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““Described by Richard Dorson as “folklore’s natural habitat,” the Appalachian region has been at the forefront of developments in the field of American folklore throughout the twentieth century…..The idea of folklore is complicated; it may be cast as antiquarian, antimodern, communitarian, traditional, vernacular, or resistant. These concepts are all linked to the idea of progress but nevertheless exhibit a profound ambivalence toward it. This ambivalence reflects two perspectives on Appalachian culture: a rational perspective that idolizes progress on one hand and a romantic perspective that fears it on the other. Viewed through the romantic lens, Appalachia glimmers as a region uncontaminated by commerce and its excesses, a place where people know their neighbors, value their elders, live close to the land, and preserve old-time craft, music, and stories. Through a rational lens, these views give way to images of inbred, feuding, superstitious, welfare-dependent hillbillies. Both lenses serve to “distress” Appalachia as a region set backward not only in time but also in space (the “hinterlands,” the “backcountry”), separated from the rest of America.“”
— Folklore and Folklife in Appalachia by Mary Hufford
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