Dir. of Scottish Tartan Authority Criticizes Edinburgh Shops

[Tartan Hiker]

I have to admit that when I first walked the Royal Mile up to Edinburgh Castle I was a bit shocked at both the number and the gaudiness of many of the shops. As I became more and more unhappy my wife reminded me of what we refer to as the "Concrete TeePee" syndrome.

Basically, here in western NC, the Cherokee Indian reservation is a major tourist draw. All summer the stream of cars is greeted by members of the tribe, dressed in classic plains Indian garb complete with war chief's bonnets, standing in front of brightly painted concrete teepees.

The native Cherokee that occupied this land would have no idea what a teepee is used for and would probably have been apalled at full buckskins and eagle feather bonnets. They used very different styles of both housing and clothing. But when tourists arrive they expect to see the familiar icons of western movies, so the locals give them what they expect. To do otherwise would be financially unwise for businesses that depend on tourist dollars.

If you depend on tourist dollars you're crazy not to give the tourists what they expect and what they want. The proliferation of the "cheapy" items is a natural and predictable result. Cherokee, NC is full of these shops, but if you look hard you'll find the "real story" in a few shops, in museums, and in the people themselves. So it is in Edinburgh.

Just like my friends on the reservation, we have to respectfully understand the motivation,try to educate those who are interested, and try not to let it spoil our own enjoyment. I'm sure that, with some blatant exceptions as noted in previous posts, most of the income from these shops stays within the local economy.

Bill

[macwilkin]

We have the same thing here in the Ozarks, the ubiquitous "Hillbilly" image. You still see places that sell the tacky postcards with the "Hillbilly" family. Ozark folklorist Robert Gilmore described it this way:

I've always been more annoyed than amused by the hillbilly-postcard image of the Ozarker. You know the postcard I mean. The one tourists buy to send back to Iowa, demonstrating the stereotypical lazy mountaineer, lying in front of his falling-down shack, surrounded by a passel of grimy and lethargic young'ns. A slovenly wife slouches nearby, herself too slothful to shoo the scrawny hogs, dogs, and chickens from the rickety porch.

The Ozarks, of course, has a reputation as a laid-back place, pleasant and restful, and I suppose the hillbilly-postcard Ozarker is just a clever way of demonstrating how enjoyable and relax-lng is the life of a typical resident. The truth is, anyone who has ever tried to grow anything in the thin rocky soil of an Ozarks hillside (where our postcard-hillbilly apparently lives) knows that it's not easy. To grow enough corn to make the likker in the XXX jug by his side, our post-card-hillbilly would have to work, and work hard. Now what would that do to our image?

Bill, your post immediately reminded of our own version of the concrete tipi.

Regards,

Todd