Foxfire (magazine)
Encyclopedia
The Foxfire magazine began in 1966, written and published as a quarterly American
magazine
by students at Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School
, a private secondary education school located in the U.S. state
of Georgia
. At the time Foxfire began, Rabun Gap Nacoochee School was also operating as a public secondary education school for students who were residents of northern Rabun County, Georgia. An example of experiential education
, the magazine had articles based on the students' interviews with local people about aspects and practices in Appalachian culture. They captured oral history, craft traditions, and other material about the culture. When the articles were collected and published in book form in 1972, it became a bestseller
nationally and gained attention for the Foxfire project.
The magazine was named for foxfire
, a term for a naturally occurring bioluminescent
in fungi in the forests of North Georgia
. In 1977 the Foxfire project moved from the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School to the newly-built and consolidated public Rabun County High School
. Additional books were published, and with profits from magazine and book sales, the students created a not-for-profit educational and literary organization and a museum. The Foxfire program has been shifted from the English to the business curriculum. Nationally, the Foxfire model has inspired numerous school systems to develop their own experiential education programs.
and his students in an English class at the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School
initiated a project to engage students in writing. The class decided to publish a magazine over the course of the semester. Its articles were the product of the students' interviewing their relatives and local citizens about how lifestyles had changed over the course of their lives and dealt with traditions in the rural area. First published in 1966, the magazine covers topics of the lifestyle, culture, crafts, and skills of people in southern Appalachia
. The content is written as a mixture of how-to
information, first-person narrative
s, oral history
, and folklore
.
The Foxfire project has published Foxfire magazine continuously since 1966. In 1972 the first of the highly popular Foxfire books was published, which collected published articles as well as new material. Both the magazine and books are based on the stories and life of elders and students, featuring advice and personal stories about subjects as wide-ranging as hog dressing
, faith healing, blacksmithing, and Appalachia
n local and regional history. Foxfire moved from Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School
to Rabun County High School in 1977.
of articles originally written for the Foxfire magazine, along with additional content not suitable for the magazine format. Though first conceived primarily as a sociological work, recounting oral traditions, the books, particularly the early ones, were a commercial success as instructional works.
Members of the 1970s back-to-the-land movement used the books as a basis to return to lives of simplicity
. The first book was published in 1972 as The Foxfire Book. This was followed by an additional 11 books, titled in sequence Foxfire 2 through Foxfire 12. The students have published several additional specialty books under the Foxfire name, some of which have been published by the University of North Carolina Press.
Published by Random House
-Anchor
, the magazine and anthologies have become a continuing project of Rabun County
High School
.
. It encourages use of the stories and practical instructions from the local people of Appalachia
to teach and promote a self-sufficient, self-reflective way of life.
Rabun County students, who saw their project revenues increasing as a result of the Firefox books' best-seller status, also decided to create a museum. They purchased a tract of land on Black Rock Mountain, in Mountain City, Georgia
. They founded a museum
of Appalachian culture there. Students helped move and reconstruct a variety of log homes, a grist mill, and more, to preserve aspects of the traditional Appalachian way of life. The Foxfire Fund headquarters are also located here, at 200 Foxfire Lane, Mountain City, GA.
fellowship for his work with the Foxfire project. Wigginton had developed the Foxfire educational philosophy based on experiential education.
Wigginton originally thought of the student-produced magazine as a way to help his high school freshmen see the relevance of good English skills. As he and they developed the journals, over several years he began to develop a full teaching approach (a.k.a. the Foxfire approach), which features 11 core principles, related to the philosopher John Dewey's
concepts of experiential education
. The Foxfire Fund contributed to such development. During the late 1960s through the 1980s, the success of Foxfire inspired many United States schools to develop similar programs. By 1998 it had been adopted by 37 school systems. The Foxfire Fund started offering teacher training programs to support such efforts.
Foxfire continues to train educators in its constructivist methods, which begins with the assertion that students must construct meaning for themselves, rather than memorizing information a teacher deems important. Foxfire and other constructivist approaches to teaching propose that by constructing their own meaning, establishing relationships, and seeing the connection of what they do in the classroom to "the real world," students are better able to learn.
As a result of changing ideas in education, Rabun County High School has moved the Foxfire magazine/book class from English to the business curriculum. In addition, students are no longer as involved in operations of the museum as they once were.
The museum is being assisted by the University of Georgia to archive and preserve its extensive materials from more than 30 years of research. In 1998 the University of Georgia
anthropology
department started to work with the Foxfire project. The collection is held at one of the cabins of the museum complex and includes "2,000 hours of interviews on audio tape, 30,000 black and white pictures and hundreds of hours of videotape." By improving how the material is archived and establishing a database
, the university believes the materials can be made more easily available for scholars.
, banjo
s, basket weaving
, beekeeping
, butter
churn
ing, corn
shucking, dulcimers
, faith healing
, Appalachian folk magic, fiddle
making, haints
, American ginseng
cultivation, long rifle
and flintlock
making, hide tanning
, hog dressing, hunting
tales, log cabin
building, moonshining
, midwives, old-time burial
customs, planting "by the signs", preserving foods
, sassafras
tea
, snake handling
and lore, soap
making, spinning
, square dancing, wagon
making, weaving
, wild food gathering, witches, and wood carving
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
by students at Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School
Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School
Rabun Gap — Nacoochee School is a small, private college preparatory school located in Rabun County, Georgia in the Appalachian Mountains. It is both a boarding and a day school...
, a private secondary education school located in the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
. At the time Foxfire began, Rabun Gap Nacoochee School was also operating as a public secondary education school for students who were residents of northern Rabun County, Georgia. An example of experiential education
Experiential education
Experiential education is a philosophy of education that describes the process that occurs between a teacher and student that infuses direct experience with the learning environment and content. The term is mistakenly used interchangeably with experiential learning...
, the magazine had articles based on the students' interviews with local people about aspects and practices in Appalachian culture. They captured oral history, craft traditions, and other material about the culture. When the articles were collected and published in book form in 1972, it became a bestseller
Bestseller
A bestseller is a book that is identified as extremely popular by its inclusion on lists of currently top selling titles that are based on publishing industry and book trade figures and published by newspapers, magazines, or bookstore chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and...
nationally and gained attention for the Foxfire project.
The magazine was named for foxfire
Foxfire (bioluminescence)
Foxfire, also sometimes referred to as "fairy fire", is the bioluminescence created by some species of fungi present in decaying wood. The bluish green glow is attributed to luciferase, an oxidizing agent, which emits light as it reacts with luciferin...
, a term for a naturally occurring bioluminescent
Bioluminescence
Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by a living organism. Its name is a hybrid word, originating from the Greek bios for "living" and the Latin lumen "light". Bioluminescence is a naturally occurring form of chemiluminescence where energy is released by a chemical reaction in...
in fungi in the forests of North Georgia
North Georgia
North Georgia is the hilly to mountainous northern region of the U.S. state of Georgia. At the time of the arrival of settlers from Europe, it was inhabited largely by the Cherokee. The counties of North Georgia were often scenes of important events in the history of Georgia...
. In 1977 the Foxfire project moved from the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School to the newly-built and consolidated public Rabun County High School
Rabun County High School
Rabun County High School is a public high school operated by the Rabun County School District. It is located on the edge of Tiger, a town in Rabun County in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the original venue of Foxfire magazine and related projects....
. Additional books were published, and with profits from magazine and book sales, the students created a not-for-profit educational and literary organization and a museum. The Foxfire program has been shifted from the English to the business curriculum. Nationally, the Foxfire model has inspired numerous school systems to develop their own experiential education programs.
History
In 1966 Eliot WiggintonEliot Wigginton
Eliot Wigginton is an American oral historian, folklorist, writer and former educator. He was most widely known for developing the Foxfire Project, a writing project that led to a magazine and the series of best-selliing Foxfire books, twelve volumes in all...
and his students in an English class at the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School
Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School
Rabun Gap — Nacoochee School is a small, private college preparatory school located in Rabun County, Georgia in the Appalachian Mountains. It is both a boarding and a day school...
initiated a project to engage students in writing. The class decided to publish a magazine over the course of the semester. Its articles were the product of the students' interviewing their relatives and local citizens about how lifestyles had changed over the course of their lives and dealt with traditions in the rural area. First published in 1966, the magazine covers topics of the lifestyle, culture, crafts, and skills of people in southern Appalachia
Appalachia
Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...
. The content is written as a mixture of how-to
How-to
A how-to or a how to is an informal, often short, description of how to accomplish some specific task. A how-to is usually meant to help non-experts, may leave out details that are only important to experts, and may also be greatly simplified from an overall discussion of the topic...
information, first-person narrative
First-person narrative
First-person point of view is a narrative mode where a story is narrated by one character at a time, speaking for and about themselves. First-person narrative may be singular, plural or multiple as well as being an authoritative, reliable or deceptive "voice" and represents point of view in the...
s, oral history
Oral history
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews...
, and folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
.
The Foxfire project has published Foxfire magazine continuously since 1966. In 1972 the first of the highly popular Foxfire books was published, which collected published articles as well as new material. Both the magazine and books are based on the stories and life of elders and students, featuring advice and personal stories about subjects as wide-ranging as hog dressing
Butcher
A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments...
, faith healing, blacksmithing, and Appalachia
Appalachia
Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...
n local and regional history. Foxfire moved from Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School
Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School
Rabun Gap — Nacoochee School is a small, private college preparatory school located in Rabun County, Georgia in the Appalachian Mountains. It is both a boarding and a day school...
to Rabun County High School in 1977.
Books
The Foxfire books are a series of copyrighted anthologiesAnthology
An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
of articles originally written for the Foxfire magazine, along with additional content not suitable for the magazine format. Though first conceived primarily as a sociological work, recounting oral traditions, the books, particularly the early ones, were a commercial success as instructional works.
Members of the 1970s back-to-the-land movement used the books as a basis to return to lives of simplicity
Simple living
Simple living encompasses a number of different voluntary practices to simplify one's lifestyle. These may include reducing one's possessions or increasing self-sufficiency, for example. Simple living may be characterized by individuals being satisfied with what they need rather than want...
. The first book was published in 1972 as The Foxfire Book. This was followed by an additional 11 books, titled in sequence Foxfire 2 through Foxfire 12. The students have published several additional specialty books under the Foxfire name, some of which have been published by the University of North Carolina Press.
Published by Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
-Anchor
Anchor
An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, that is used to connect a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the vessel from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ancora, which itself comes from the Greek ἄγκυρα .Anchors can either be temporary or permanent...
, the magazine and anthologies have become a continuing project of Rabun County
Rabun County, Georgia
Rabun County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2000 census, the population was 15,050. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 16,519...
High School
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
.
Main series
- The Foxfire Book, 19721972 in literatureThe year 1972 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Fiction:*Richard Adams - Watership Down*Jorge Amado - Teresa Batista Cansada da Guerra *Martin Amis - The Rachel Papers...
, Anchor. ISBN 0-385-07353-4 - Foxfire 2, 19731973 in literatureThe year 1973 in literature involved several significant events and the writing of many notable books.-Events:*September 25 - The funeral of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda becomes a focus for protests against the new government of Augusto Pinochet...
, Anchor. ISBN 0-385-02267-0 - Foxfire 3, 19751975 in literatureThe year 1975 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* August 12 — with the 20-year time limit stipulated by Thomas Mann at his death having expired, sealed packets containing 32 of the author's notebooks were opened in Zurich, Switzerland.* Writing under the...
, Anchor. ISBN 0-385-02272-7 - Foxfire 4, 19771977 in literatureThe year 1977 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Douglas Adams begins writing for BBC radio.*V. S. Naipaul declines the offer of a CBE....
, Anchor. ISBN 0-385-12087-7 - Foxfire 5, 19791979 in literatureThe year 1979 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*V.C...
, Anchor. ISBN 0-385-14308-7 - Foxfire 6, 19801980 in literatureThe year 1980 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Marguerite Yourcenar becomes the first woman to be elected to the Académie française....
, Anchor. ISBN 0-385-15272-8 - Foxfire 7, 19821982 in literatureThe year 1982 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*La Bicyclette Bleue by Régine Deforges becomes France's best selling novel ever.-New books:...
, Anchor. ISBN 0-385-15243-4 - Foxfire 8, 19841984 in literatureThe year 1984 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The book Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is widely read....
, Anchor. ISBN 0-385-17741-0 - Foxfire 9, 19861986 in literatureThe year 1986 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Michael Grade. Controller of BBC One, axes plans to televise Ian Curteis's The Falklands Play.-New books:*Kingsley Amis - The Old Devils...
, Anchor. ISBN 0-385-17743-7 - Foxfire 10, 19931993 in literatureThe year 1993 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Professor Stephen Hawking's book, A Brief History of Time, becomes the longest running book on the bestseller list of The Sunday Times....
, Anchor. ISBN 0-385-42276-8 - Foxfire 11, 19991999 in literatureThe year 1999 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*June 19 - Stephen King is hit by a Dodge van while taking a walk. He spends the next three weeks hospitalized...
, Anchor. ISBN 0-385-49461-0 - Foxfire 12, 20042004 in literatureThe year 2004 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Canada Reads selects Guy Vanderhaeghe's The Last Crossing to be read across the nation....
, Anchor. ISBN 1-4000-3261-X
Other books
- The Foxfire 40th Anniversary Book: Faith, Family, and the Land, 20062006 in literatureThe year 2006 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Literature:*Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Half of a Yellow Sun*Chris Adrian - The Children's Hospital *Martin Amis - House of Meetings...
, Anchor. ISBN 0-307-27551-5. - Memories of a Mountain Shortline, 1976, Foxfire Press; 2001
- Aunt Arie: A Foxfire Portrait, 1983, Dutton. ISBN 0-525-93292-5
- The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Cookery, 1984; 1992, University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-4395-4
- The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Toys & Games, 1985; 1993, University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-4425-X
- The Foxfire Book of Wine Making, 1987, E. P. Dutton. ISBN 0-525-48274-1 (hardbound) 0-525-24467-0 (paperback).
- A Foxfire Christmas, 1996, University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-4618-X
- Teaching by Heart: The Foxfire Interviews, 2004, Teacher's College Press. ISBN 0-8077-4539-1 (hardbound), ISBN 0-8077-4538-3 (paperback)
- Foxfire's Book of Wood Stove Cookery 2006
- Eliot Wigginton, Sometimes a Shining Moment; The Foxfire Experience, New York: Anchor, 1985. ISBN 0-385-13358-8
Foxfire Fund
The students used some of their revenues to set up the Foxfire Fund, a not-for-profit educational and literary organization in Rabun County, GeorgiaRabun County, Georgia
Rabun County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2000 census, the population was 15,050. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 16,519...
. It encourages use of the stories and practical instructions from the local people of Appalachia
Appalachia
Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...
to teach and promote a self-sufficient, self-reflective way of life.
Rabun County students, who saw their project revenues increasing as a result of the Firefox books' best-seller status, also decided to create a museum. They purchased a tract of land on Black Rock Mountain, in Mountain City, Georgia
Mountain City, Georgia
Mountain City is an incorporated town in Rabun County, Georgia, United States. The population was 829 at the 2000 census. The town straddles the Eastern Continental Divide in a deep gap in the Blue Ridge Mountain front. The gap allows U.S...
. They founded a museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
of Appalachian culture there. Students helped move and reconstruct a variety of log homes, a grist mill, and more, to preserve aspects of the traditional Appalachian way of life. The Foxfire Fund headquarters are also located here, at 200 Foxfire Lane, Mountain City, GA.
Educational philosophy
In 1989 Eliot Wigginton was awarded a MacArthur FoundationMacArthur Foundation
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in the United States. Based in Chicago but supporting non-profit organizations that work in 60 countries, MacArthur has awarded more than US$4 billion since its inception in 1978...
fellowship for his work with the Foxfire project. Wigginton had developed the Foxfire educational philosophy based on experiential education.
Wigginton originally thought of the student-produced magazine as a way to help his high school freshmen see the relevance of good English skills. As he and they developed the journals, over several years he began to develop a full teaching approach (a.k.a. the Foxfire approach), which features 11 core principles, related to the philosopher John Dewey's
John Dewey
John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey was an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology...
concepts of experiential education
Experiential education
Experiential education is a philosophy of education that describes the process that occurs between a teacher and student that infuses direct experience with the learning environment and content. The term is mistakenly used interchangeably with experiential learning...
. The Foxfire Fund contributed to such development. During the late 1960s through the 1980s, the success of Foxfire inspired many United States schools to develop similar programs. By 1998 it had been adopted by 37 school systems. The Foxfire Fund started offering teacher training programs to support such efforts.
Foxfire continues to train educators in its constructivist methods, which begins with the assertion that students must construct meaning for themselves, rather than memorizing information a teacher deems important. Foxfire and other constructivist approaches to teaching propose that by constructing their own meaning, establishing relationships, and seeing the connection of what they do in the classroom to "the real world," students are better able to learn.
As a result of changing ideas in education, Rabun County High School has moved the Foxfire magazine/book class from English to the business curriculum. In addition, students are no longer as involved in operations of the museum as they once were.
The museum is being assisted by the University of Georgia to archive and preserve its extensive materials from more than 30 years of research. In 1998 the University of Georgia
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
department started to work with the Foxfire project. The collection is held at one of the cabins of the museum complex and includes "2,000 hours of interviews on audio tape, 30,000 black and white pictures and hundreds of hours of videotape." By improving how the material is archived and establishing a database
Database
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
, the university believes the materials can be made more easily available for scholars.
Topics
The books cover a wide range of topics, many to do with crafts, tools, music and other aspects of traditional life skills and culture in Appalachia. These include making apple butterApple butter
Apple butter is a highly concentrated form of apple sauce, produced by long, slow cooking of apples with cider or water to a point where the sugar in the apples caramelizes, turning the apple butter a deep brown. The concentration of sugar gives apple butter a much longer shelf life as a preserve...
, banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
s, basket weaving
Basket weaving
Basket weaving is the process of weaving unspun vegetable fibres into a basket or other similar form. People and artists who weave baskets are called basketmakers and basket weavers.Basketry is made from a variety of fibrous or pliable materials•anything that will bend and form a shape...
, beekeeping
Beekeeping
Beekeeping is the maintenance of honey bee colonies, commonly in hives, by humans. A beekeeper keeps bees in order to collect honey and other products of the hive , to pollinate crops, or to produce bees for sale to other beekeepers...
, butter
Butter
Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk. It is generally used as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking applications, such as baking, sauce making, and pan frying...
churn
Churn
Churn may refer to:* Butter churn, a device used for churning butter* Churning , the process of creating butter out of milk or cream* Churn drill, a large, older drilling machine that bores large diameter holes in the ground- People and places :...
ing, corn
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
shucking, dulcimers
Appalachian dulcimer
The Appalachian dulcimer is a fretted string instrument of the zither family, typically with three or four strings. It is native to the Appalachian region of the United States...
, faith healing
Faith healing
Faith healing is healing through spiritual means. The healing of a person is brought about by religious faith through prayer and/or rituals that, according to adherents, stimulate a divine presence and power toward correcting disease and disability. Belief in divine intervention in illness or...
, Appalachian folk magic, fiddle
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
making, haints
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
, American ginseng
American Ginseng
American ginseng, Panax quinquefolius, is a herbaceous perennial plant in the ivy family, commonly used as Chinese or herbal medicine.It is native to eastern North America, though it is also cultivated in places such as China....
cultivation, long rifle
Long rifle
The American longrifle , better known as the Kentucky rifle was described best by Captain John G. W. Dillin in the dedication to his seminal 1924 book, The Kentucky Rifle:...
and flintlock
Flintlock
Flintlock is the general term for any firearm based on the flintlock mechanism. The term may also apply to the mechanism itself. Introduced at the beginning of the 17th century, the flintlock rapidly replaced earlier firearm-ignition technologies, such as the doglock, matchlock and wheellock...
making, hide tanning
Tanning
Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...
, hog dressing, hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
tales, log cabin
Log cabin
A log cabin is a house built from logs. It is a fairly simple type of log house. A distinction should be drawn between the traditional meanings of "log cabin" and "log house." Historically most "Log cabins" were a simple one- or 1½-story structures, somewhat impermanent, and less finished or less...
building, moonshining
Moonshine
Moonshine is an illegally produced distilled beverage...
, midwives, old-time burial
Burial
Burial is the act of placing a person or object into the ground. This is accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing an object in it, and covering it over.-History:...
customs, planting "by the signs", preserving foods
Food preservation
Food preservation is the process of treating and handling food to stop or slow down spoilage and thus allow for longer storage....
, sassafras
Sassafras
Sassafras is a genus of three extant and one extinct species of deciduous trees in the family Lauraceae, native to eastern North America and eastern Asia.-Overview:...
tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
, snake handling
Snake handling
Snake handling or serpent handling is a religious ritual in a small number of Pentecostal churches in the U.S., usually characterized as rural and Holiness. The practice began in the early 20th century in Appalachia, spreading to mostly coal mining towns. The practice plays only a small part of...
and lore, soap
Soap
In chemistry, soap is a salt of a fatty acid.IUPAC. "" Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. . Compiled by A. D. McNaught and A. Wilkinson. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford . XML on-line corrected version: created by M. Nic, J. Jirat, B. Kosata; updates compiled by A. Jenkins. ISBN...
making, spinning
Spinning (textiles)
Spinning is a major industry. It is part of the textile manufacturing process where three types of fibre are converted into yarn, then fabric, then textiles. The textiles are then fabricated into clothes or other artifacts. There are three industrial processes available to spin yarn, and a...
, square dancing, wagon
Wagon
A wagon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals; it was formerly often called a wain, and if low and sideless may be called a dray, trolley or float....
making, weaving
Weaving
Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...
, wild food gathering, witches, and wood carving
Woodworking
Woodworking is the process of building, making or carving something using wood.-History:Along with stone, mud, and animal parts, wood was one of the first materials worked by early humans. Microwear analysis of the Mousterian stone tools used by the Neanderthals show that many were used to work wood...
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