This website is a digital archive of materials related to serpent handling communities in Appalachia and surrounding regions. It brings together testimonies, images, field recordings, and historical fragments that are often dispersed, difficult to access, or shaped by outside interpretation.

The aim of this archive is not to resolve or explain these practices into a single narrative, but to preserve their complexity as they are lived, spoken, and remembered by participants themselves.

The materials collected here include personal field documentation, donated content, and historical sources gathered through ongoing research. Each item is presented as part of a broader effort to document religious life where embodied practice, risk, and belief intersect.

This is an open archive in the sense that it invites engagement, but it is also selective. Not all materials are included, and some content may be restricted or contextualized where appropriate out of respect for contributors and communities.

The work behind this archive is shaped by ethnographic and historical research practices. Materials are gathered through observation, conversation, donation, and secondary sources. Wherever possible, the context of each item is preserved rather than reduced.

The archive does not claim neutrality. It is shaped by interpretive choices about what to include, how to frame it, and how to preserve the voices represented within it. These choices are made with attention to the ethical responsibilities of representing lived religious practice.

Serpent handling is frequently represented through sensational or reductive narratives. This archive exists in response to that tendency, and in recognition that such portrayals often fail to capture the internal logics, commitments, and theological frameworks of participants.

Rather than treating these communities as objects of spectacle or anomaly, this project approaches them as sites of serious religious meaning and historical continuity.

All materials on this site are presented for educational and research purposes. Unless otherwise stated, content may not be reproduced, redistributed, or republished without permission.

If you are an academic researcher or a member of a contributing community and wish to access, cite, or discuss materials, please contact me directly.

This archive is made possible through support from the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion, whose funding and institutional support have helped sustain this work.

I am immensely grateful for the people and communities who have shared their time, testimonies, and hospitality throughout this research.

Special thanks to Otto Smith for attending services and conducting fieldwork alongside me.

I am deeply grateful to the professors and advisers who have shaped this work from both Appalachian State University and the University of Chicago Divinity School.

Finally, thanks to my two closest friends, whose support has remained constant throughout this project.