Southern Appalachia: analytical models, social services, and native support systems.

It is argued that the analysis of social services in southern Appalachia benefits more from a model based on ethnicity than on more commonly used models based on lower socioeconomic status or rural residence. A theoretical model of ethnicity is generated which covers structural, cultural, and symbolic aspects. Results of an exploratory study of ethnic differences between Appalachians and non-Appalachians in a mountainous North Carolina county are presented which lend validity to the ethnicity model.