Mike Coggeshall, cultural anthropologist and professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice, shares a compilation of human interest stories collected over nearly two decades in his new book, “A Slow Life but a Good Life: Stories from the South Carolina Mountains,” published by Clemson University Press.
The book explores a time when stories were a primary source of entertainment and information, passed down through family and friends, one generation to the next.
The book’s contributors are long-term residents of South Carolina’s mountain counties and range in age from young adulthood to late adulthood. Their stories document nearly a century of life experiences, including rural life, food procurement and preparation, traditional cures and curing, social life and activities, schools, relationships, local characters and practical jokes. It also includes information on the physical and social background of the area, as well as brief biographies of the contributors, a discussion of the social context of storytelling and an overview of the dialect in which the stories are told.
Coggeshall said the new book is the result of years of research and fieldwork for his two previous books, “Something in These Hills: The Culture of Family Land in Southern Appalachia” (University of North Carolina Press, 2022) and “Liberia, South Carolina: An African American Appalachian Community” (University of North Carolina Press, 2018), both of which relied heavily on in-depth interviews with residents across Upstate South Carolina.
While those earlier works focused on specific cultural topics – the 150-year history of a community in the Blue Ridge foothills and the cultural meaning of family land in southern Appalachia – he collected many rich, personal stories during his interviews with residents. His new book transforms their individual life experiences and perspectives into a collection that captures the humor, hardship and humanity woven throughout the region.
“As a cultural anthropologist, I have always been interested in the cultural characteristics regional groups use to differentiate themselves from one another and how individuals and communities define identity and belonging. Ultimately, ‘A Slow Life but a Good Life’ demonstrates that whether it is navigating life as a young adult, overcoming relationship challenges or experiencing the joy of a newborn baby, despite our cultural differences, we are all equally human,” said Coggeshall.
Coggeshall has been teaching at Clemson University since 1988. His research interests include American regional and folk groups and the cultural history of the South Carolina mountains. He received his Ph.D. in anthropology from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
The Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice is part of the College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences. Established in July 2016, CBSHS is a 21st-century, land-grant college that combines work in nine disciplines – communication; nursing; parks, recreation and tourism management; political science; psychology; public health sciences; sociology, anthropology and criminal justice – to further its mission of “building people and communities” in South Carolina and beyond.
