Religious Narratives of Extractivist Places: Christianity and Oral Histories of Appalachia

This paper analyzes how Appalachian communities reliant on extractivist livelihoods structure narratives of religious life. It does so by drawing on Robert Orsi’s concept of lived religion,’ which argues that the daily activities of believers shape religious practice. By conducting inductive narrative analysis on oral histories of life in Appalachian coal camps and villages in the 20th century, the paper demonstrates how religion, place, and cultures of extractivism influence each other. I expect to find that religious practice acts as a divine justification for extractivist livelihoods, as protection for precarious and dangerous forms of labor, but also giving it religious significance. However, I expect that the role of land in religion is important as source of religious identification beyond extractivist practice. The oral histories analyzed in the paper are part of various projects of the University of Kentucky’s Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History.