cardboard wrapper, and sold for a small fraction of the cost of a hardcover book. The large number of young readers led to a great expansion of children's literature and adolescent literature, as well as to new popular forms such as the comic book, which in recent years has emerged as a medium for adult fiction in the form of graphic novels.
With the advent of new media and technologies in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, texts are often stored and transmitted electronically, magnetically, or digitally, without ever being printed on paper; they also often include, or are linked to audio, video, or multimedia content. Speech can now also be recorded, stored, and transmitted, so that some literary historians, such as Walter J. Ong, regard this as an age of "secondary orality". Such changes will doubtlessly expand and alter the definition of literature, just as did earlier technological developments.
A formal distinction common to many literary traditions is that between poetry and prose. Although the precise distinction between these two categories varies somewhat among world literatures, and though the boundaries between them have grown more blurred according to certain modern literary theories, it may generally be observed that poetry depends upon a relatively fixed array of metrical and phonological patterns used as repetitive devices, and involves a more densely interconnected arrangement of imagery and metaphor. In Old English poetry, as in the earliest Latin verse, a fixed pattern of stressed syllables, with the alliteration of their initial sounds, provides the basic structure, whereas in ancient Greek poetry, the length of the syllables was the primary principle. Rhyme, the assonance of the final sounds of words or lines, is one of the most common and recognizable options of poetic structure. Prose, of course, especially prose described as "poetic", may partake of all these qualities as well, though generally not in such a dense and closely patterned manner. Modern poetry also includes forms such as free verse and concrete poetry, which depart from the strict poetic meter or earlier forms, or attempt to abandon formal constraints altogether.
Prose is a far more inclusive category, and indeed envelops a wide variety of texts, such as business letters, instruction manuals, newspapers, memos, lists, contracts, speeches, and legal documents, which may not be considered literature at all. The earliest epic narratives were poetic in form, and prose was more generally reserved for the writing of history, religious instruction, or descriptive accounts of events or travels. The modern western tradition of literary prose emerged in the later Middle Ages, in texts such as Boccaccio's Decameron, or the prose segments of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales such as the Tale of Melibee, which Chaucer himself describes as "a litel thing in prose". By the time of the Renaissance, literary prose tended to take the form of extended essays, such as Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, or in narratives now regarded as early antecedents of the novel such as Thomas Nashe's The Unfortunate Traveller. From the eighteenth century onward, literary prose has largely comprised either narrative fiction or essays, along with collections of personal letters, biography, and autobiography.
The evolution of various genres of literature has varied considerably in different languages and cultures, although some very general categories can be outlined. Much early imaginative literature can be classed as epic; within this category one would find texts as various as the Odyssey, the Mahabharata, the Finnish Kalevala, the Elder Edda, or the Táin Bó Cúailnge. Epic literature is marked by a strong, central narrative, often focused on the deeds of a single heroic figure, and featuring elaborately detailed accounts of battle. The Greek term "lyric" also has close equivalents in many world literatures; lyric poetry is generally written in short stanzas or strophes, with an emphasis on image and affective emotion. Significant lyric poets in world traditions have included Sappho, Li Po, Kabir, Keats, and Dickinson.
Another early and continuing form, dramatic literature, consists of words and actions to be spoken and performed upon a stage by actors; while it has often been recorded in writing and print, the primary venue for this form of literature is theatrical performance. In ancient Greece, where plays evolved out of the religious observances of Dionysus, the works of Aristophanes, Sophocles, and others retain their force after two millennia. Significant world playwrights include Shakespeare, Molière, Ibsen, Chekhov, and Beckett. Some of the paradigms of the stage extend to those of cinema film, and today film studies are often conjoined academically with the study of literature.
In the past few centuries, the novel has emerged as one of the dominant literary forms of modern literature, combining some features of the epic (such as a strong, central protagonist) with elements of historical narrative, travel writing, and the naturalistic dialogue of plays. Many claim Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote (1605, 1615) as the first novel, though some assign it instead to the category of mock epic, while others again count centuries earlier Far Eastern works as novels. Among the great practitioners of the novel over the centuries since have been Austen, Dickens, Tolstoy, Proust, Joyce, and Faulkner. Novels themselves, from their first appearance, have been categorized in a variety of topical or formal sub-genres, such as the picaresque novel or the epistolary novel, as well as broader thematic categories such as science fiction, detective fiction, or fantasy.
Although their names imply otherwise, national literatures often emerged before the dawn of modern nation-states. Dante, famously, in De Vulgari Eloquentia, his defense of writing in Italian, declared that literary Italian must be "curial", or "of the manner of the Italian court"" - even though, at the time he wrote there was no such singular Italian state. Like Chaucer and other medieval poets, he wrote before the language of his compositions reached its modern form. The writers of the Renaissance were a vital part of the emergence of their respective national literatures, though some, like Sir Thomas More, eschewed their own vernacular in favor of Latin. Even writers whose works now seem essential to their national literature, such as Goethe or Shakespeare, only became legitimate subjects of serious academic consideration very late in the twentieth century, when national vernacular literatures became subjects for schools and universities. Today, at a point when literary works are frequently translated into other languages soon after their publication, and literacy rates around the world are at historic highs, there is a growing sense of an international audience for literature.
Not all the study of literature takes place along national lines; comparative literature is one academic discipline that engages in the study of literature in an interdisciplinary and transnational context. The relationships between the national literatures of former colonial powers has also led to postcolonial literature's emergence as a significant area of study. Other interdisciplinary fields with close ties to literature, such as film studies and cultural studies, also move readily across the old boundaries of national and ethnic literatures.
The future of literature
In 2003, poet Dana Gioia, chairman of the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts, noted that the average American spent a mere twenty-four minutes per day reading, compared to more than four hours spent watching television. "The decline of print as our culture's primary means of codifying, presenting, and preserving information isn't merely a methodological change," he observed, "it is an epistemological transformation." This trend, combined with the proliferation of new media for literary expression—such as e-books, "blogs" and other online vehicles, audiobooks, "podcasts," text messaging, and other technologies—could be seen as cause for alarm about the future of letters, especially on the part of devotees of traditional written literature. Yet Gioia and other literary futurists suggest that the likely outcome is not the end of literature, but new ways in which the literary impulse expresses itself through new media. In other words, the future of literature may have less to do with traditional literacy and letters than anyone can predict.
- literature, Primary Contributor: Kenneth Rexroth. Encyclopedia Britannica Online, 01 November 2012.
- What is literature? Literature and Drama Website. Australian Catholic University.
- Kearny, Anthony. "John Churton Collins and the Attempt to Link English and Classics." British Journal of Educational Studies 29:3 (1981), 258-267
- Gioia, Dana. "Disappearing Ink: Poetry at the End of Print Culture." Hudson Review 56.1 (Spring 2003). http://www.hudsonreview.com/gioiaSp03.pdf


If you’ve lived in the Southeast for a good portion of your life (as our team has), chances are you’ve been exploring Appalachia and the Blue Ridge range for years.
But how much do you actually know about the rich Appalachian culture of the Blue Ridge region?
Appalachia is a vast area that stretches from southern New York to north Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. It encompasses 420 counties across 13 states, spans 205,000 square miles, and is home to some 25 million people.
Appalachian culture is a way of life that dates back to the 1700s, when Europeans began immigrating to America in greater numbers.
Although it started in the states of North Carolina and Virginia, the culture spread quickly to other states after the Revolutionary War, as settlers began to explore outside the original 13 colonies.
The culture of Appalachia consists of art and crafts, food, myths and folklore, multiple ethnic influences (including African, German, and Native American), and an array of stereotypes.
It is a culture that essentially defined “Americana” as we know it today. And if your family has roots in Ireland, Scotland, or Germany, chances are good it’s a core aspect of your personal genetic heritage.
Read on to learn more about the history of Appalachian culture and people, including a look at how some of the most common stereotypes came to be.
READ MORE: 30 Fascinating Blue Ridge Mountains Facts
Appalachian Culture Guide
- Appalachian History
- Appalachian People
- Poverty in Appalachia
- Appalachian Culture
A Brief Appalachian History
Native Americans first began to gather in the Appalachian Mountains some 16,000 years ago. Cherokee Indians were the main Native American group of the Southern Appalachian and Blue Ridge regions, but there were also Iroquois, Powhatan, and Shawnee people.
The arrival of enslaved Africans in the area dates back to the 16th century. These two groups both had a tremendous influence on the culture of Appalachia.
When European immigration began in the 1700s, the settlers claimed lands from the coast west into the Appalachian Mountains.
Many of the newcomers who moved deep into rural Appalachia were Scotch-Irish and German, bringing the traditions of their native countries with them.
At that time, there were 50+ Cherokee towns and settlements in the area connected by a system of foot trails, many of which later became wagon roads built by Cherokee companies.
The growing need for land for immigrants led to countless bloody battles and, ultimately, treaties with the Native American tribes.
Unfortunately, these treaties removed nearly all of the Cherokee and other native groups from the region, as the government forced them to move west on the tragic Trail of Tears.
The wilderness of Appalachia became a frontier for exploration and living. Daniel Boone, whose 1775 expedition through Virginia’s Cumberland Gap into Kentucky established the route for settlers moving west, became the first folk hero of America’s pioneer era.
Eventually disagreements grew between the wealthy elites living in the lowlands and along the coast, and the more rural people of the Appalachian backcountry.
The brutality of the Civil War only served to reinforce the resentment many rural people had for government authority and outsiders.
By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, stereotypes of Appalachian people began to take root.
The mountainous region experienced both a Northern economic boom and increased conflict during this period. The rapid growth of the logging industry caused environmental degradation, which led to greater Appalachian conservation efforts.
This gave us numerous protected wilderness areas, including Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains National Park, as well as the George Washington & Jefferson, Chattahoochee-Oconee, and Pisgah National Forest.
Appalachia was comprised of a complex mix of ethnic groups. The one common trait that bound them all together is that they were used to working hard and being self-reliant.
So they had the intestinal fortitude it took to rough it out in the backcountry of the rugged Blue Ridge mountains.
About 90% of Appalachian settlers in the 18th and 19th centuries were Scots-Irish (a.k.a. Scotch-Irish) descendants of Ulster Protestants, whose ancestors had migrated to northern Ireland from the Scottish lowlands.
Many had been supporters of William of Orange, the protestant King of Scotland, England, and Ireland, who was affectionately known as “King Billy” among the Scots.
When former King James II invaded Ireland in 1689, William’s followers, known as “Billyboys,” hid out in forests along the hills for sneak attacks upon the enemy.
When their ancestors came to America, New England was already full of British settlers, so the “hillbillies” settled into the wilderness of the Appalachian Mountain range.
They were largely poor, humble, and fiercely self-reliant, with an innate distrust of government after decades of fighting the English and Catholics.
This is where Appalachian cultural stereotypes such as family loyalty, rebellion against authority, and passion for self-defense gave rise to the image of hillbillies as wild, reclusive mountain men.
Germans (a.k.a. Pennsylvania Dutch)
German immigrants (who were often referred to as Dutch because they came from “Deutschland”) were another group that had a huge influence on Appalachian culture.
They primarily settled in Pennsylvania and Virginia, bringing with them German foods such as apple butter and sauerkraut, and traditions such as chinked-corner cabins.
Their cultural identity was so strong that they didn’t assimilate very well. Instead, they often had their own German schools and churches.
But the Germans were treated considerably less harshly in America than the Scotch-Irish and Italian immigrants were, primarily because they looked more like the British colonists.
But where the Scots-Irish in Appalachia tended to keep to themselves and were generally too poor to own slaves, the Germans often discriminated against African Americans.
And their settlement was much more directly impactful on the displacement of Native American populations.
Another interesting, but rarely discussed Appalachian cultural influence was that of the Scandinavians, particularly people from Finland and Sweden.
They brought with them woodworking skills from Northern Europe, which gave rise to the log cabin so ubiquitous in the Blue Ridge area today.
Although Appalachia is often thought of as a rural, primarily Caucasian region, African Americans have inhabited the area for hundreds of years. In fact, by 1860 an estimated 10% of the Appalachian region’s population was black.
As white settlers moved into the Appalachian Mountains, so did Africans, both free and enslaved.
Elite whites and Cherokee people alike held Africans in enslavement in southern Appalachia, but the mountain landscape did not naturally lend itself to the large plantations of the Deep South.
In fact, the majority of Appalachian people were not slave holders. Folks in what became West Virginia even split off and joined the Union after Virginia voted to join the Confederacy.
There was an active Underground Railroad that ran through Appalachia, from Chattanooga north to Pennsylvania.
America’s early pioneer era saw whites, blacks, and Indians all living close together in the Appalachian range.
This gave rise in the early 19th century to a multiracial group known as the Melungeons, who had African, European, and Native American ancestry.
But the African influence on Appalachia persists even today. The banjo– a stringed instrument central to bluegrass and other forms of Appalachian music– originated in Africa.
The people of the Afro-Caribbean diaspora also introduced foods such as sorghum cane, sweet potatoes, blackeyed peas, watermelon, and peanuts into Appalachian cuisine.
Kentucky-based writer Frank X Walker coined the term “Afrillachia” in the 1990s as a means to bring awareness to the cultural influence of African Americans in Appalachia.
And the Black in Appalachia website and podcast are great resources for learning more about this hidden history.
Poverty in Appalachia
History of Poverty in Appalachia
The prevalence of Appalachian poverty came to broader attention in 1940, when James Still’s novel River of Earth (which documented Appalachia during the Great Depression) was published.
But by that point, the people of Appalachia had already been suffering for decades.
In retrospect, it seemed that the original settlers’ core values of freedom, self-reliance, and a unique inidividual identity eventually put Appalachian people at odds with the advancements of modern life.
Isolation, and a fear of losing touch with their traditional values, led to crippling poverty.
Even in the 1960s and 70s, many people in Appalachia were still living without basic necessities such as electricity or indoor plumbing. Hunger and a lack of basic hygiene were not uncommon.
In 1965, after President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a “War on Poverty,” the Appalachian Regional Commission was launched.
Originally founded by John F. Kennedy, this federal-state partnership focused on helping Appalachian people create opportunities for self-sustaining economic development and improved quality of life.
The ARC has worked for 55 years to bring the region into socioeconomic parity with the rest of the nation. It defined the region of Appalachia, created educational opportunities for the people who lived there, and invested in economic development projects benefiting all 420 counties.
We all know the stereotypes of Appalachian people as “poor white trash.”
Inbreds, yokels, hicks, and rednecks are just a few of the common slurs that have been used over the last century (though some country folk reclaimed the last one as a point of pride, seeing it as a reflection of their humble lifestyle and hard work ethic).
These stereotypes are not only largely incorrect, but they’re also highly offensive to the people of Appalachia. Especially when the region has been such a rich melting pot of ethnicities and cultures from the very beginning.
African-Americans and Latinos are the largest minority groups in the region, but Appalachia’s 20th century coal revolution brought in many other cultures that added to the diversity of the region.
The reality is that Appalachia was isolated while the rest of the country was modernizing, leaving them behind in a sense. As a result, they were less educated, less well nourished, and less wealthy than people who lived in major metroplises and their suburbs.
Their traditional way of life, which involved living off the land, made the people of Appalachia appear as dirty, hillbilly farmers to outsiders. When in fact they were really the sort of hard-working, salt-of-the-earth people who helped make the United States what it is today.
Even now, there are still literacy issues, health problems, and other issues related to poverty that plague parts of Appalachia. There remains an often stark income inequality between the tourists that visit the region and the people who actually live there.
One prime example of this is the Biltmore Estate, which was built by the elite Vanderbilts to cater to their upper class friends even as the rest of Appalachia grappled with poverty.
Yet still, with help from the ARC and the benefits of tourism revenue, the people of the region are finding ways to improve their circumstances by commodifying the very things that make Appalachian culture so uniquely American.
Appalachian Art & Crafts
We’ve reiterated multiple times throughout this story how important self-sufficiency has always been to Appalachian people.
So perhaps it’s no surprise that arts and crafts in Appalachia originally came out of necessity.
Handmade quilts, coverlets, pottery, wood carvings, and woven baskets were beautiful and often displayed in the home. But they also served a more functional purpose than mere décor.
The use of natural dyes and natural materials (as well as whatever scraps of fabric they had on hand) resulted in unique and colorful pieces that brought art to the homes of Appalachia.
There was a push that started back in the 1920s to preserve traditional Appalachian arts and crafts. But technology and market demand has influenced both the process and result of these works over the course of the last century.
The Appalachian Mural Trail, which goes through the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area and the Appalachian Mountains, is a movement to create outdoor murals that depict Appalachian culture.
Travelers can also visit the Appalachian Craft Center in Asheville, the Southern Highland Craft Guild’s Folk Art Center off the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville, and the Appalachian Center For Craft at Tennessee Tech to learn more about the history and evolution of Appalachian art.
Christianity has been the predominant religion in Appalachia ever since European immigration to the area began in the 1700s.
These Christian influences blended with traditional European (i.e. pagan) and Native American spiritual beliefs, creating a unique blend of folklore and mythology in Appalachia.
The Cherokee brought their reverence for nature and knowledge of native plants, herbs, and animals, influencing local practices for centuries. Cherokee folklore influenced Appalachian storytelling in the way it dramatically characterized animals or other inanimate objects in nature.
Old English, Scottish, Irish, and German (see: the Brothers Grimm) fairy tales came from Europe. These fairy tales, combined with regional events, also shaped Appalachian folklore.
There are “Jack Tales,” which usually revolve around a single, hard-working figure. Jack is usually lazy or foolish, but through cleverness and tricks he succeeds in his quest. Some examples of old English Jack Tales are “Jack & the Beanstalk” and “Jack Frost.”
In Appalachia, Jack is likely to be a sheriff or a more common man. And, like most Appalachian folklore, these Jack Tales were passed down orally, rather than being written down.
Another popular type of folktale in Appalachia involves regional heroes, such as Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, Johnny Appleseed, and John Henry.
These stories are based on real figures and events, but they take on folklore status as the stories are exaggerated for dramatic effect.
Murder and stories of the macabre are also popular in Appalachia’s folk ballads. Murderers like John Hardy, victims such as Omie Wise, and specters like the Greenbriar Ghost are all common horrific stories that became lasting oral traditions.
But the most popular Appalachian folktales involve mysterious creatures such as Bigfoot and the Mothman. B
oth have garnered a wealth of attention, including the 2002 film The Mothman Prophecies, the TV show Finding Bigfoot, and the Expedition Bigfoot Museum near Blue Ridge, GA.
Storytelling plays an essential role in Appalachian culture, which was historically passed down orally. These oral traditions no doubt influenced later literature.
Early literature on the region included observations by famous icons, like Thomas Jefferson and Davy Crockett. But for many years it was primarily outsiders giving their perspectives on the wilderness of Appalachia.
Then in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, more and more Appalachian authors started giving their perspectives on their region and its cultural traditions.
Some famous examples are James Still’s River of Earth, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, James Agee’s A Death in the Family, Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain, Fannie Flagg’s Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, and Homer Hickam Jr’s Rocket Boys.
But the Foxfire books were arguably the most influential literature in terms of encouraging American appreciation of Appalachian culture and its traditional way of life.
An ongoing series whose first volume was published in 1972, these books edited by Eliot Wigginton have introduced millions of people to the traditional wisdom of these mountains.
Through interviews with old-timers (including the world-famous Aunt Arie), the books teach creative self-sufficiency and help preserve the stories, crafts, and customs of Southern Appalachia.
If you have any interest whatsoever in building log cabins, mountain crafts and foods, planting by the signs, hunting tales, faith healing, or moonshining, they are truly a must-read. We’ll have a more in-depth story about the Foxfire Museum & Heritage Center in Clayton, GA coming soon!
READ MORE: The Best Things to Do in Clayton, GA
As you would probably expect, traditional Appalachian food largely consists of the things local people found in nature– wild plants, core crops, and hunted animals.
Some common Appalachian food staples include corn (for making cornbread), apples, home grown vegetables, flour (for biscuits), grits, and stews made with rabbit or chicken.
Preserving and canning fruits and vegetables is a major component of Appalachian food culture. As a child I remember going to Asheville every year with my family to get fresh green beans and peaches for making preserves.
It’s also interesting to explore the origins of some common Appalachian cooking staples. Corn, beans, and squash were called “the three sisters” and grown together by Native Americans. Corn grew high, squash closer to the ground, and beans wrapped around the cornstalks.
The Scots-Irish immigrants brought their agricultural practices to make these and other ingredients more widely available. African-Americans brought sorghum cane, sweet potatoes, red peppers, okra, blackeyed peas, watermelon, and peanuts.
What all of these various ethnic groups’ foods have in common are homegrown (or wild foraged) simple, natural ingredients.
If you’re not from the Appalachian region, do yourself a favor and try dishes like Chow Chow, Skillet Cornbread, Chicken & Dumplings, and Country Ham with Red Eye Gravy.
If you like to cook at home, the Southern Foodways Alliance Community Cookbook is a great source for traditional Appalachian recipes.
READ MORE: The 10 Best Restaurants in Blue Ridge GA
Appalachian Music & Dance
For many of us who grew up in the South, Appalachian music was the first aspect of the culture we were introduced to.
Over the last 100+ years of audio recording, the sounds of bluegrass and country music has carried across the country and around the globe.
As with everything else, the music of Appalachia is a combination of cultural influences. The high, lonesome yearning of English and Scottish ballads, the uptempo rhythms of Scottish and Irish fiddle music, the rhythmic syncopation of African banjo, and the minor key melancholy of the blues.
Commercial recordings in the 1920s solidified Appalachia’s influence on the bluegrass, country, and folk music now collectively referred to as “Americana.”
Legendary acts like the Carter Family, Fiddlin’ John Carson, Dock Boggs, Jean Ritchie, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, and Fiddlin’ Doc Roberts defined the sound of American folk music that still resonates stronger than ever today.
This music is often accompanied by mountain dancing, which is a mixture of Scottish, Irish, English, and Dutch folk dances combined with African and Native American traditions.
Clogging, flatfoot dancing, and square dancing are three of the more popular dancing styles in Appalachian history. Clogging strictly follows the syncopated rhythms of the music, while flatfoot dancing allows the dancer a bit more freedom of expression.
Square dancing is still very popular in parts of Appalachia today. The only one of these dances that requires a partner, it evolved from ancient social dancing in Europe.
Attempts to preserve these Appalachian cultural traditions began in the 1950s, with the American folk music revival launched by the release of Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music.
It once seemed as if these aspects of Appalachian culture might be lost forever once the Great Depression generation passed on. But today these traditions are celebrated by locals and visitors alike, with tourism providing a hopeful future for the region. –by Sonny Grace Bray & Bret Love


Transcript: A little bit about Hydrogen Peroxide Google images Chemistry is the study of matter and its properties, and how substances interact with energy (Bagley, 2014). Branches of chemistry 1) A large plastic bottle 2) Hydrogen peroxide 3) Food coloring 4) 1 Tbsp Dawn dish soap 5) 1 packet dry yeast 6) 4 Tbsp warm water 7) Aluminum tray 8) Funnel Google images References How does Hydrogen Peroxide work? 1) Place the plastic bottle in the aluminum tray 2) Then, place the hydrogen peroxide, dish soap, and food coloring in the plastic bottle. 3) In a separate cup, mix the yeast and warm water. Swirl for ~30 seconds. 4) Pour the solution into the plastic bottle and ... chemistry happens! Procedures (Meerman, 2009) What did you learn today? Google images Google images Google images Yeast as a catalyst www.buzzle.com Provided by Google images Modern chemistry dates back to the 17th century, and some credited founding fathers are known as Robert Boyle, John Dalton, and Antoine Lavoisier (What is Chemistry?, 2003). Hydrogen Peroxide. (2005). Retrieved 2016, from http://www.webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-76035/hydrogen-peroxide/details Bagley, M. (2014, May 30). What is Chemistry? Retrieved 2016, from http://www.livescience.com/45986-what-is-chemistry.html Meerman, R. (2009). Surfing Scientist. Retrieved 2016, from http://www.abc.net.au/science/surfingscientist/pdf/teachdemo26.pdf Schmidt, D. (2014, March 05). How does hydrogen peroxide work? Retrieved 2016, from http://theartoffloating.com/2014/03/hydrogen-peroxide-work/ What is Chemistry? (2003). Retrieved 2016, from http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-chemistry-definition-history-branches.html What is Chemistry? (2014, December 02). Retrieved 2016, from http://chemistry.about.com/cs/chemistry101/f/bldefinition.htm How to make "Elephant toothpaste" Today I will be demonstrating a simple chemistry experiment! The two main components are hydrogen peroxide and yeast Cool Chemistry It works by releasing oxygen when applied to affected area. This release causes foaming, which helps to remove dead skin and clean the area (Hydrogen peroxide, 2005). What is Chemistry? Conclusion Google images Yeast contains the enzyme catalase The addition of yeast to hydrogen peroxide increases the decomposition rate of hydrogen peroxide into its separate components, including heat (Meerman, 2009). Materials: Hydrogen peroxide, commonly known as an antiseptic agent, is used on the skin to prevent infection in minor cuts, scrapes, and burns (Hydrogen peroxide, 2005). Everything around you is made up of chemicals Environmental changes are caused by chemical reactions; i.e. food cooking, leaves changing color, etc. (What is Chemistry?, 2014) Your body is made up of chemicals and is highly made up of water, which is composed of hydrogen and oxygen. Why is chemistry important in everyday life? The aftermath
Transcript: Created by Jesus Valencia and Juan Estanislao for Mrs. Muldong Research Information and Bases Acids What are Acids and Bases? What are Acids and Bases? Acids Acids You can recognize acid in liquids by their tart, sour, or sharp taste. Many other acids are highly caustic and should not be put to the taste test. Strong Acids Strong Acids A Strong Acid is an acid that ionizes completely in a solvent. Examples of a Strong Acid are the following: Hydochloric Acid (HCL), Hydrobromic acid (HBr), Hydriodic acid (HI), Nitric acid (HNO3), Sulfuric acid, (H2SO4), Perchloric acid (HCL04), Periodic acid (HL04). Weak Acids Weak Acids Weak Acids are acids that releases few hydrogen ions in a aqueous solution. Examples of Weak Acids are the following: Acetic acid (CH3COOH), Hydrocyanic acid (HCN), Hydroflouric acid (HF), Nitrous acid (HNO2), Sulfurous acid (H2SO3), Hypochlorous acid (HOCL), Phosphoric acid (H3PO4). Bases Bases Unlike acids, which are usually liquids or gases, many common bases are solids. Solutions of bases are slippery to the touch, but touching bases is an unsafe way to identify them. Strong Bases Strong Bases Strong Bases are bases that ionizes completely in a solvent. Examples for Strong Bases are the following: Sodium hydroxide (NaOH), Potassium hyrdroxide (KOH), Calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2, Barium hydroxide (Ba(OH)2), and Sodium Phosphate (Na3PO4). Weak Bases Weak Bases Weak Bases are bases that releases few hydroxide ions in aqueous solutions. Examples of Weak Bases are the following: Ammonia (NH3), Sodium Carbonate (Na2CO3), Potassium Carbonate (K2CO3), Aniline (C6H5NH2), and Trimethylamine (CH3)3N). Acidity, Basicity, and pH Acidity, and Basicity, and pH Water is both an acid and a base. This means that a water molecule can either give or receive a proton. For example when their are a pair of water molecules ---> (H2OCL)+ (H2OCL)---> (H3O) (aq)+ (OH) (aq). A pair of water molecules are in equilibrium with two ions- a hyrdronium ion and a hydroxide ion- in a reaction known as the selfionization of water. Thus, even pure water contains ions. When the concentration of (H3O) goes up, the concentration of (OH) goes down, and vice versa. An equilibrium- a constant expression relates the concentration of species involved in an equilibrium. The relationship for the water equilibrium is simply (H3O+) + (OH-)= Keq. This equilibrium constant is called the self-ionization constant of water. Its so important that it has its own special symbol,Kw. The product of these two ion concentration is always constant. The concentration of hydroxide ions in a solution expresses its bascicity. pH determines how basic or acidic something is. When acidity and basicity are exactly balanced such that the numbers of the (H3O+) and (OH-) ions are equal, we say that the solution is neutral. For an example, pure water is neutral because it contains equal amounts of the two ions. Certain dyes known as indicators, turn different colors in solutions of diferent pH. Neutralization and Titrations Neutrailization and Titrations When a solution has a high (H3O+) concentration, it high enough to react with and dissolve metals. High concentrations of (H3O+) (aq) and (OH-) (aq) cannot co-exist. Most of these ions have reacted with each other in a process known as a neutralization reaction. When solutions of a strong acid and a strong base, having exactly equal amounts of (H2O+) (aq) and (OH-) (aq) ions are mixed, almost all of the hydronium and hydroxide ions react to form water. The reaction is described by the equation: (H3O+) (aq) + (OH-) (aq) ---> (2H20Cl). The game reaction happens regardless of the identities of the strong acid and strong base. After hydrochloric acid neutralizes a solution of sodium hydroxide, the only solutes remaining are (Na+) (aq) and (Cl-) (aq). When the water is evaporated, a small amount of sodium chloride crystals. If an acidic solution is added gradualy to a basic solution, at some point the neutralization reaction ends because the hydroxide ions becomes used up. This process is called equivalence point. The gradual addition of one solution to another to reach an equivalence point is called a Titration. The purpose of a titration is to determine the concentration of an acid or a base. Titrant is used to measure the volume of the alkaline solution. To find the concentration of the solution being titrated, you must of course, already have the concentration of the titrant. A solution whose concentration is already known is called a standard solution. All indicators have a transition cage. In this range the indicator is partly in its basic form. The instand at which the indicator changes color is the end point of the titration. If an appropriate indicator is chosen, the end point and the equivalence point wiil be the same. Equilibria of weak Acids and Bases Equilibira of weak acids and bases Formic acid is a typical Bronstec- lowry acid, able to donate a proton to a base, such as the acetate ion, CH3COO. The name
Transcript: Never leave a lit burner unattended. Never leave anything that is being heated or visibly reacting unattended. Always turn off the burner or hot plate when not in use. Rule #9 Rule #50 Keep the lab clean. Materials (books, purses, backpacks, etc.) should be stored in the classroom area. Safety Rules
Transcript: More Stable - Ions are easily formed eactions LIGAND SUBSTITUTION - is a reaction in which one ligand in a complex ions is replaced by another ligand. The ligand that is replaced in most ligand substitution is water molecules. COMMON LIGANDS :OH - hydroxide (-1) :CN - cyanide (-1) :SCN - Thiocyanate (-1) :Cl - Chloride (-1) :NH3 - Ammonia (neutral) :OH2 - Water (neutral) First Reaction The water particles in the aqueous copper (II) ions dissociate and hydrogen gas is produced. A pale blue precipitate is formed Second Reaction The excess ammonia is acting as a ligand and kicks off four of the waters. A dark bue solution is formed. Concentrated hydrochloric is added to an aqueous solution containing cobalt (II) ions. Aqueous cobalt (II) ions are pale pink in colour and when hydrochloric acid it turns to a dark blue solution. The HCl replaces six water molecules in the complex ions are replaced by four chloride ions. The reaction is reversible and can be represent in a equilibrium equation. Definition: (Equilibrium) Left Ligand Substitution is the equilibrium constant for an equilibrium existing between a transition metal ion surrounded by water ligands and the complex formed when the same ion has undergone a ligand substitution. Stability Constant Aqueous Copper(II) ions and Hydrochloric Acid Right R Concentrated hydrochloric is added to an aqueous solution containing copper (II) ions. The solution starts off at pale blue solution, initially forms a green solution before finally turning yellow. The reaction exists in equilibrium and can be reversed by adding water to the yellow solution to return to its original colour blue. It turns green when there is equal concentrations of both aqueous copper(II) ions and concentrated HCl. High Stability constant Low Stability Constant Aqueous Cobalt(II) ions and Hydrochloric Acid LIGANDS SUBSTITUTION AND STABILITY CONSTANTS Explain what is meant by ligand substitute giving two examples that are accompanied by a color change and including equations in your answer. Aqueous Copper(II) ions and Ammonia
Transcript: Propane can exist as a liquid and a gas. In its most natural state, it is clear, odorless, colorless, and non-toxic. When it turns into a gas it becomes bubbly. Think of it this way, water is liquid and steam is water vapor. Fun Fact: *Propane is the 3rd most popular gas used in vehicle transportation* What its used for? Propane iiii Propane Explosions Looks Like? *Commercial odorant is added so it can be detected if it leaks from it's container* Propane mixed with butane is mainly used as vehicle fuel. Propane mixed with air can start a flame. Propane starts out as a liquid then turns into a gas when it is exposed to air which causes it to ignite. Propane undergoes combustion reactions in a similar fashion to other alkanes. In the presence of excess oxygen, propane burns to form water and carbon dioxide. *Propane is flammable when mixed with air (oxygen) and can be ignited* Where its found? How it got named? The risk with the gas comes at high levels of exposure where the propane has displaced enough oxygen to cause asphyxia. Asphyxia is where the body cannot acquire enough oxygen and could lead to death. In liquid form, the risk is that exposure will cause frostbite on your skin. Fun Fact: Propane is usually found mixed with natural gas and petroleum deposits in rocks deep underground. Propane is called a fossil fuel because it was formed millions of years ago from the remains of tiny sea animals and plants. Reactions Formula Propane is used as fuel for furnaces for heat, in cooking as an energy source for water heaters, laundry dryers, barbecues, portable stoves, and motor vehicles The "prop-" root found in "propane" and names of other compounds with three-carbon chains was derived from the origin "propionic acid" *Propane helps to reduce ozone depletion. It has the ability to replace chlorofluorocarbon & hydro fluorocarbon refrigerants* Effects: Chemical Compound: Who Discovered? Fun Fact: Fun Fact Propane wasn't discovered till 1912 when Dr. Walter Snelling was directing a series of experiments for the U.S. Bureau of Mines, he discovered that several evaporating gases could be changed into liquids and stored at moderate pressure. Dr. Snelling developed a way to "bottle" the wet (liquid) gas. One year later, the commercial propane industry began heating American homes.
Transcript: Chemical properties describe how things react Physical properties describe smell, sight, feeling etc Isotope: atoms of same element with a different number of neutrons Quantum Numbers Step 2: Start by energy level Ions: atom of an element with a charge Never use "mono" for first element in molecule The Periodic Table Polar and Polar mix Polar: when one side completely pulls Binary Salt Ionization Energy: amount of energy required to remove an electron Step 1: Identify how many electrons -One element after "H" -Add hydro- prefix -Ends in -ate, change ending to -ic N, L, Ml, Ms Ionic Bonds Step 1. Assume 100 grams Mixtures: -Homogenous: same throughout; consistent -Heterogenous: Different throughout; inconsistent Chemical and Physical Changes The Quantum Numbers Valence Shell: outer most shell of electron Protons: positive Electrons: negative Neutrons: neutral -When an ionic bond occurs, net charge should equal 0 J.J Thomson's experiment proved there was a negative charge within atom with help of the decotho ray experiment (I spelled "decotho" wrong) Rutherford discovered the the nucleus and protons with the gold-foil experiment Sub-atomic particles: protons, neutrons, electrons Core electrons: all electrons not in valence shell Non-polar: when everything pulls the same Steps Polyatomic Acid Dalton's Atomic Theory 1. All substances are made up of tiny particles called atoms 2. Nothing is smaller than an atom 3. Atoms of the same element are identical 4. Law of Conservation of Mass: matter cannot be neither created nor destroyed 5. Law of Constant Composition: all molecules of same compound are made of same ratio of element 2. Identify the anion and give its name, but change ending to -ide Ionic and Covalent Bonds Discoveries 5. Use mass of empirical formulas and given mole mass to identify molecular formula Use Latin prefixes Step 4. Simplify ratio by dividing by samllest number Electronegativity: attractedness of an atom to an electron; increases left to right on P.T Empirical Formulas: simplest ratio of elements in compounds Monoatomic Acid Hector Bocanegra Period 2 -Occurs with nonmetals and metals Non-polar and non-polar mix Atomic Radius: size of atom; distance from valence shell Types of Reactions -Occur when there is a large amount of difference in negativity Nonmetal + nonmetal Nomenclature -N: energy level -L: orbital -Ml: orientation -Ms: spin Covalent Bonds Sub-Atomic Particles History of Atom Polarity Electronegativity Molecular Formulas: the exact composition of a compound -Exist in nonmetal and nonmetal Solids -definite shape and definite volume Liquids -definite shape and indefinite volume Gas -indefinite shape and indefinite volume Empirical and Molecular Formulas Polar substances will always be uneven -Ends in -ite, change ending to -ous Step 2. Convert to moles Step 3. Write a ratio of elements -Octet Rule: valence shell should have 8 electrons Not all physical changes are permanent Color is a physical property; a CHANGE in color is a chemical 1. Identify the cation and give its full name Compounds and Molecules Acid Nomenclature Orbitals exist for every energy level, but only some exist on each energy level Electron Configuration - Made when ions are shared (electron) Synthesis- puts together Decomposition- separates Precipitation- combination of 2 liquids to a solid Single-Replacement- one swap Double-Replacement- two swaps Combustion- fire/explosion Redox- change in charge, one molecule steals an electron Nomenclature "Like dissolves Like" Element: cannot be broken down further a. If no charge is given, number of electrons=number of protons When element starts with vowel, drop "a" in prefix - In order to represent how covalent compounds are structured, we use a system called the Lewis Dot Structure Chemistry PowerPoint
Transcript: -Born/Death/Age Died/Nationality -Born 384 BC in Stageira, Chalcidice. And died 322 BC in Euboea at the age of 61 or 62.) -Aristotle was a Greek Philosopher and Polymath. -Contributions To Science -Aristotle proposed the fifth element of "Aether," which consists of celestial bodies and stars, along with the already established other four elements of: Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. -Aristotle defined motion as "The actuality of a potentiality as such." -Aristotle was one of the first people to make a way to classify living things. -Born/Died/Death Age/Nationality -Born 460 BC in Abdera, Thrace. Died 370 BC at the age of 90. -Democritus was an Ancient Greek Philosopher. -Contributions To Science -Came up with the Theory that everything is made up of "atoms" with Leucippus. -Proposed the earliest views on the shapes and connectivity of atoms. -Has a type of atom named after him. The Democritean atom. -The democritean atom is an inert solid that interacts with other atoms mechanically. Democritus Democritus Powerpoint By: Jear Bear (: Democrites & Aristotle Aristotle Aristotle -Interesting Life Facts!! -Aristotle wrote many books over the subjects of Physics, Metaphysics, Poetry, Theater, Music, Logic, Rhetoric, Linguistics, Politics, Government, Ethics, Biology, and Zoology. -Taught Alexander The Great and was a student of Plato. -Interesting Life Facts -Most of his discoveries/contributions to science were with his mentor Leucippus. -Formulated the Atomic Theory for the world.
Transcript: Example of a Jeopardy Template By: Laken Feeser and Rachel Chapman When creating without a template... http://www.edtechnetwork.com/powerpoint.html https://www.thebalance.com/free-family-feud-powerpoint-templates-1358184 Example of a Deal or No Deal Template PowerPoint Game Templates There are free templates for games such as jeopardy, wheel of fortune, and cash cab that can be downloaded online. However, some templates may cost more money depending on the complexity of the game. Classroom Games that Make Test Review and Memorization Fun! (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2017, from http://people.uncw.edu/ertzbergerj/msgames.htm Fisher, S. (n.d.). Customize a PowerPoint Game for Your Class with These Free Templates. Retrieved February 17, 2017, from https://www.thebalance.com/free-powerpoint-games-for-teachers-1358169 1. Users will begin with a lot of slides all with the same basic graphic design. 2. The, decide and create a series of questions that are to be asked during the game. 3. By hyper linking certain answers to different slides, the game jumps from slide to slide while playing the game. 4. This kind of setup is normally seen as a simple quiz show game. Example of a Wheel of Fortune Template https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Wheel-of-Riches-PowerPoint-Template-Plays-Just-Like-Wheel-of-Fortune-383606 Games can be made in order to make a fun and easy way to learn. Popular game templates include: Family Feud Millionaire Jeopardy and other quiz shows. http://www.free-power-point-templates.com/deal-powerpoint-template/ Quick video on template "Millionaire" PowerPoint Games Some games are easier to make compared to others If users are unsure whether or not downloading certain templates is safe, you can actually make your own game by just simply using PowerPoint. add logo here References Example of a Family Feud Template PowerPoint Games are a great way to introduce new concepts and ideas You can create a fun, competitive atmosphere with the use of different templates You can change and rearrange information to correlate with the topic or idea being discussed. Great with students, workers, family, etc. For example: With games like Jeopardy and Family Feud, players can pick practically any answers. The person who is running the game will have to have all of the answers in order to determine if players are correct or not. However, with a game like Who Wants to be a Millionaire, the players only have a choice between answers, A, B, C, or D. Therefore, when the player decides their answer, the person running the game clicks it, and the game will tell them whether they are right or wrong.
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In the Beginning
Although the details vary in the retelling, one Philippine creation myth focuses on this core element: a piece of bamboo, emerging from the primordial earth, split apart by the beak of a powerful bird. From the bamboo a woman and man come forth, the progenitors of the Filipino people. The genesis of the Philippine nation, however, is a more complicated historical narrative. During their sixteenth-century expansion into the East, Ferdinand Magellan and other explorers bearing the Spanish flag encountered several uncharted territories. Under royal decree, Spanish colonizers eventually demarcated a broad geographical expanse of hundreds of islands into a single colony, thus coalescing large groups of cultural areas with varying degrees of familiarity with one another as Las Islas Filipinas. Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, claiming this area for the future King Philip II of Spain in the mid-1500s, took possession of the islands while imagining the first borders of the future Philippine state. During Spanish rule, the boundaries of the empire changed as Spain conquered, abandoned, lost, and regained several areas in the region. Had other colonies been maintained or certain battles victorious, Las Islas Filipinas could have included, for example, territory in what is now Borneo and Cambodia. When, during the Seven Years’ War, Spain lost control of Manila from 1762–64, the area effectively became part of the British Empire. The issue of shifting boundaries notwithstanding, the modern-day cartographic image of the Philippine archipelago as a unified whole was credited to Jesuit priest Pedro Murillo Velarde, Francisco Suarez, and Nicolas de la Cruz who, in 1734, conceptualized, sketched, and engraved the first accurate map of the territory.
Explorers for Spain were not the first to encounter the islands. Chinese, Arabic, and Indian traders, for example, engaged in extensive commerce with local populations as early as 1000 AD. Yet it was the Spanish government that bound thousands of islands under a single colonial rule. The maps delineating Las Islas Filipinas as a single entity belied the ethnolinguistic diversity of the area. Although anthropological investigations continue, scholars believe Spain claimed territory encompassing over 150 cultural, ethnic, and linguistic groups. Within this colonial geography, however, Spain realized that the actual distance between the capital center of Manila and areas on the margins (as well as the very real problems with overcoming difficult terrain between communities) made ruling difficult. Socially and geographically isolated communities retained some indigenous traditions while experiencing Spanish colonial culture in varying degrees. Vicente Rafael’s White Love and Other Events in Filipino History (2000) chronicles this disconnection between the rule of the colonial center and those within the territorial borders.1 His conclusions suggest in part that although the naming and mapping of Filipinas afforded the Spanish a certain legitimacy when claiming the islands, this was in some ways a cosmetic gesture. Instead of unifying the diverse local populations under one banner during the almost 400 years of Spanish rule, various groups remained fiercely independent or indifferent to the colonizer; some appropriated and reinterpreted Spanish customs,2 while others toiled as slaves to the empire.3
As they spread throughout the islands, Spanish conquistadors encountered a variety of religions; during the sixteenth century, the areas now referred to as the Luzon and Visayas cluster of islands were home to several belief systems that were chronicled by the Christian friars and missionaries who came into contact with them. Famed Philippine historian William Henry Scott (1994) recounts, for instance, examples of Visayans who “worshiped nature spirits, gods of particular localities or activities, and their own ancestors”;4 Bikolanos whose “female shamans called baliyan . . . spoke with the voice of departed spirits, and delivered prayers in song”;5 and Tagalogs whose pantheon included “Lakapati, fittingly represented by a hermaphrodite image with both male and female parts, [who] was worshipped in the fields at planting time.”6 Over time, however, Spain’s colonial hegemony, power, and influence used to consolidate their rule spread through the vehicle of Catholicism, supplanting or heavily influencing several of the local spiritual traditions, which were transformed to fit the new religious paradigm. In the 1560s, Spaniard Miguel López de Legazpi introduced Catholic friars to the north. Christianity redefined the worldview and relationships of some of the locals, implementing a social structure heavily based on Biblical perspectives and injunctions. By the eighteenth century, indigenous people caught practicing so-called pagan rituals were punished; local histories written on bamboo or other materials were burned, and cultural artifacts were destroyed. Church edifices dominated the landscape as the symbolic and psychological center of the permanent villages and towns that sprung up around them. Once firmly established, the Catholic Church, through various religious orders with their own agendas, clearly shared power with Spain, and the two jointly administered the colonization of the islands.
However, Spanish Catholic colonial rule was incomplete. Domination of the southern half of the archipelago proved impossible due in large part to the earlier introduction of Islam in approximately 1380. Muslim traders traveled in and around the southern islands, and over time, these merchants likely married into wealthy local families, encouraging permanent settlements while spreading Islam throughout the area. By the time of Spanish arrival in the sixteenth century, the Islamic way of life was already well-established; for example, the Kingdom of Maynila (site of present-day Manila) was ruled by Rajah Sulayman, a Muslim who fought against Spanish conquest. Scholars agree that the Spanish arrival profoundly affected the course of Philippine history. Had Magellan or other colonizers never arrived or landed much later, they may have encountered a unified Muslim country. As history would have it, however, Spain encountered serious resistance in the Filipinas south, sowing the seeds of one of the oldest and bitterest divisions in contemporary Philippine society. Spanish colonizers soon realized they were against a strong, although not entirely uniform or unified, Muslim people. The constant struggle to extend Spanish hegemony to the south spawned the Spanish-Moro Wars, a series of long-standing hostilities between Muslims and Spanish. From the late 1500s until the late 1800s, Spain attempted to gain a foothold in the area— succeeding only to the extent that some soldiers were eventually allowed by local leaders to maintain a small military presence. Spanish colonial leaders, however, never dominated or governed the local area, despite laying claim to the territory.
The Catholic Church, through various religious orders with their own agendas, clearly shared power with Spain, and the two jointly administered the colonization of the islands.
During the late eighteenth century, revolutionaries such as Gabriela and Diego Silang fought for a free Ilocano nation in the northern Philippines. Other revolutionaries emerged, and by the end of the nineteenth century, leaders such as Andrés Bonifacio and Emilio Jacinto were pressuring Spanish leadership on several fronts. Future national hero José Rizal incurred the wrath of the colonial government with the publication of Noli Me Tángere (Touch Me Not, 1887) and El Filibusterismo (The Filibustering, 1891). Rizal, born to a relatively prosperous family of Filipino, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese descent, was well-educated in the Philippines and in parts of Europe. A true renaissance man, Rizal was an ophthalmologist, scientist, writer, artist, and multilinguist whose works were written in several languages, including Spanish and Latin. Noli Me Tángere and El Filibusterismo, first published in Germany and Belgium, respectively, brought international attention to the abuses of the Filipino people by the colonial government and Catholic Church. Throughout Rizal’s life, he continued writing and advocating reforms such as the recognition of Filipinos as free and equal citizens to the Spanish. Rizal’s popularity grew amongst Filipinos fighting against Spanish oppression, drawing the suspicion of local officials who accused him of associating with armed insurgents. In 1896, Rizal was arrested and convicted of several crimes, including inciting rebellion, and was executed by firing squad on December 30. However, rather than suppressing the revolution, Rizal’s death cast him as a martyr for the cause, and his works were more widely disseminated and read by leaders fighting for an independent Philippines.
Today, Rizal’s immortality extends to national hero status, with numerous awards, national monuments, parks, associations, movies, poems, and books dedicated to his memory.
Today, Rizal’s immortality extends to national hero status, with numerous awards, national monuments, parks, associations, movies, poems, and books dedicated to his memory. Rizal’s writings proliferate on the Internet. His works, once considered seditious propaganda by some, are now available as free downloads.7 Admirers who take to social media characterize Rizal as their hero and post facts about his background and achievements or quotes from his texts.8 The power of Rizal’s narratives transcend the paper documents handwritten 125 years ago. He is remembered as a Filipino writing for his people, a native son who used the tools of storytelling to expose the truth about life under colonial rule.
Colonialism: The Sequel
Scholars argue that the execution of Rizal inspired a broader fight for freedom from the Spanish government. Led by heroes such as Bonifacio, the Philippine Revolution began in 1896 and included numerous battles against Spanish forces on multiple fronts. By 1898, as Spain was fighting to quell the uprisings in the Philippines, it became embroiled in the Spanish-American War. After losing to the United States in several land and naval battles, Spain released the Philippines and other colonies to the US in exchange for US $20 million, as agreed upon in the Treaty of Paris of 1898. During the negotiation of the treaty, the American Anti-Imperialist League opposed the annexation of the Philippines. Composed of social, political, and economic luminaries of the era (for example, activist Jane Addams and former President Grover Cleveland), the league organized a series of publications criticizing the US government’s colonial policies. Mark Twain, prominent author, wrote for the The New York Herald in 1900:
I have read carefully the Treaty of Paris, and I have seen that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of the Philippines. We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem. . . . It should, it seems to me, be our pleasure and duty to make those people free, and let them deal with their own domestic questions in their own way. And so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land.9
The treaty was hotly debated by the Senate. Ultimately, ratification of the treaty was approved on February 6, 1899, by a vote of fifty-seven in favor and twenty-seven against—a single vote more than the required twothirds majority. Meanwhile in the Philippines, Emilio Aguinaldo, a Filipino leader in the fight for freedom, declared an independent Philippine government—which neither the Spanish nor United States governments acknowledged. When the final version of the Treaty of Paris was enacted, the islands once again became subject to the laws and policies of another distant nation.
Americans who supported annexing the Philippines viewed the archipelago as a doorway through which the United States could gain more of a financial foothold in Asia while extending its empire overseas. Before the US could begin fully establishing control of the islands, a new war began. Some scholars have termed it “the first Việt Nam,” referencing the extended armed conflict which ended in 1975 between North Việt Nam and the US, whom many North Vietnamese also perceived as an imperialist aggressor. The Philippine-American war began on February 4, 1899, when American soldiers opened fire on Filipinos in Manila. In the first years of US occupation, the battles were fought between the new US colonizers and Filipino guerrilla armies tired of existing under any foreign rule. James Hamilton-Paterson, a British travel writer and commentator on the Philippines, estimates that the war’s death toll included over 4,000 American and 16,000 Filipino soldiers, as well as almost one million civilians who perished from hunger and disease.10 Although the war officially ended in 1902, skirmishes continued for several years afterward.
Under the rule of the United States, a plethora of people, ideas, and changes to the infrastructure flooded the archipelago. During this era, Christian groups flourished as Protestants and other denominations began proselytizing via missionary expeditions. Organizations such as the Salvation Army and the YMCA began operations in the Philippines; the so-called “Big Three” of American voluntary associations, the Lions Club, Kiwanis, and Rotary, also quickly spread throughout the islands. The United States military sponsored the establishment of hospitals and funded improvements to roads and bridges. Prominent urban planner Daniel Burnham visited the Philippines in 1904 and designed the capital city of Manila for redevelopment.11 US culture dominated Philippine life. Linguist Bonifacio P. Sibayan, for example, discusses the introduction of English by American colonial authorities as the medium of instruction in schools: “English thus became the only medium of instruction in the schools, the only language approved for use in the school, work, in public school buildings, and on public school playgrounds.”12 Sibayan further explains that while English-only eventually changed to bilingual instruction, English usage had become pervasive throughout the whole of society. Throughout the business and government sector, English became the dominant language, as well as the language that bridged communication gaps between regional Filipino cultural groups who did not share an indigenous language.Today, English, along with Filipino, is recognized as a national language of the Philippines. Renato Constantino, Filipino scholar, characterized the introduction of English as a detriment to Filipino society: “With American textbooks, Filipinos started learning not only the new language but also a new way of life, alien to their traditions . . . This was the beginning of their education, and at the same time, their miseducation.”13 Filipino linguists and other social scientists continue researching and debating the extent to which indigenous cultural values and traditions were lost with the change in language.14 Nevertheless, English proved beneficial to at least some Filipinos. The US government sponsored some students from the elite upper class to study in American schools and, upon their return, work in the government. Other Filipinos, recruited by US companies beginning in the colonial era, migrated to California, Hawai`i, and other states, lured by the promise of lucrative work compared to wage rates picking sugarcane and pineapple in the Philippines. With at least some familiarity with the language, Filipinos were able to communicate with their foreign employers.
In 1935, the United States designated the Philippines as a commonwealth and established a Philippine government that was meant to transition to full independence. During World War II, however, Japan attacked the Philippines and held the country from 1941 to 45. Lydia N. Yu-Jose in “World War II and the Japanese in the Prewar Philippines” (1996) describes an immigrant population of approximately 20,000 Japanese people living in the islands prior to the war.15 Some were temporary migrants, content to work in the Philippines for several years and then return to Japan with their earnings. Others were permanent settlers, many of whom would go on, for example, to establish agricultural operations, open factories, and begin logging operations. Some of these Japanese business owners, Yu-Jose explains, were utilized as advisers and installed as local leaders by the occupying army. Initially, some regarded the Japanese as liberators, freeing the Philippines from the United States and bringing the islands into the Japanese empire. However, in light of the subsequent war atrocities, harsh realities came to light. In October 1943, the Japanese established what is now referred to as the Second Philippine Republic, with José P. Laurel as president. Widely recognized as simply a puppet government, the dominating Japanese military continued occupying the area. Local factories under Japanese control produced goods for the war effort while Filipinos suffered food shortages.
Against this backdrop, Filipinos once again organized widespread resistance throughout the islands. Over 250,000 people used guerrilla warfare tactics against Japanese occupiers, who steadily lost control as the war continued. During the war, famed General Douglas MacArthur also organized American troops to fight alongside the Filipinos. From February to March 1945, Filipino soldiers and US troops fought in the Battle of Manila, which would eventually mark the end of the occupation. During this month, at least 100,000 civilians died at the hands of Japanese soldiers. Overall, scholars estimate between 500,000 and one million deaths of Filipinos during the World War II Japanese occupation.
After the end of the war, the United States and the Philippines signed the Treaty of Manila on July 4, 1946; Manuel Roxas transitioned from the President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines to first President of an independent Philippine Republic.
Guide to the Present
Yet while “independent” implied a Philippines officially free from foreign rule, many contemporary narratives of Filipino identity, citizenship, and statehood are inevitably influenced by the colonial past and, some say, the continuing undue influence of other countries. The political, social, and economic elites of the country, for example, are often members of the same families that have held power in the country for generations. Gavin Shatkin’s “Obstacles to Empowerment: Local Politics and Civil Society in Metropolitan Manila, the Philippines”16 traces how Spanish and US colonial authorities granted extensive rights and privileges to favored landowners. Many of these families later leveraged their power into political and economic dynasties, leading to a contemporary Philippine government mired in nepotism, cronyism, and corruption.17
After war reparations were paid in the 1950s, Japanese businesses and investors soon returned to the islands. Today, Japan is a strategic economic and political partner of the Philippine government. However, as in the aftermath of Spanish and United States colonialism, Filipinos still struggle with defining a national identity after such widespread traumas. Other challenges for the Philippine state today include settling a territorial dispute regarding areas of the South China Sea with the People’s Republic of China; allowing the return of the United States military to the islands; brokering a lasting peace with the historically Muslim-dominated south; coping with the increasing number of Filipinos working overseas, as well as the subsequent social and economic consequences of this migration; and reducing poverty. These realities, juxtaposed against the Philippine Department of Tourism slogan, “It’s more fun in the Philippines,” suggests that understanding today’s Republic of the Philippines means studying the historical roots of power and influences born from the imposition of colonial structures.
Geography and Population
Area: 120,000 square miles; slightly larger than Arizona
Population: 107 million
Freedom House rating from “Freedom in the World 2015” (ranking of political rights and civil liberties in 195 countries): Partly Free
Chief of State and Head of Government: President Benigno Aquino (since June 30, 2010)
Elections: President elected by popular vote and serves a single six-year term
Legislative Branch: Bicameral Congress; Senate (twenty-four seats, half of the seats are elected every three years, elected by popular vote, serving six-year terms) and House of Representatives (287 seats, all seats elected by popular vote every three years, serving three-year terms)
Judicial Highest Courts: Supreme Court (chief justice and fourteen associate justices)
Judges: Appointed by president on recommendations by the Judicial and Bar Council and serve until age seventy
The Philippines’ economy is continuing to grow and is moving away from agriculture exports and toward electronics and oil.
GDP: $694.5 billion
Per Capita Income: $7,000
Unemployment Rate: 7.2 percent
Population Below Poverty Line: 26.5 percent
Inflation Rate: 4.5 percent
Agricultural Products: Sugarcane, coconuts, rice, corn, bananas, pork, beef, fish
Industries: Electronics assembly, garments, footwear, petroleum refining
Religion: 82.9 percent Catholic, 5 percent Muslim, 2.8 percent Evangelical Christian, 2.3 percent Iglesia ni Kristo (English translation: Church of Christ [different from US Church of Christ]), 4.5 percent other Christian
Life Expectancy: Approximately 72 years
Literacy Rate: 95.4 percent
Major Contemporary Issues
Security: The Philippine government has been dealing with insurgent groups throughout the past couple of decades. Peace talks with the Moro insurgents have brought some stability to the islands, but the government also must deal with the New People’s Army, a Communist insurgent group inspired by Maoist principles. The Philippines and China are also in a dispute over sovereignty for the Spratly Islands.
Drugs: The Philippines are a major consumer and producer of methamphetamines, as well as a producer of marijuana. The government has attempted crackdowns on both but has been unsuccessful so far.
CIA. “The World Factbook: Philippines.” Last modified June 20, 2014. http://tinyurl.com/2y58zo.
Freedom House. “Freedom in the World 2015.” Accessed February 11, 2015. http://tinyurl.com/ knwvzk6.
1. Vicente Rafael, White Love and Other Events in Filipino History (Manila: Ateneo de Manila Press, 2000).
2. Reinhard Wendt, “Philippine Fiesta and Colonial Culture,” Philippine Studies 46, no. 1 (1998) 3–23.
3. Rosario M. Cortes, Celestina P. Boncan, and Ricardo T. Jose, The Filipino Saga: History as Social Change (Quezon City: New Day Publisher, 2000); Vicente L. Rafael, Contracting Colonialism: Translation and Christian Conversion in Tagalog Society Under Early Spanish Rule (Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1998); William H. Scott, “The Spanish Occupation of the Cordillera in the 19th Century” in Philippine Social History: Global Trade and Local Transformations, ed. A.W. McCoy et al. (Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1982).
4. William Henry Scott, Barangay: Sixteenth-Century Philippine Culture and Society (Manila: Ateneo de Manila Press, 1994), 77.
5. Ibid., 185.
6. Ibid., 234.
7. “Books by Rizal, José (sorted by popularity),” Project Gutenberg, accessed March 10, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ku7fygt.
8. “José Rizal: Not Your Ordinary One Peso Guy,” accessed March 10, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/lr9gvht.
9. Excerpt from the October 15, 1900 New York Herald. See “Mark Twain— The World of 1898: The Spanish-American War,” Library of Congress, accessed September 13, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/y4zyea.
10. James Hamilton-Paterson, America’s Boy: A Century of Colonialism in the Philippines (New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 1998), 33.
11. Ian Morley, “America and the Philippines,” Education About Asia 16, no. 2 (2011) 34–38.
12. Bonifacio P. Sibayan, The Intellectualization of Filipino and Other Essays on Education and Sociolinguistics (Manila: De La Salle University Press, 1999), 543.
13. Renato Constantino, The Miseducation of the Filipino (Quezon City: Foundation for Nationalist Studies, 1982), 6; quoted in ibid., 551.
14. See Laura M. Ahearn, “Language, Thought, and Culture,” in Living Language: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology (Malden: Wiley-Backwell, 2012), 65–98 for a general overview of the research regarding language, local traditions, and culture change.
15. Lydia N. Yu-Jose, “World War II and the Japanese in Prewar Philippines,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 27, no. 1 (1996): 64.
16. Gavin Shatkin, “Obstacles to Empowerment: Local Politics and Civil Society in Metropolitan Manila, the Philippines,” Urban Studies 37, no. 12 (2000): 2357–2375.
17. “Transparency International: the Global Coalition Against Corruption,” accessed September 13, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/qfms53j.