On Tuesday, Oct. 28, from 2 to 4 P.M., the Reece Museum hosted a gallery talk titled “Appalachian Animism: Plants, Religion, and Voice of the Mountains,” presented by Dr. Amy Whitehead. The event was part of a special lecture series accompanying the museum’s current exhibition, The Place Speaks.
Dr. Whitehead is a Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology and Program Coordinator for Museum Studies at Massey University in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and is originally from the mountains of Northeast Tennessee. Her work delved into the connections between landscape, spirituality and lived experience, which are all themes that resonate deeply in Appalachia. Quoting historian Jared Farmer, Whitehead began with the idea that “Holiness has always lived up high,” but she found herself challenging that notion, asking, “What happens when ‘up high’ is not the place where holiness, or the sacred, is found, at least in the day-to-day?”
Her talk centered around what she calls “Appalachian animism,” a concept that blends personal heritage with scholarship to explore how people in the region connect spiritually to the mountains, rivers, and forests that surround them. “This presentation combines an insider, scholarly perspective (based on lived, ancestral experience of upper East Tennessee),” the program noted, “to offer the concept of ‘Appalachian animism’ as an appropriate conceptual, theoretical, and methodological model for articulating the ways in which a diverse range of Appalachian religionists understand, relate to, know, and hear their place.”
Drawing from the themes in The Place Speaks exhibition, Whitehead explored how nature itself becomes a voice in local faith and culture.
“The place not only speaks through human cultures but has a voice all its own,” she wrote. Through stories, rituals, and traditions, the presentation aimed to show how the Appalachian landscape influenced both long-standing religious practices and the rise of new, earth-centered movements.
Whitehead’s research spans far beyond Tennessee, extending to places such as the UK, Spain, Cuba, and New Zealand. However, her roots in these mountains continue to inspire her. Her talk brought global insight back home, highlighting “the rich and varied social, ritual, and healing lives of plants in Appalachian and other religious cultures.”
The event offered an opportunity for attendees to reflect on how Appalachia’s landscape shapes not just the region’s identity, but its spirituality. As the program puts it, “The presentation asserts that the place not only speaks through human cultures but has a voice all its own.” For more information concerning this lecture and potential future ones at ETSU, feel free to reach out to PROFFITTRJ@mail.etsu.edu for any questions.
