Michael-
 
Thanks for slammin' the South.  We are turning out degreed
professionals down here.  Yes, it is appalling that Mississippi does
not recognize historic sites, but the attitude comes from the fact
that many of the older archs from this state grew up on such farms
and homesteads and, therefore, do not consider them to be important.
However, if the structure has got white columns in the front...
 
I am examining two rural south Louisiana sawmills for my thesis--one
African-American and the other Cajun.  In some areas of the south,
folks are still living the rural lifestyle (where do you think Jeff
Foxworthy gets his material from?).  Therefore, a small farmstead
that was begun in the 1800s may still be in the same family's  hands
today.  It's fun to go to antique stores and flea markets with older
southern folks people in their 40s and 50s) because they remember
using some of the stuff sold there when they were kids or remember
seeing granny use it.
 
 Not all of us down here are crammed into huge, crime-filled cities
like up there where you are.
 
Just giving another perpsective on how the significance of rural
sites are perceived.
 
Elizabeth
 
>>> Michael Nassaney <[log in to unmask]>  8/10/95, 01:25pm >>>
Linda,
 
I, too, share your concern with the way the state of Mississippi
treats late
19th-early 20th century farmsteads or rural sites.  But does it come
as any surprise?  Who, do you suppose, occupied 90% of these sites?
Just a rhetorical question to which I'm sure you know the answer.
This observation is related to another broader question that one of
my colleagues posed to me some time ago when I remarked at how few
institutions in the American South granted Ph.D.s in anthropology.
Keep in mind that much of the pioneering work in method and theory in
the American Southeast was perfomed by Harvard, Michigan, American
Museum of Natural History, etc.
 
Just looking to rustle some feathers (and get us thinking about how
present social relations influence the practice of investigating the
past).
 
Michael Nassaney
Western Michigan University