Appreciating the Foodways and Resilience of Appalachia in “Hungry Roots” https://ift.tt/H3g4rlm
In Hungry Roots: How Food Communicates Appalachia’s Search for Resilience, Ashli Quesinberry Stokes and Wendy Atkins-Sayre examine the many ways that food sends messages about the complicated nature of regional resilience. Their work fills an important gap in recent scholarship about the region because the authors incorporate fieldwork methodology to offer new insights in both communication studies and food studies. Stokes and Atkins-Sayre “rhetorically analyze Applachian foods and foodways” and “critique the ways that food symbolically speaks and evaluate how those messages shape an understanding of the region” (3).
What makes Stokes and Atkins-Sayre’s book different from other recent books about Appalachia, and even from Appalachian food, is the integration of interviews and first-hand experience. Hungry Roots also focuses on what the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC calls South-Central Appalachia) sometimes referred to as the Blue Ridge or Mountain South. The narrow focus helps the book to avoid broad generalizations about the region as observations are localized, minimizing stereotypical representations and creating space for insiders to see themselves reflected more meaningfully in the text. The authors’ fieldwork allows the book to move beyond media representations to consider “discourses circulating in Appalachia, where previously circulation largely addressed written or visual texts” (28).
While the book does seek to tell “more and different stories” (170) about foodways in the Mountain South, the authors also note that “Despite travel writing emphasizing welcoming messages […] not all travelers experience the same kind of welcome” (59). In the second chapter, focused on food migration and heritage tourism, for example, the authors share an anecdote in which “Whisky-fueled conversation encouraged cultural separatism and racial hierarchies” (85) at the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games. The authors are careful to protect the privacy of those involved in the conversation, but they do not ignore the challenge of such perspectives. Still, they prioritize their work in tracing other food traditions, including corn’s migration as it relates to the Cherokee Nation and the roles of Black women in developing regional cuisine.
While the first two chapters serve to provide background information and definitions, chapter three uses moonshine as a case study to look “closely at the public memory messages that are developed through moonshine narratives” (99) whether mainstream or alternative. Similarly, chapter four engages with conceptions of resilient tourism. The authors explain that “resilient tourism moves beyond a single experience” (123) and go on to provide examples of what such expanded experiences might look like. Examples include the annual Mountains of Music event “Homecoming” featuring “a series of community events that happen over one week” along a specified route (127) as well as the Cherokee Fall Fair and a “Supper and Storytelling” event at a farm in Shelby, North Carolina. Each event is outlined and analyzed to reveal its relationship to the book’s overall points about resilience rhetorics and food cultures. Stokes and Atkins-Sayre clearly sought out a variety of different tourist experiences, and even though they do not take a promotional tone, their writing highlights the range of opportunities in the region. As an Appalachian living in North Carolina, I found myself curious to visit the various events and restaurants discussed. I suspect that many people living near the region will be interested in planning a trip, which raises another question that the book considers: How do tourist experiences relate to those of locals?
One of the many challenges of expanding tourism in Appalachia is the impact of development and changing economic needs for residents. Drawing on the work of Black foodways scholars Ashanté Reese and Symone Johnson, Stokes and Atkins-Sayre explore opportunities for and examples of place-based advocacy and community care in South-Central Appalachia. The chapter considers “whether Southern Appalachian food rhetorics support those frequently left out of the tourist tableau” (140). Though the authors do identify several examples of community care at work in relation to food, they emphasize that additional resources and policy change are needed in the region.
In their final chapter, the authors reflect on what their fieldwork taught them about Appalachian foodways and resilience more generally. They examine the tension and concerns about resilience as a concept, acknowledging that “the desire to preserve traditions and the status quo may continue to keep communities from moving forward” (170). They note that other research in the field has been cautious about exploring resilience due to the associated problems.
Though the book is largely geared toward academic audiences, the authors generally provide glosses of important terms as well as brief background information about the approaches they are using. The text never becomes excessively theoretical, always remaining grounded in the fieldwork, interviews, and food. Endnotes are used, but they almost exclusively provide citation information, rather than discursive notes, which can be harder to keep track of for some readers.
Hungry Roots is an excellent complement to other recent publications about Appalachia, such as Erica Abrams Locklear’s Appalachia on the Table (2023) and Emily Hilliard’s Making Our Future (2022), both of which are cited by Stokes and Atkins-Sayre. Like Abrams Locklear and Hilliard, Hungry Roots continues to offer residents of Appalachia and others interested in the region exciting opportunities to better understand the food, history, and people that make the Mountain South such a special place.
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