Maybe I'm wrong, maybe the Kilt isn't 'just clothes'.

[Lallans]

John (EagleJCS): We have Amerigo Vespucci to thank for that. :-)

Some of those derivations are pretty fractured. Here in Nuevo Mexico Gallego is pronounced (guy yay' go). I'm glad we "Americans" don't mangle our language like that. ;-)

Relevant to this whole "Americas" thing, in the long ago of the mid 1990s I dated a young Irish (Republican) woman who was continually horrified by my use of the term "North America", which she saw as denigrating Canada as a nation. This seemed to be because the term "America" was so engrained with her as a term for the USA. I kept telling her to look at a map and instuct me on now to refer to this continent. We broke up before too long I notice.

[Bugbear]

Don't blame me, I was born, raised, and have lived the vast majority of my life in the Southwest of North Vespuccia or what ever you want to call this place. I've also been slowly compiling documentation that the culture of this place has roots, however thin, in the days of long, long ago, even before the Spanish came.

I haven't felt right with wearing the kilt for a long time now because it really isn't a part of my culture. I also don't want to be blamed for destroying someone else's traditions.

[chrisupyonder]

Don't blame me, I was born, raised, and have lived the vast majority of my life in the Southwest of North Vespuccia or what ever you want to call this place. I've also been slowly compiling documentation that the culture of this place has roots, however thin, in the days of long, long ago, even before the Spanish came.

I haven't felt right with wearing the kilt for a long time now because it really isn't a part of my culture. I also don't want to be blamed for destroying someone else's traditions.

As a Scots, English, Norman, Saxon, Viking, Celtic, Pict. I give you full permission to wear a kilt in any tartan you like and the only time I would comment was if you were wearing white hose (but would not say you are not allowed)

[Mike_Oettle]

Well said, Chris. But I suspect that Ted is lost to kilt-wearing.
Regards,
Mike

[Nighthawk]

Well said, Chris. But I suspect that Ted is lost to kilt-wearing.
Regards,
Mike

Which is a shame, because he made it look good.

[chrisupyonder]

It should be realized that many who regard themselves as true Scots going back many generations, do not belong to a clan or have a specific tartan. David Coulthard of F1 racing fame being one. ((He had his own tartan designed and registered). So where does one draw the line. I say NO LINE should be drawn and kilts were worn in ancient times in many other parts of the world, not just Scotland.

What is a Kilt?

The Kilt is a knee-lenght type of male skirt, which became an essential part of the Scottish national dress since the 18th century and was re-introduced in the rest of the Celtic nations as part of the Celtic revival of the 20th century.

Quote.
The Kilt is is internationally renowned as Scotland's national dress and therefore most people believe that the garment was originally created in Scotland. However, male skirts were common fashion in Atlantic Europe from ancient times up until the introduction of the trousers in the 16th century.

In Galicia, male skirts were worn up until the 18th century. In much earlier times, dated from the 3rd century BC, archaeologists have found several statues of Galician kings wearing a primitive kilt which shows clearly a tartan pattern consisting of criss-crossed horizontal and vertical bands.
End quote.

From...

http://www.tartan.galician.org/history.htm



18th century painting of a man from the city of Betanzos, still wearing the kilt at a time when trousers fashion was arriving to Galicia

No you do NOT have to be Scottish to wear a kilt, period.

[EagleJCS]

Here in Nuevo Mexico Gallego is pronounced (guy yay' go). I'm glad we "Americans" don't mangle our language like that. ;-)

Actually, the NM sounding-out you provided is pretty close to the dictionary pronunciation (I copied the dictionary pronunciation guide). There's a little bit of a 'j' sound with the 'y', making the double-l (ll) sound kinda like 'zhay' - hence the 'JE' in the dictionary pronunciation. (gah-ZHAY-go).

Anyway, that's the Spanish lesson for the day. Back to your regularly scheduled thread. Sorry for the threadjack.

[Dale Seago]

Like me (formerly red hair, grey eyes, built large), and probably Hamish, it's likely you are descended from the Vikings that came through the area. Celts tend to be smaller and a bit darker. Of course there is no race of man that is not mixed by this point in history.

Yep.

According to family oral tradition we're from Ireland, Seago being a place-name from Seagoe Parish in Co. Armagh, Northern Ireland (though there's other very definite Irish ancestry on both parental sides). My mother's maiden name Morton though, again by HER family tradition, is Scottish (Douglas affiliation) -- again, a place-name.

My Dad's a redhead, though that's now mostly faded out, with blue eyes. (By oral tradition there's only been one Seago not blue-eyed, a Cherokee who married a Seago woman and took the Seago family name.) I was born with red hair and blue eyes myself, though the hair color faded literally in days on my head and now can only be seen elsewhere if a lass gets lucky when I'm wearing the kilt.

Here's the thing. . .One of my Dad's college profs, I think in anthropology, announced to his class that his skull was a perfect example of an "Alpine Nordic" type. (In using that classification terminology, it's important to realize this was around the beginning of WWII)

And as it happens my dad, my brother, and I all have the inherited condition Dupuytren's Contracture on one hand, an alternate name of which is "The Viking Disease". It's not a "disease" per se but a condition. Its highest incidence today is in Iceland, but it became common elsewhere after the Viking incursions:

The areas bordering the North Sea were significantly colonized, with Scotland, Ireland, England, France, Holland, and Belgium being principally involved. Vikings were present in Scotland for nearly 500 years. They left behind many Scandinavian family and place names that replaced the original Gaelic. They also left behind DD, which has persisted in some areas to this day; in Scotland, for example, since the 15th century the flexed fingers of adult male bagpipers have been known as “the curse of the MacCrimmons.”
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1305903/)

Yep, we's mongrels.

[chrisupyonder]

Posted by Dale Seago
And as it happens my dad, my brother, and I all have the inherited condition Dupuytren's Contracture on one hand, an alternate name of which is "The Viking Disease". It's not a "disease" per se but a condition. Its highest incidence today is in Iceland, but it became common elsewhere after the Viking incursions:

I too have this condition in both hands and getting worse as I get older.
Doesn't stop me kilting though!

[tripleblessed]

chrisupyonder, thanks for the article quote and picture. I always respect everyone's right to any opinion, and at the same time hold my own which may be different. Many on the forum are Scots who just didn't happen to be born
between the north side of Hadrian's Wall and the water. My folk didn't stop being Scots because the scenery changed, and I have yet to see any credible scholarly work on the confiscation of kilts at the waterline.