"Now You Can Drink that Alcohol … but Smoking's a Sin": Stigma and the Production of Kentucky Heritage

Abstract:In recent decades the crop that had long been Kentucky's most economically important, tobacco, has lost its place in the state's narrative about Kentucky agriculture, even as its production continues. The product that has taken its place over the last decade is both surprising and obvious: bourbon. Beginning with lessons learned from ethnographic fieldwork with Kentucky burley tobacco producers and proceeding to the analysis of bourbon tourism discourses, this article contrasts the deployment of the label "heritage" in these two cases, but argues that both are case studies of the use of heritage as an attempt to ameliorate stigma.