The culture of Arkansas is a subculture of the Southern United States that has come from blending heavy amounts of various European settlers' cultures with the cultures of African slaves and Native Americans. Southern culture remains prominent in the rural Arkansas Delta and south Arkansas. Arkansans share a history with the other southern states that includes the institution of slavery, the American Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws and segregation, the Great Depression, and the Civil rights movement.
On a more abstract level, Arkansas's culture can be seen and heard in its literature, music, sports, film, television and art. Arkansas is known for such authors as John Gould Fletcher, John Grisham, Charlaine Harris, and Maya Angelou; for musicians and bands such as Johnny Cash and Charlie Rich; for interest in football, hunting and fishing; for the films and television shows filmed in the state and the actors and actresses from Arkansas; and for the art created by Arkansans and inspired by the state of Arkansas.
People Native American in Arkansas had their own culture before colonization.
The people of Arkansas are stereotyped both by their manners and for being highly religious. Language in Arkansas is a combination of several different sub-dialects of Southern American English found across the state. The state's culture is also influenced by its economy. Finally, Arkansas' cuisine is integral to its culture with such foods as barbecue, traditional country cooking, fried catfish and chicken, wild duck, rice, purple hull peas, okra, apples, fried green tomatoes and grits being part of the people of Arkansas's diet and economy.
Reputation of Arkansas The stereotype, which is frequently characterized by a lazy, rural, poor, banjo-playing, racist, cousin-marrying hick is commonly applied to Arkansas and its residents. Arkansas's hillbilly reputation, and its citizen's defensiveness on the subject, are a very important piece of Arkansas' culture. Many Arkansans defend the state's reputation by refuting this image, but other Arkansans embrace it. The Old State House Museum housed an exhibit regarding the state's reputation in 2012.
Origins
The present day image of Arkansas has evolved from early diary entries written by the first visitors to the state. During the frontier period, many were exploring the new western extents of the United States and sending their findings back east. Henry Schoolcraft, George William Featherstonhaugh, and Henry Merrill were some of Arkansas's earliest detractors. Their accounts described the state as a backwater full of savages and outlaws. The travelers also commented on the self-sufficient nature and the wide range of survival skills possessed by the denizens of frontier Arkansas.Blevins 2009, pp. 14–15. This characterization was common among frontier states, but since geography prevented travelers from passing through Arkansas in subsequent years, the early commentary held in the public consciousness.Blevins 2009, p. 16.
The image continued to grow when southwestern humor publications played on the backwardsness of poor whites, especially in hill country. The most enduring icon of Arkansas's hillbilly reputation is The Arkansas Traveller, a painted depiction of a folk tale from the 1840s.Blevins 2009, p. 30. The tale involves gubernatorial candidate Archibald Yell and his party of politicians becoming lost in the Ozarks on a campaign trip and resorting to asking for directions at a squatter's cabin. The man continues to play his banjo and evade the traveler's questions before feeding the party and allowing them to stay the night. Although intended to represent the divide between rich southeastern plantation Arkansas planters and the poor northwestern hill country, the meaning was twisted to represent a Northerner lost in the Ozarks on a white horse asking a backwoods Arkansan for directions. The legend continued to grow, including a play named Kit, the Arkansas Traveler and the publication of a humor journal named the Arkansaw Traveler.
Racist component Another component of Arkansas's image is its history of racism and racial violence. Arkansas is socially stigmatized along with the other former slave states of the Confederacy. The presence of the Ku Klux Klan in the years which immediately followed the Civil War and events such as the Elaine massacre continued to affirm the state's reputation for racism. The Little Rock Nine crisis at Central High School in Little Rock defined Arkansas as a state which was resistant to racial integration for many years and in the minds of many people, it also renewed the stereotype which portrayed Arkansas as a racist state. Frequently, the Little Rock Nine crisis and similar events are the only references to the state which are mentioned in history books, thus forming the opinions of many and perpetuating the state's negative reputation.
Southern dialect in Arkansas
Many Arkansans speak with a Southern dialect or accent, although it is generally characterized as an Upper South accent similar to that of neighboring Oklahoma and Texas, in contrast to the accent of the Deep South accent prevalent in southeastern Arkansas including the Arkansas Delta. The accent is an important method for Arkansans to identify themselves with the Southern culture, and is commonly used by those from other regions to link Arkansas to the illiterate, uneducated Southern stereotype.Lippi-Green 1997, p. 212.
Anecdotes of Northern accent-holders disrespecting and dismissing the intelligence of those with Southern dialects are largely the result of popular culture's portrayal of the South, including Gone With the Wind, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Deliverance.Lippi-Green 1997, pp. 209–210. Rosina Lippi, author and holder of a PhD in linguistics, has commented that Northerners use the link to ignorant, lazy Southerners to denigrate the South. Since Southerners are a group connected by a common culture and history rather than a race defined by ethnic characteristics, the North uses the Southern accent to appeal to stereotypes of the region that are otherwise uncomfortable topics, such as racism.Lippi-Green 1997, pp. 215–216. The belittlement of Southern dialect speakers has been effective to the point at which classes on losing one's Southern accent are offered for those looking to move and work in the North.
Food and drink
Meats, poultry, fish and seafood
Arkansas lies among three well-known barbecue regions: Memphis, Texas, and Kansas City, and has a mixture of styles across the state rather than a distinct "Arkansas style". This combination is sometimes known as the "Mid-South style".. Much of the Arkansas Delta was settled by migrants from Tennessee and Virginia, who brought their barbecue traditions to Arkansas. Independence Day barbecues are described in Arkansas as early as 1821, prior to statehood.. In the Delta, barbecues were community events, eventually coopted by politicians seeking to meet voters. Antebellum pit barbecues in Arkansas were often established around trenches dug in a clearing in the woods, filled with oak and hickory burned down to hot coals, tended by slaves, and served whatever animals the community was willing to offer, including cows, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, deer, wild turkey and possums.. Slaves also hosted their own barbecues on plantations, though the practice was significantly curbed after Gabriel's Rebellion and the Nat Turner's Rebellion..
The smoked meat tradition was very important to early settlers to preserve meat, as the smokehouse was one of the Arkansas settler's most important outbuildings.. Hog hunts and pig roasts were community events in early Arkansas..
Popular restaurant dishes include pulled pork and chicken sandwiches, brisket, and ribs served with traditional side dishes. BBQ chicken is especially prominent in the Ozarks region, which has a long history of poultry production. Some BBQ restaurants, such as McClard's Bar-B-Q in Hot Springs, are also known for hot tamales (often called "delta style tamales" in the Arkansas delta).
Other traditional meat entrees include hamburger steak with gravy and onions and fried dishes (chicken fried steak, fried chicken, catfish).
Side dishes and condiments Louis Jordan of Brinkley, Arkansas, was known as the King of the Jukebox from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Several of his songs reference traditional dishes served in Arkansas, including charting singles "Beans and Corn Bread" and "Cole Slaw (Sorghum Switch)". Traditional side dishes to accompany entrees include corn bread, greens, potato dishes (baked potato or French fries), macaroni and cheese, salads (fruit, garden, Jello, pasta or potato), coleslaw, corn, and a variety of fried vegetables (such as okra or pickles).
Cheese dip, sometimes referred to as queso, was created at Mexico Chiquito in North Little Rock, Arkansas. Little Rock hosts the annual World Cheese Dip Championship, and restaurants across Central Arkansas offer special recipes to diners. The Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism's Cheese Dip Trail has 19 stops across the state. Arkansas cheese dip won a blind taste test against Texas-style queso among United States Senate Republicans in 2016, following a feature about Arkansas's cheese dip heritage in The Wall Street Journal.
Sweets Early Arkansas settlers relied on honey bee honey and sorghum for sweetening food, with store-bought sugar or candy used only rarely. Settlers would "course the bees" to their hive, retrieve the hive to their farm, and store the bees in a bee gum in a black gum tree.. Almost every early farmer had a patch of sorghum to make sorghum molasses for use as a sweetener when honey ran out.. Fall sorghum harvests led to meetings at the community sorghum mill, which doubled as community events..
Sugar maples can be found in the hills and hollers of the Ozarks, where people collect sap (although commonly called "water" in the area) from the trees in a method similar to Vermont or Canada. Although dependent upon weather conditions, January and February are generally the only window when this type of sap harvesting is feasible due to the warm Arkansas climate. This water is harvested and boiled, traditionally in large cast iron pots, usually requiring approximately of water to produce of syrup. For many in the Ozarks, this is a family tradition involving camping in the woods among the trees or other family gatherings. The Ozarks also carries a tradition of wild foraging black walnuts in October, with foragers bringing nuts to hulling centers where they are paid by weight.
Restaurants Little Rock's Lassis Inn was a meeting place for civil rights leaders in the 1950s and 60s, including Daisy Bates, while they were planning efforts such as the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School. In 2017 it was among the three inaugural inductees into the Arkansas Food Hall of Fame, along with Rhoda's Famous Hot Tamales and Jones Bar-B-Q Diner. In 2020, it was named an America's Classic by the James Beard Foundation.
Arts
Architecture The architecture of Arkansas comes from a wide variety of sources. Architecture can be divided into two main branches: folk houses and structures in a traditional sense and buildings built in a specific style to follow a trend or explore a new style.
Vernacular architecture