I have no idea where people who make this garbage get their info.
First, I see nothing “cultural” about these designations, these are regional designations.
I’ve lived or worked in quite a few of the places listed, and pretty much every one of those is inaccurate.
The “Chesapeake” label - I’ve never once heard that term used to describe that region, and I have family and friends who grew up there, and I’ve spent a lot of time there. If someone were to say “Chesapeake” they’d be asked what region of the Chesapeake they’re referring to, as it’s that large body of water there - the largest estuary in the world, if I remember right, or if they were referring to Chesapeake City, or just the Bay.
What’s labeled the Gulf Coast of Florida, most people would call the Panhandle (which is considered part of the Gulf Coast, just has its own designation), with the rest of the Gulf Coast extending down the entire… Gulf Coast of Florida, which measures in the thousands of miles.
These maps keep showing up, and it’s like they’re done by someone who’s never even read about any of the places, or looked at an actual map.
What about the unlabelled grey “dread zone” between the pacific and midwest areas? That’s accurate, right?
Chesapeake just means “people who know that crabs are meant to be steamed, not boiled.”
In my experience this is a surprisingly sharp cultural divide among places where eating crabs is common.
The people who made this do not understand American cultural regions. The top level general ones are pretty well known. North East, Mid East, South East, Appalachia, Mid West, Great Plains, Bible Belt, Rockies, South West, SoCal, Valley, North West.
If you want to drill down that’s fine but the borders here make no sense at all.
The “interior” region especially makes no sense. Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, North Dakota? Pretty much all of those places have wildly different culture from one another.
The differences between Arizona and Nebraska alone are enough to invalidate this.
This is Guam erasure.
Could be worse. Could be-
From an outside perspective, I’m not sure Alaska and the rest of the Pacific have much in common culturally. Same for various areas of the “Interior”.
Alaska… is weird. It consists of a few city’s and an enormous amount of very sparely populated land, it has no income tax on individuals and literally pays its residents.
Lumping Philly into the Jersey area is how you start wars.
The fact that these are supposed to be cultural categories and it doesn’t distinguish Appalachia is enough for me to discount this as total nonsense.
It literally lists Southern and Northern Appalachia…?
But it separates them into the south and northeast.
Personally I think this map is far better at mapping the cultures of the US (source: Monsieur Z “Utahism”)
Most of these are pretty shoddy, but this one is really good. It’s detailed and accurate about a lot of the idoiosyncrasies.
Like FlyingSquid I would have pushed “The South” a little further north into Western Pennsylvania, and up through Missouri into south Indiana. And what in the world is “The Northwoods,” that’s the YooPee and Wisconsin is upper midwest. But other than that it’s spot on as to a whole lot of the details. South Florida as part of the Caribbean, Washington/Oregon as part of the interior once you get away from the coast… it has a lot of little important details right.
Absolutely not. Culture has far more to it than politics.
I can always tell with food. In the Midwest you don’t dare use any spice except salt and maybe some rosemary on Christmas. Anything else is too fancy. The West Coast has their own style, northeast has chowder and seafood, except salmon which is the PNW. Interesting how they all separate.
I remember driving through the Midwest and I just wanted a sparkling water. Anything bubbly. They had coolers and coolers of soda and added sugar drinks, two small things of actual water, and one thing of liquid death, with added sugar. Wild place
Food is a big cultural thing, but it can also travel. For example we can get good Kimchi now. But I would never refer to a large section of the US as Korean.
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northwoods is a regional forest, like a boreal forests but not quite one. it runs from the boundry waters in Minnesota down to duluth. through this weird gross area on the southern edge of lake superior. before finally getting into an area smart enough to say it’s michigan even though its not touching michigan, thus no longer being gross. and the people living in that forest are definitely their own kinda people.
As someone who has spent many years in both South-Central and West-Central Indiana… What? We’re the South in all but name.
You may be rural and conservative but Indiana is in no way “Southern”.
As as Southerner, this
Have you been to this part of Indiana? Because you walk into an Indiana diner and you’ll see a lot of familiar stuff on the menu that belongs in the South. You’ll also hear accents that sound like they belong in the South.
It’s really silly to think that Southern culture just stops at the Kentucky border line.
Also, I’m talking about the southern half of Indiana. Not all of Indiana.
Kentucky ain’t Southern either. I can get a Burrito in DC, that doesn’t mean they’re part of SoCal or the South West. Tennessee is the farthest north I would say the word Southern applies. And half of both those states is actually Appalachia. The Western side of Kentucky is very much Mid-West.
And yes I’ve visited and lived in the area, and in the South.
Kentucky is literally part of the South. This is a weird purity test.
No it really isn’t. It’s half Appalachian for starters.
Wait, so now if the Appalachians are in your state, you aren’t in The South?
Because, uh… https://www.arc.gov/appalachian-states/
Yes I’m aware of how far the Appalachians officially extend. You forgot Scotland. No the mere presence of them does not indicate Appalachian culture. Yes the area from North Georgia to West Virginia and mid Maryland to Mid Kentucky is a distinct culture.
Being a rural hick doesn’t make you southern. It’s only been the last 20-30 years that Midwest small towns have been trying to preteend that they are southern rednecks.
I’m 47. No it hasn’t.
Not only am I 47, I’m 47 and married to someone who’s family goes back to Indiana from the mid-1800s, mostly the Owen County area.
It’s the South. It is. You go to Kentucky or Tennessee, it’s basically the same culture except they get to call themselves Southern. Even most of the traditional food is much more southern. Grits, okra, cornbread, you name it.
If you went to Tennessee and thought it was the same culture as Southern Indiana you didn’t do anything but drive though and stop for food a couple times.
If you went to Tennesse and you thought it was the same culture as Florida or Louisiana, that’s also true. What’s your point?
Florida is East Coast/Caribbean except for the panhandle. Louisiana is in many ways the most southern state. Of course it’s not 1:1 but Western Tennessee does have a culture distinct from Western Kentucky. There’s a very distinct historical reason for that.
Okay, then if there is not one monolithic Southern culture, I’m not sure what your point is.
Amongst multiple other Southern cities, I’ve been to Knoxville. I’ve been to New Orleans. I’ve been to Birmingham, I’ve been to Atlanta and I’ve been to Jacksonville. If you think any of those cities are remotely the same culturally, you were the one who drove through without stopping. And if any of those cities fail your “The South” purity test, well I doubt most of the people there would agree.
Incidentally, calling Jacksonville either “East Coast” or “Caribbean” is fucking hilarious.
I never said NO, Birmingham, or Atlanta weren’t Southern. Jacksonville is absolutely East Coast. Yes the area to it’s west is Southern. But the coastal cities have a shared culture right up through Baltimore. After which it’s pretty much North East culture. Sometimes it’s referred to as South East but that belies the culture between the coastal cities and the Appalachians.
I think this would have worked better without the changing color grades
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