Abstract
Gravestone data (1840–1939; socio-demographics and epitaphs) were transcribed as social variables to describe various dimensions of the Cades Cove community. This included the sex/gender composition of the community, gender roles and familial statuses, patriarchal dominance and gender inequality, age structures and age statuses, ethnicity implied by surname, family/kinship importance, aspects of community integration (vitality and permeability), social class, homogeneity, religion, and seasonal patterns of fertility and mortality. This illustrates and demonstrates the archival capacity of cemeteries. While there are many things cemeteries cannot disclose, there are a few things only cemeteries can disclose, and the exploitation of cemetery as data source must be adroit.
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- 1.
The sex ratio divides the number of males in a population by the number of females, multiplying by 100. The sex ratio for the human species is about 105, which means at birth, there are 105 males for every 100 females. At conception, there are some 120 males for every 100 females; however, fetal mortality is higher for males; by birth, about 105 males are born for every 100 females. Because infant and childhood mortality is higher for males, by the time the age group reaches 20, the sex ratio is about 100 (100 males for every 100 females). Beyond that, with the rate of male mortality remaining greater throughout life, the ratio drops below 100 (fewer males than females).
- 2.
The oldest person buried in Cades Cove was Paralee Myers, age 98, wife of Sherman, born November 4, 1897 and died November 27, 1995, buried in the Primitive Baptist Cemetery with her husband. She was not a lifelong resident of Cades Cove and only spent her childhood there, exemplifying why a reconstruction of the community includes only burials up through 1939. Recent burials do not typify Cades Cove as a historical mountain community.
- 3.
Max Weber (1946) addressed class, status, and party as components of social structure, constituting power in community. Status can be parsed by ethnic or religious groups and substantially refers to lifestyle. The upper social class can afford life opportunities and life chances such as better educations, better employment opportunities, and better lifestyles. In turn, better lifestyles enhance life expectancies. In societal applications and evaluations, the notion of social class tends to take preeminence, nearly to the exclusion of status and party. Most people assume social class, generally a three-class system (upper, middle, lower), as a natural reality, without recognizing status and party, but no particular number of social classes exist; they are social constructions.
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Foster, G.S., Lovekamp, W.E. (2019). A Census of Cades Cove Through Gravestones. In: Cemeteries and the Life of a Smoky Mountain Community. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23295-5_6
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