Identity, Heritage, and Place

Presentation Location

VSU University Center, Magnolia Room 1

Document Type

Event

Start Date

10-3-2023 10:30 AM

End Date

10-3-2023 12:00 PM

Description

Identity, Heritage, and Place (Abby Wightman, Session Chair)

  • Abby Wightman. (Mary Baldwin University). Re-settled Landscapes: Heritage and Activism in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains.
    In the mid-1930s, around 500 families were displaced from their homes in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to establish Shenandoah National Park (Powell 2007). In the attempt to create a “park in the Western tradition,” the land was intentionally unsettled of its human population and shaped in the image of a Western wilderness. Homes and barns were burned or dismantled, roads became hiking trails, and pastureland was allowed to regrow. Many “displaced” families were forcibly resettled into nearby communities in the valleys and foothills, often receiving very little compensation in exchange for their land in the mountains (Lambert 1989). Within a few decades, there was little physical evidence of the long history of human habitation in the mountains that became Shenandoah National Park. In this presentation, I will present the findings from my ongoing research with descendants of the displaced families and local organizations who are working to preserve mountain heritage. I argue that the descendants of displaced families have coalesced into a distinct identity based on kinship, a connection to the mountain as both physical and cultural landscape, and a shared sense of injustice over the displacement. This injustice has fueled a type of salvage heritage practice focused on memorializing the history of the displacement and their ancestors. Beyond preservation, some descendants engage in heritage activism by disrupting dominant heritage regimes of Shenandoah National Park.
  • William Westermeyer. (University of South Carolina). Patriot Aesthetics: Artistic Frames in American Right-Wing Populism.
    In the interdisciplinary field of social movements studies, anthropologists most often complement and diverge from the subject’s more numerous scholars in sociology and political science. Anthropology’s unique theory and methods contribute perspectives of how social movements are agents of cultural production, meaning making, and identity formation. I spent over a decade studying Tea Party activists in North Carolina--one of the most vibrant and colorful social movements to emerge in recent memory. Much of this vibrance can be attributed to the cultural resources produced and utilized by the Tea Party that require a wholly different disciplinary reference, namely fine arts. Social movements have often drawn upon aesthetic cultural resources to build and maintain solidarity (Morris 1984; Reed 2005; Sartwell 2010). For Tea Partyists, cultural resources such as images, costumes, and songs functioned as symbolic mediators (Vygotsky1978) or more simply shortcuts to understand, order, and enunciate ideology and fashion collective political identities. In this paper, I will discuss how the political aesthetic of the Tea Party, expressed through songs and visual art, is not simply a form of propaganda but provides resonant frames for identity formation, social movement enculturation, and solidarity. Key words: Tea Party Mvt., right-wing, social movements, political aesthetics.
  • Lennin Caro. (Camino Research Institute) Results and Reflections on the 2022 Mecklenburg County Latino Strengths and Needs Assessment
    North Carolina is one of twelve states with over one million Latinos. However, there is limited research on the experiences, strengths, and needs of this population. To address this, Camino Research Institute is conducting a statewide Latino community strength and needs assessment, starting with a pilot in Mecklenburg County. This study uses Community Based Participatory Research framework; regional Community Advisory Boards composed of representatives of the Latino community informed each step of the research process. Collaborators included Latino and non-Latino experts from different disciplines, including medical, public health, behavioral health, social work, and anthropology. This paper presents results based on 458 surveys and 4 focus groups with Latino participants from Mecklenburg County. Findings show health-related services like dental, vision, and preventative health are most needed. Latino immigrants experience discrimination due to documentation status and struggle navigating educational and medical systems. Entrepreneurship and bilingualism are the top strengths identified by respondents, which can be leveraged to meet identified needs. Results were disseminated back to the community in both English and Spanish through infographics, reports, and video. This paper reflects on the collaborative process in developing a culturally competent and interdisciplinary research project from the perspective of a cultural anthropologist.
  • Fred Knowles. (Valdosta State University). McGrit and Castro-Huerto: The Supreme Court and Tribal Sovereignty.
    The issue of sovereignty has been at the crux of Federal Indian Law for over two hundred years. Whether Indian People have authority to sell their own land, prosecute crimes committed on their land, administer civil justice, and preserve language and culture has been contested in the federal courts, to include the Supreme Court. While challenges to sovereignty are frequently framed in relation to the plenary power held by Congress for the federal government, when the challenge arises from the states, it is normally couched on the Enabling Act which made the state a state. In two recent cases, we see the fluid nature of the Court’s position regarding sovereignty, a position that is informed by the political ideology of the justices. As both of these cases involve criminal jurisdiction, this paper will provide a summary of the evolution of criminal jurisdiction, culminating with McGirt and Castro-Huerta. The paper will also contrast those two cases, both arising out of Oklahoma, and project what we may expect from the Court on the issue in coming years.

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Mar 10th, 10:30 AM Mar 10th, 12:00 PM

Identity, Heritage, and Place

VSU University Center, Magnolia Room 1

Identity, Heritage, and Place (Abby Wightman, Session Chair)

  • Abby Wightman. (Mary Baldwin University). Re-settled Landscapes: Heritage and Activism in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains.
    In the mid-1930s, around 500 families were displaced from their homes in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to establish Shenandoah National Park (Powell 2007). In the attempt to create a “park in the Western tradition,” the land was intentionally unsettled of its human population and shaped in the image of a Western wilderness. Homes and barns were burned or dismantled, roads became hiking trails, and pastureland was allowed to regrow. Many “displaced” families were forcibly resettled into nearby communities in the valleys and foothills, often receiving very little compensation in exchange for their land in the mountains (Lambert 1989). Within a few decades, there was little physical evidence of the long history of human habitation in the mountains that became Shenandoah National Park. In this presentation, I will present the findings from my ongoing research with descendants of the displaced families and local organizations who are working to preserve mountain heritage. I argue that the descendants of displaced families have coalesced into a distinct identity based on kinship, a connection to the mountain as both physical and cultural landscape, and a shared sense of injustice over the displacement. This injustice has fueled a type of salvage heritage practice focused on memorializing the history of the displacement and their ancestors. Beyond preservation, some descendants engage in heritage activism by disrupting dominant heritage regimes of Shenandoah National Park.
  • William Westermeyer. (University of South Carolina). Patriot Aesthetics: Artistic Frames in American Right-Wing Populism.
    In the interdisciplinary field of social movements studies, anthropologists most often complement and diverge from the subject’s more numerous scholars in sociology and political science. Anthropology’s unique theory and methods contribute perspectives of how social movements are agents of cultural production, meaning making, and identity formation. I spent over a decade studying Tea Party activists in North Carolina--one of the most vibrant and colorful social movements to emerge in recent memory. Much of this vibrance can be attributed to the cultural resources produced and utilized by the Tea Party that require a wholly different disciplinary reference, namely fine arts. Social movements have often drawn upon aesthetic cultural resources to build and maintain solidarity (Morris 1984; Reed 2005; Sartwell 2010). For Tea Partyists, cultural resources such as images, costumes, and songs functioned as symbolic mediators (Vygotsky1978) or more simply shortcuts to understand, order, and enunciate ideology and fashion collective political identities. In this paper, I will discuss how the political aesthetic of the Tea Party, expressed through songs and visual art, is not simply a form of propaganda but provides resonant frames for identity formation, social movement enculturation, and solidarity. Key words: Tea Party Mvt., right-wing, social movements, political aesthetics.
  • Lennin Caro. (Camino Research Institute) Results and Reflections on the 2022 Mecklenburg County Latino Strengths and Needs Assessment
    North Carolina is one of twelve states with over one million Latinos. However, there is limited research on the experiences, strengths, and needs of this population. To address this, Camino Research Institute is conducting a statewide Latino community strength and needs assessment, starting with a pilot in Mecklenburg County. This study uses Community Based Participatory Research framework; regional Community Advisory Boards composed of representatives of the Latino community informed each step of the research process. Collaborators included Latino and non-Latino experts from different disciplines, including medical, public health, behavioral health, social work, and anthropology. This paper presents results based on 458 surveys and 4 focus groups with Latino participants from Mecklenburg County. Findings show health-related services like dental, vision, and preventative health are most needed. Latino immigrants experience discrimination due to documentation status and struggle navigating educational and medical systems. Entrepreneurship and bilingualism are the top strengths identified by respondents, which can be leveraged to meet identified needs. Results were disseminated back to the community in both English and Spanish through infographics, reports, and video. This paper reflects on the collaborative process in developing a culturally competent and interdisciplinary research project from the perspective of a cultural anthropologist.
  • Fred Knowles. (Valdosta State University). McGrit and Castro-Huerto: The Supreme Court and Tribal Sovereignty.
    The issue of sovereignty has been at the crux of Federal Indian Law for over two hundred years. Whether Indian People have authority to sell their own land, prosecute crimes committed on their land, administer civil justice, and preserve language and culture has been contested in the federal courts, to include the Supreme Court. While challenges to sovereignty are frequently framed in relation to the plenary power held by Congress for the federal government, when the challenge arises from the states, it is normally couched on the Enabling Act which made the state a state. In two recent cases, we see the fluid nature of the Court’s position regarding sovereignty, a position that is informed by the political ideology of the justices. As both of these cases involve criminal jurisdiction, this paper will provide a summary of the evolution of criminal jurisdiction, culminating with McGirt and Castro-Huerta. The paper will also contrast those two cases, both arising out of Oklahoma, and project what we may expect from the Court on the issue in coming years.