Three Southern Appalachian Communities: An Analysis of Cultural Variables.

The thesis of this paper is that the ‘culture base’ of the farm folk of Southern Appalachia greatly affects their standards and levels of living. This point of view is developed in a study of three small rural communities of East Tennessee in which the units were matched as nearly as possible in their original base of natural resources but subject to marked cultural variations. One community is somewhat typical of situations having few outside contacts; a second is a cultural island having a relatively high level of living for the area; and the third is a community undergoing definite change as a result of community planning. Major conclusions are: (1) that culture itself is an important variable in determining how human and natural resources are treated; (2) that isolation, physical and cultural, greatly retards change; and (3) that the T.V.A. is succeeding in inducing significant cultural and social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]