Working-class Intangible Heritage from the Pennsylvania Coal Fields

Abstract

Abstract:V. Camille Westmont, doctoral candidate in anthropology at the University of Maryland, explores northeastern Pennsylvania's coal mining region and the intangible heritage of the places that once were coal mine company towns. Miners and their families lived in poverty, and the coal companies controlled most aspects of their lives, from housing and food to commercial goods. The intangible heritage of the resource economy these families developed to survive is now all that is left of the coal mining era, with company towns now indistinguishable from other rural and suburban areas.