THE CONTEMPORARY HOMESTEAD: A REGIONAL MOMENT IN AN AMERICAN MOVEMENT

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Fieselman, Laura Collier
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of American Studies, Folklore Program

Abstract

Contemporary homesteaders, who privilege home and garden as places in which to make meaning and enact social, political, economic, and cultural values, are the current generation of an American movement that has advocated going "back to the land" since the late 1800s. The movement has been progressive at times, focused on the future, and nostalgic at times, lamenting a lost past. This thesis argues that contemporary homesteaders are unique in that they turn to both the past and the future for information and inspiration. Grounded in ethnographic fieldwork with five families across the Carolinas, this thesis locates the current moment regionally and investigates the ironies and gaps of contemporary homesteading, as well as its performative dimensions.

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