Cultural Regions of the United States : map

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I have no idea where people who make this garbage get their info.

First, I see nothing "cultural" about these designations, these are regional designations.

I've lived or worked in quite a few of the places listed, and pretty much every one of those is inaccurate.

The "Chesapeake" label - I've never once heard that term used to describe that region, and I have family and friends who grew up there, and I've spent a lot of time there. If someone were to say "Chesapeake" they'd be asked what region of the Chesapeake they're referring to, as it's that large body of water there - the largest estuary in the world, if I remember right, or if they were referring to Chesapeake City, or just the Bay.

What's labeled the Gulf Coast of Florida, most people would call the Panhandle (which is considered part of the Gulf Coast, just has its own designation), with the rest of the Gulf Coast extending down the entire... Gulf Coast of Florida, which measures in the thousands of miles.

These maps keep showing up, and it's like they're done by someone who's never even read about any of the places, or looked at an actual map.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

What about the unlabelled grey "dread zone" between the pacific and midwest areas? That's accurate, right?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Oh right, they marked that.

It's real, yeah. Don't go there. Wish I didn't.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Chesapeake just means "people who know that crabs are meant to be steamed, not boiled."

In my experience this is a surprisingly sharp cultural divide among places where eating crabs is common.

[–] Maggoty 23 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

The people who made this do not understand American cultural regions. The top level general ones are pretty well known. North East, Mid East, South East, Appalachia, Mid West, Great Plains, Bible Belt, Rockies, South West, SoCal, Valley, North West.

If you want to drill down that's fine but the borders here make no sense at all.

[–] johannesvanderwhales 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

The "interior" region especially makes no sense. Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, North Dakota? Pretty much all of those places have wildly different culture from one another.

[–] Maggoty 3 points 3 months ago

The differences between Arizona and Nebraska alone are enough to invalidate this.

[–] HomerianSymphony 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)

This is Guam erasure.

[–] FlyingSquid 8 points 3 months ago

Could be worse. Could be-

[–] edgemaster72 14 points 3 months ago (1 children)

From an outside perspective, I'm not sure Alaska and the rest of the Pacific have much in common culturally. Same for various areas of the "Interior".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Alaska... is weird. It consists of a few city's and an enormous amount of very sparely populated land, it has no income tax on individuals and literally pays its residents.

[+] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago

The fact that these are supposed to be cultural categories and it doesn't distinguish Appalachia is enough for me to discount this as total nonsense.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

Personally I think this map is far better at mapping the cultures of the US (source: Monsieur Z "Utahism")

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Locally 0.3 is referred to as The NYC TriState Area

[–] FourPacketsOfPeanuts 1 points 3 months ago (4 children)

TriState area

I only ever hear this phrase in an American context. Are your states more likely to meet with 3 at a point or something? I never hear "quadstate" or "bistate" area?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Theu don't actually meet at a point, but suburbs in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut all feed into and support New York City. We do have a couple of "bi-state" areas like St. Louis, Kansas City, and Cincinnati. It's the result of our cities rising into prominence after political boundaries were drawn up, whereas most major European cities had the modern political boundaries drawn up around them.

The only cotoes that i would really describe as "tri-state" are NYC, Washington (since the District of Columbia is a seperate entity than Maryland and Virginia) Philadelphia, and Chicago. Philadelphia is the only one of these where the 3 states actually meet at a single point though.

[–] FourPacketsOfPeanuts 2 points 3 months ago

Thanks, that's an interesting perspective. Cities developing somewhat independently of state / county lines. Here in the UK it seems our counties are so much smaller and irregular that it seems like a phrase that's never found much use

https://jonathan.rawle.org/hyperpedia/counties/images/big74.gif

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

It's a mathematical property of regions of a 2D space that 3 will naturally meet at a point, but 4 or higher have to be contrived to meet at a point. In the US we do have the 4 corners, which is where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah, so there is precedent.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

There’s the quad cities

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

"Quad cities" bordering Illinois and Iowa.

[–] FourPacketsOfPeanuts 1 points 3 months ago

Interesting, thanks

[–] njm1314 3 points 3 months ago

I think this would have worked better without the changing color grades

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

[email protected]

[–] FlyingSquid 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

As someone who has spent many years in both South-Central and West-Central Indiana... What? We're the South in all but name.

[–] Maggoty 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

You may be rural and conservative but Indiana is in no way "Southern".

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

As as Southerner, this

[–] FlyingSquid 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Have you been to this part of Indiana? Because you walk into an Indiana diner and you'll see a lot of familiar stuff on the menu that belongs in the South. You'll also hear accents that sound like they belong in the South.

It's really silly to think that Southern culture just stops at the Kentucky border line.

Also, I'm talking about the southern half of Indiana. Not all of Indiana.

[–] Maggoty 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Kentucky ain't Southern either. I can get a Burrito in DC, that doesn't mean they're part of SoCal or the South West. Tennessee is the farthest north I would say the word Southern applies. And half of both those states is actually Appalachia. The Western side of Kentucky is very much Mid-West.

And yes I've visited and lived in the area, and in the South.

[–] FlyingSquid 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Kentucky is literally part of the South. This is a weird purity test.

[–] Maggoty 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

No it really isn't. It's half Appalachian for starters.

[–] FlyingSquid 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Wait, so now if the Appalachians are in your state, you aren't in The South?

Because, uh... https://www.arc.gov/appalachian-states/

[–] Maggoty 1 points 3 months ago

Yes I'm aware of how far the Appalachians officially extend. You forgot Scotland. No the mere presence of them does not indicate Appalachian culture. Yes the area from North Georgia to West Virginia and mid Maryland to Mid Kentucky is a distinct culture.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (28 children)

Being a rural hick doesn't make you southern. It's only been the last 20-30 years that Midwest small towns have been trying to preteend that they are southern rednecks.

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[+] reddig33 1 points 3 months ago

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