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Tennessee Folklife: Three Rooms Under One Roof

"The Three Grand Divisions" is Tennessee's official designation for the diversity within its borders. Referring to East, Middle, and West Tennessee, it offers a suspiciously simple and balanced scheme for partitioning "The Volunteer State." Unlike the drawing of many political boundaries, however, this division corresponds to real differences in cultural geography and sectional identity, for Tennessee consists of three distinct folk regions, arranged symmetrically almost as if by conscious design.

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