Burying stereotypes: Archaeology, representations, and everyday activism at Appalachian company coal mining towns

Abstract

ABSTRACT Politicians, scholars and the popular media have problematically represented Appalachia for the past 150 years. Appalachians are the homogenous, white ‘Other’ in a backward land of isolated hillbillies living in opposition to the American mainstream. Such characterizations have been revitalized since the 2016 election to explain Appalachia's ‘cycle of self-inflicted ills,’ to justify exploitation, and to obfuscate underlying structural factors. Archaeologists in Appalachia have unique input about its materiality, identity, and economies, inexplicably linked with industrialism in complicated relationships of identity, despair, hope, and pride and impacted by the legacy of coal extraction. Archaeologists must add our voice to global discussions of Appalachia's past and future. Critical regional studies of company coal-mining towns across Appalachian Kentucky demonstrate archaeology's potential to challenge persistent narratives with contemporary consequences through artefacts and oral histories, and suggests economic strategies adapted from historic ones to aid Appalachia's just transition post-coal.