MELUNGEON

MODERN IDENTITY

The term "Melungeon" was traditionally considered an insult, a label applied to Appalachian whites who were by appearance or reputation of mixed-race ancestry, though who were not clearly either "black" or "Indian". In Southwest Virginia, the roughly synonymous term "Ramp" was also used, though this term has never shed its pejorative character.

Thanks to a play of the late 1960s, however, "Melungeon" began to lose this negative connotation and become a self-applied designation of ethnicity. This shift in meaning was probably due to playwright Kermit Hunter's outdoor drama Walk Toward the Sunset. This play about Melungeons was first presented in 1969 in Sneedville, Tennessee, the county seat of Hancock County. Making no claim to historical accuracy, Hunter portrayed the Melungeons as indigenous people of uncertain race who were mistakenly perceived as black by the white settlers. Thanks to the increased interest in Melungeon history that this drama sparked, as well as its painting of Melungeons in a positive, even romantic, light, many individuals began for the first time to self-identify as Melungeons. The purpose of the drama was "to improve the socio-economic climate" of Hancock County, and to "lift the Melungeon name 'from shame to the hall of fame'". The increasing acceptance of minority groups by Americans in the wake of the social changes of the 1960s was likely also a factor in this shift.

Interest in the Melungeons has grown tremendously since the mid-1990s due to their being featured in a chapter of Bill Bryson's The Lost Continent and N. Brent Kennedy's popular book on his claimed Melungeon roots, The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People. In addition, the Internet has provided access to numerous websites devoted to the "mysterious" Melungeons. Together with this growth in interest, and perhaps because of it, the number of individuals claiming Melungeon heritage has vastly increased. Many newly self-identifying Melungeons have no demonstrable connections to families who have been historically known by that term, and often they had been completely unaware of either the term or the group until learning about them on the Internet.

Some individuals begin to self-identity as Melungeons only after reading about the group on a website and discovering his or her surname on an ever-growing list of "Melungeon-associated" surnames. Alternatively, one may discover he has certain physical traits or conditions purportedly indicative of such ancestry. For example, Melungeons are allegedly identifiable by "shovelled incisors," a dental feature very common among, but not restricted to, Native Americans and Northeast Asians. A second feature attributed to Melungeons is an enlarged external occipital protuberance, dubbed an "Anatolian bump" after the unsubstantiated claim that this feature appears among Anatolian Turks with higher frequency than in other populations. This latter notion stems from the hypothesis, popularized by N. Brent Kennedy, that Melungeons are of Turkish origin.

Another claim found often on the Internet is that Melungeons are more prone to certain diseases, such as sarcoidosis or familial Mediterranean fever, although neither of those diseases is confined to a single population. The "disease" claim originated with N. Brent Kennedy, who began his quest into Melungeon origins after he was diagnosed with sarcoidosis. His own ancestral connections to this group are a matter of debate. In her review of his 1994 book, genealogist Dr. Virginia E. DeMarce found that Kennedy's attempted documentation of his Melungeon ancestry was seriously flawed and did not properly take account of existing historical records or genealogical practice. Kennedy responded to her critique in this article. Claims that certain physical traits and conditions are more prevalent among Melungeon families still rest on anecdotal evidence, however, and are not yet supported by any scientific research.

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