Front Porch

With this issue, Southern Cultures completes its fifth year of publication. It's been an exciting experience and a bit surprising at times, but we're still learning new things about the South and we're still having fun. As we begin volume six, Southern Cultures has never looked stronger. Subscriptions are up, submissions are likewise , and spirits are even higher. Briefly glancing backward, we're all very happy to be where we are. Looking ahead, we're excited about the next five years and more. As readers, we hope you feel the same. In our inaugural issue, we announced a desire to generate conversation about the South and share itwith a group ofreaders and writers who may not otherwise have come together. All in all, it seems to us we've done that, but there's always more to talk about. In the spirit ofthe old-time front porch, lively conversation is still what we're here for. One of the most arresting contributions to our ongoing conversation came from an anthropologist friend I'll call "Robert." Robert examined our initial issue and challenged our premises at a professional meeting. His argument—which he has a standing invitation to publish with us—was that there really is no "southabove : The coverphotofrom the inauguralissue »/"Southern Cultures. Courtesy ofthe Odum Photo Study in the Southern Historical Collection, the Library ofthe University ofNorth Carolina at ChapelHill. 3 ern" culture, only human culture in the South. This may sound like a needlessly fine distinction, but Robert's underlying point was that drawing a sharp line between "southern" culture and all the other kinds is basically artificial and misleading . No one has ever agreed on a core group of exclusively "southern" traits, and the very process of trying to draw up a list is inevitably a selective and circular exercise. If we define stock car racing as "southern," let's say, and ice hockey as something else, then we're creating a self-fulfilling prophecy about our subject. Ifwe look to the South and discover lots of racetracks there and then congratulate ourselves on how southern the South is, Robert the professional culture specialist says we've rigged the results by creating artificial boundaries around our subject. In fact, nascar flourishes outside the South and the nhl has a toehold, at least, inside it. For Robert and theorists like him, the "South" is best understood as a piece of geography instead ofa vessel for culture. Many kinds ofculture happen there, but none of them is exclusively southern and none ofthem is inherently more southern than the others. Any other approach to the matter leans toward a fatuous search for an imaginary cultural purity. That runs the risk in turn of intellectual blindness at best and the nastiest forms of nationalism at worst—honoring some southerners over others, celebrating "our" folkways over "theirs," and venerating cherished myths over lived reality. Robert has a valid point, but when we talked, I tried to argue back. Readily conceding that the idea of the South is an historical and imaginative creation, I maintained that the South has long had a distinct reality for millions ofpeople. "If southern cultures have reality for people who consider themselves southerners and also for people who don't," I countered, "what's wrong with having a publication about that sustained perception?" Robert had a ready answer, well grounded in theory and his anthropological fieldwork. He likened our collective convictions about the South to the myths of faraway tribesmen. "It's fine to study the tribe's mythology," he explained, "but if you treat their myths as real, you're crossing an important line." Drawing a breath, Robert leveled the anthropologist's most serious charge. "You're taking the perspective of the 'natives.'" I thought for a second and made my own reply. "But Robert," I protested, "we are the 'natives.' " At that impasse, we had to drop the subject. I think Robert decided we were hopeless, but his challenge has remained with me. It floats in the air every time we editors discuss whether or not a certain piece belongs in the journal. Even ifwe insist that there are "many Souths" (as we...