Cemeteries and the Life of a Smoky Mountain Community

In one of the few studies to draw upon cemetery data to reconstruct the social organization, social change, and community composition of a specific area, this volume contributes to the growing body of sociohistorical examinations of Appalachia. The authors herein reconstruct the Cades Cove community in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, USA, a mountain community from circa 1818 to 1939, whose demise can be traced to the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. By supplementing a statistical analysis of Cades Cove's twenty-seven cemeteries, completed as a National Park Study (#GRSM-01120), with ethnographic examination, the authors reconstruct the community in detail to reveal previously overlooked social patterns and interactions, including insight into the death culture and death-lore of the Upland South. This work establishes cemeteries as window into (proxies of) communities, demonstrating  the relevance of socio-demographic data presented by statistical and other analyses of gravestones for Appalachian Studies, Regional Studies, Cemetery Studies, and Sociology and Anthropology.

Gary S. Foster is Emeritus Chair and Professor at Eastern Illinois University, USA. At EIU, he taught environmental sociology and sociology of cemeteries. His recent publications have appeared in Illness, Crisis, and Loss; The Journal of Aging and Identity; The Florida Journal of Environmental Health; Markers; and The Association of Gravestone Studies Quarterly.

William E. Lovekamp is Professor of Sociology at Eastern Illinois University, USA. He is co-editor of the book Social Vulnerability to Disasters, (2nd ed). His recent publications appear in the International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters; The Association of Gravestone Studies Quarterly; Markers; Teaching Sociology; and The Journal of Criminal Justice Education. He is also producer of the documentary called Nature's Fury and the Human Spirit.