Attitudes To The Kilt.

[philibeg]

Well, some Scots love to lambaste North Americans by using the word Brigadoonery. It indicates, as far as I understand it, the slightly deranged mental state of someone only interested in Hollywood's version of Scotland in the days of yore; of kilts, pipes and castles...I can understand that modern Scots want their country to be taken seriously as a real place with real problems and real people in it, not as a backdrop for the fantasies of tourists...the Dutch are also tired of Hans Brinker, windmills, tulips and clogs. However, the Scots themselves started brigadoonery in the early 19th century, when King George came up north and got treated to a fairytale celebration in kilts, so they really only have themselves to blame! But nationalism of this sort was in the air in the 19th century, Scotland was certainly no exception...

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Very often the language that we use tends to reenforce the idea that one has to be "entitled" to a tartan to wear it -- even those of us that know better.

Just listed to this common conversation that I have nearly every day (emphasizing certain words):

Someone strolls into the museum and comes up to me at the front desk:
MR. ADAMS: My name is Adams. Do I belong to a clan? What is my tartan?
ME: Well, the name Adams is counted as a sept (or associated family) of the clan Gordon. [pulling out a set of swatch books and flipping it open]. This is the Gordon tartan. Since you are part of the clan, this would be your tartan.
MR. ADAMS: Hey, so that is my tartan! Neat! What are these other Gordon tartans?
ME: Well this is the standard Gordon clan tartan. You can get that in the modern, ancient, or weathered colors [I explain the difference, but that's too long to go into here]. Then you have the dress Gordon, the Old Gordon, and the Red Gordon.
MR. ADAMS: So how do I know which one is mine?
ME: They are all Clan Gordon tartans. They all represent your clan. So you can wear any of them you like.

Did you catch that? Nothing I said there was wrong, per se. But the man is asking me what is "my" tartan, which one "can I wear?" And I am telling him, this is "your" tartan, you "can" wear this one. The implicit message there is that all the other tartans are not yours and you cannot wear them.

I never said that outright, and I never would tell someone, no you can't wear that tartan. But if this person already had the idea that you are only entitled to wear certain tartans, nothing I said here would have corrected that. Indeed, unless this man and I had the time for a lengthy conversation on tartans (which he may not even be interested in), his assumption would go uncorrected.

And I have conversations like this several times every day!
Aye,
Matt

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Another post on the topic of ethnic or racial purity. When I get someone who tells me that they are "pure Scot" I think, big deal -- all that means is that you are a mix of Gaelic, Pictish, Norse, and Anglo-Saxon. How is that "pure?"

Now all of my own ancestors I have been able to trace back have been from either Scotland, England, or Ireland. I consider that to be pretty "pure" for a family that has been in the US for over 200 years. But so what? My wife's heritage is Irish, German, and French on her dad's side and Lebanese by way of Colombia on her mother's side. My kids have all that running through their veins -- but to look at them they all look Swedish!

Anyway, what does it all matter? We like to think of America as this great big melting pot where the ethnic groups mix. But we are not so unique, you have a certain degree of this in all countries. What ethnic group do you identify with, then, when you have all these different possibilities? Well, whatever you choose to, really. All of my wife's mother's family is hispanic. Does she consider herself hispanic? No. Not only does she not look hispanic, she doesn't speak the language very well, and since her father is not hispanic, she grew up in a very "American" household. She just doesn't identify herself that way.

A lot of people here in the states with just a little bit of Scottish blood will claim that as their ethnic identity. Why? Because Scottish culture is so colorful. As I said, I also have English and Irish heritage, which I am proud of. But I most readily identify with my Scottish heritage. There is just so much more to the culture. I can wear the kilt, I can go to the Highland Games, I can celebrate Burns Night, I can join the St. Andrews Society, etc. What do I do to celebrate my English heritage, drink warm beer? (That was said tongue-in-cheek, lest I get any angry letters from Englishmen!)

Simply put, the Scots are more colorful, and should take some pride in the fact that people with only a drop of Scottish blood want to identify with them. Besides, as I tell people, it's not whether you have Scottish blood, its whether you have a Scottish heart.

I have another story about Scots-Cherokee intermarriage, but that will have to wait for another post!
Matt

[philibeg]

Well, Matt, you could take up Morris Dancing!! I can see the ribbons floating, hear the clatter of sticks, the jingling bells....

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Time for my Cherokee story. I live near Cherokee, and to the Cherokee people, being "pure blood" is about as important as it is to any ethnic group. So we will sometimes get Cherokee people in to our museum, to see the exhibit we have on Scots-Cherokee relations.

There was a lot of intermarriage between the Scots and the Cherokee, but sometimes they doubt me. Aside from pointing out that their most famous cheif, John Ross, was 7/8 Scottish and 1/8 Cherokee, I tell the following story.

First I ask if anyone is or knows anyone named Bushyhead. It's not an uncommon Cherokee surname, and people always raise their hands. Then I tell the story of John Stuart, a Scottish trader, who came to this area in the 1700's and married a Cherokee wife. Their children were accepted as Cherokee, because your descent in their culture is traced through your mother's line. But they inherited their Scottish father's curly red hair. So people called them Bushy-head. That stuck as the surname, and, like I said, it is still found in use today. So all those people named Bushyhead, I say, are descended from the Scottish trader John Stuart.

I used to have arguments with an old girlfriend of my brother's, who was Cherokee and claimed to be full-blood. "C'mon," I'd say, "you don't think you have any Scottish blood in you at all?" She'd emphatically tell me she was pure blood Cherokee.

Finally one day I pushed her by saying, "If you are full blood, where do you think that red tint in your hair comes from?"

Without missing a beat she told me, "A bottle."

:-) So, like I said, never make assumptions.

Matt

[KiltedBishop]

Now all of my own ancestors I have been able to trace back have been from either Scotland, England, or Ireland. I consider that to be pretty "pure" for a family that has been in the US for over 200 years. But so what? My wife's heritage is Irish, German, and French on her dad's side and Lebanese by way of Colombia on her mother's side. My kids have all that running through their veins -- but to look at them they all look Swedish!

Hey Matt you should convert them to judism...do you have any idea the number of scholarships they would qualify for???? you would never have to pay a cent for college. LOL

[motorman4life]

I've just checked the mackenzie website
http://www.clan-mackenzie.org.uk/
and the president of the association is a Dr. Ian Blake -who of course using the Mackenzie rules would not be allowed to wear the Tartan of the association that he is president of!!! not being a Mackenzie or Blake not being a sept!! very inconvenient!

According to Electric Scotland at http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...phabetical.htm, Blake is a sept of Lamont. What a joke! Dr. Ian Blake is the President of the Clan MacKenzie Society and he is not even a MacKenzie! The Vice President is Hugh Courtney. Also not a MacKenzie sept. They also have Clan Committee members that have a hyphenated last name indicating they are claiming maternal affiliation, such as Brian MacKenzie-Hanson, the Clan MacKenzie webmaster.

I'll lay you odds that ALL of these non-MacKenzie's wear the MacKenzie tartan in contradiction of their published clan rules.

It makes you wonder!

[dano9672]

I just realized why we're speaking English instead of Gaelic. The English couldn't take Scotland, so they gave us the 'Clan Rules', stepped back, and watched us beat each other bloody.

Fiendishly clever bastards!

[macwilkin]

I just realized why we're speaking English instead of Gaelic. The English couldn't take Scotland, so they gave us the 'Clan Rules', stepped back, and watched us beat each other bloody.

Fiendishly clever bastards!

The clans were fighting long before any English occupation, and many Scots fought on the side of the English in various conflicts.

Regards,

Todd

[highlander_Daz]

I think the moral of this thread is that people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones!!

Did anyone see George Galloway tear up the US senate the other day? wow he was BAD even if you dont agree with his politics (which I dont) he his one guy that you wouldnt want to argue with!!