Southern Image Is Blurring Away

[sonofaque86]

Deleted! Read the forum rules

You can read the rest here http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/13247836.htm

Interesting, what do you guys think?

[triadcat]

Very interesting read. I think we need to keep our history and progress. The south is morphing into a different creature and we can't really do much about it. We can try to hold on to some of our history though....

[krazeeboi]

I don't think the identity of the South will be totally wiped out, as the overall "leveling" of the nation begins to take place.

[LJinPA]

[triadcat]

I guess this is in reference to accents??

Those lines are not definite.....accents blurr into other regions.

[krazeeboi]

Speaking of accents...

[LJinPA]

Yes the first map did refer to accent...

From Glenmary Research center, this map shows perhaps where the south is as of 2000. This map would also be good for the "Where does the South begin" thread...

Remember this map shows the largest participating religious groups, I'm just a very visual-spacial person I guess...lol

This second map is probably more fitting to this thread, It shows the percent catholic in 2000, though the shading scale is confusing. Since most Catholics in most of the south are transplants, this may give a hint as to the pattern in which the south is changing...

[monsoon]

It's hard to draw any conclusions from these maps as it really doesn't compare how many people don't actually go to any church nor how the protestant vs catholic mix works out. But I agree the catholic religion is not a real big religion in the South for those who actually bother with church.

[LJinPA]

It's hard to draw any conclusions from these maps as it really doesn't compare how many people don't actually go to any church nor how the protestant vs catholic mix works out. But I agree the catholic religion is not a real big religion in the South for those who actually bother with church.

For that reason the Catholic distribution map can be used to show which counties in the south are attracting the most transplants. THat was more my purpose of posting it. It's an example of a demographic feature common in the north and less in the south which can be used as a litmus test.

Somewhere on here there was a thread about which parts of the South attract the most Northern transplants...

One way is to go to www.factfinder.census.gov then go to Thematic Maps... You could make them on just about any subject and break them down to State, County, Metro, Census Track and other ways.

You can also choose between raw #'s and percent...

EG:

*A map shading where people reported Italian Ancestry (200 Sample Data) May show where people in the northeast are gravitating to. Remember though New Orleans wouod be an exception since it has Italian settlement of it's own.

*A map shading where people report Swedish or Norwegian ancestry would give hints on where Upper Midwesterners are going to keep warm.

*A map shading lets say Polish ancestry in the south may indicate where people from the Great Lakes Metros are going.

*A map showing where Scotch-Irish or where Black race is prevalent (Race would be under 100% data) may be used to show where the cultural divides between the Deep South and the Inland South (and may explain why parts of southern and western PA seem to have pronounciations akin to the inland south) It seems that much of the South's growth is occuring at the boundry between those regions (EG Richmond, The 1-85 Corridor or Piedmont, MIddle Tennessee, North Alabama...)

I also wonder if change will bring more change, the more diverse a region becomes, the more transplants would feel comfortorble living there. Maybe all the media coverage of hurricanes will cause more people to discover the inland South as an inbetween alternative that is less far to drive to. Not to mention a 4 distinct seasons yet winter not as severe as MIchigan but Summer not as Severe as Phoenix...

So yeah you guys may want to play around with that factfinder map site to aid with some of the debates on here. I must warn though if your a statistics geek like I am it can get addictive.

[triadcat]

For that reason the Catholic distribution map can be used to show which counties in the south are attracting the most transplants. THat was more my purpose of posting it. It's an example of a demographic feature common in the north and less in the south which can be used as a litmus test.

Somewhere on here there was a thread about which parts of the South attract the most Northern transplants...

One way is to go to www.factfinder.census.gov then go to Thematic Maps... You could make them on just about any subject and break them down to State, County, Metro, Census Track and other ways.

You can also choose between raw #'s and percent...

EG:

*A map shading where people reported Italian Ancestry (200 Sample Data) May show where people in the northeast are gravitating to. Remember though New Orleans wouod be an exception since it has Italian settlement of it's own.

*A map shading where people report Swedish or Norwegian ancestry would give hints on where Upper Midwesterners are going to keep warm.

*A map shading lets say Polish ancestry in the south may indicate where people from the Great Lakes Metros are going.

*A map showing where Scotch-Irish or where Black race is prevalent (Race would be under 100% data) may be used to show where the cultural divides between the Deep South and the Inland South (and may explain why parts of southern and western PA seem to have pronounciations akin to the inland south) It seems that much of the South's growth is occuring at the boundry between those regions (EG Richmond, The 1-85 Corridor or Piedmont, MIddle Tennessee, North Alabama...)

I also wonder if change will bring more change, the more diverse a region becomes, the more transplants would feel comfortorble living there. Maybe all the media coverage of hurricanes will cause more people to discover the inland South as an inbetween alternative that is less far to drive to. Not to mention a 4 distinct seasons yet winter not as severe as MIchigan but Summer not as Severe as Phoenix...

So yeah you guys may want to play around with that factfinder map site to aid with some of the debates on here. I must warn though if your a statistics geek like I am it can get addictive.

Yeah, I like statistics/numbers too.

Would you group the south like this:

Deep south: Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, MAYBE Arkansas.

Midland or mid-south: South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia.?

[Mith242]

You may not be able to draw any serious conclusions from the maps but I still found them very interesting. I also read that article in a local paper. Along with one recently talking about the southern accent.

[LJinPA]

You can't draw any perfect conclusion from any of those maps. Any conclusion would have exceptions and caveats, but If someone puts enough of them together combined with their gut feeling or common sense, they'll notice a lot of patterns.

The way some people use abstract photography is why I used the german map to show one view of the South, If you notice it also defines New England. Notice How both New England AND the South are the 2 regions of America with the most distinct accents.(See "Poll, Where does the South begin", on Urban Discussion)

Perhaps the Germans had something to do with what defines "Midwestern-ness" I also notice the German goes down a little though to the NC Piedmont where PA "Dutch" once migrated down.

The Germans were mainly farmers who tended toward the Middle Colonies where the Quakers first settled...

Another example is where Scotch-Irish settled you may find some speech peculiarities such as "Pittsburghese" (You'ns from the Scottish You ones, or My hair "needs cut"...

Third, Albions seed points out that the US was more than North and South but at least 4:

*The Yankee Culture

*The Mid Atlantic (Quaker, German)

*Backcountry (Scotch-Irish, Appalachia, Ozark, Texas cowboy country)

*Coastal or Deep South (Aristocratic, Bi-racial...)

The Media and Red State Blue State pundits seem to hit together the "Yankee" against "Backcountry" I uess "divide and conquer works better with 2... but indeed the US culture has more than 2 elements

The differences continue to fade, but these 4 cultures are still alive.

[Aporkalypse]

Yeah, I like statistics/numbers too.

Would you group the south like this:

Deep south: Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, MAYBE Arkansas.

Midland or mid-south: South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia.?

I think you have to throw East Texas in as well. Texas is a big place but the eastern half is just as culturally Southern as just about any other part of the South, certainly as much as Atlanta, Virginia or North Carolina.

I thought the Southern Baptist map was very interesting and defines the South pretty well. Obviously South Louisiana is Southern but its own religious/cultural traditions separate it some. Notice the split in Florida - where the SBC is overtaken by Catholics it nicely separates "New Florida" from "Old Florida'. I thought it was quite interesting.

[triadcat]

I think you have to throw East Texas in as well. Texas is a big place but the eastern half is just as culturally Southern as just about any other part of the South, certainly as much as Atlanta, Virginia or North Carolina.

I thought the Southern Baptist map was very interesting and defines the South pretty well. Obviously South Louisiana is Southern but its own religious/cultural traditions separate it some. Notice the split in Florida - where the SBC is overtaken by Catholics it nicely separates "New Florida" from "Old Florida'. I thought it was quite interesting.

Yeah, I was wondering about that. I do think that east Texas is southern. Texas is sort of a bi-regional state: southern and western. Texas is really south central.

LJinPA, you are correct about the German-Moravian settlement in NC. My mom's father's family were German Moravians who first settled in PA in the 1730's and later came down to settle the town of "Salem", which is now known as Winston-Salem, NC. It is my understanding that the southern Appalachian mountains were settled by some Pennsylvania Dutch, even moreso the Scotch-Irish. This region goes all the way down to the western upstate of South Carolina and maybe north Georgia.....not sure though.