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

[chrisupyonder]

Many of the clans of Scotland are of Scoto-Norman origin.

From Wikipedia.
The term Scoto-Norman (also Scotto-Norman, Franco-Scottish or Franco-Gaelic) is used to described people, families, institutions and archaeological artifacts that are partly Scottish (in some sense) and partly Norman (in some sense). It is used to refer to people or things of Norman, Anglo-Norman, French or even Flemish or Breton origin, but are associated with Scotland in the Middle Ages. It is also used for any of these things when they exhibit syncretism between French or Anglo-French culture on the one hand, and Gaelic culture on the other.
For instance, the Kings of Scotland between the reign of David I and the Stewart period are often described as Scoto-Norman. A classic case of Gaelic and French cultural syncretism would be Lochlann, Lord of Galloway, who used both a Gaelic (Lochlann) and French name (Roland), and kept followers of both languages. Another example of a Scoto-Norman, would be Robert the Bruce, who had a dual Norman-Gaelic heritage.
Over time, several lowland clans intermarried with Normans who moved north, introducing Teutonic (Germanic) Norman family traditions and social structures into the native Gaelic traditions.[citation needed]
The term is used by historians as an alternative to Anglo-Norman when that term pertains to Scotland.

One of the major clans up here in Caithness, Scotland are the Sinclairs which are one of the Scoto-Norman clans.

See...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoto-Norman_clans

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor...o-Norman_clans

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_Sinclair

Some local Scots I know will not admit or do not even know of their Norman origins.

It should also be noted that the Normans are of Viking origin.

Its such a total mixup that depending how far back you want to go, drawing a line as to who exactly is Scots becomes impossible.

So English Bloke, I am quite sure you have every right to wear a kilt wherever and whenever you want and I bet the guy who confronted you did not know his true history.

[CMcG]

<snip>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

I'm guessing the objection of some Scots to perceived "Others" wearing (or manufacturing and selling?) the kilt has much to do with nationalism. The kilt is an important symbol of Scotland in general and the Highlands in particular. In this type of thinking, ethnicity would be an insufficient claim to the national attire of Scotland, so a fully Scottish-blooded individual who is born and raised in another country is actually purloining the kilt as a national symbol. The extreme of this type of kiltocentrism would be a desire to restrict kilts to Highland Scots, thereby excluding Lowlanders as well.

To the argument that this would result in the eventual extinction of the kilt from lack of support, the reply would be "better that, than to have the kilt worn by anyone else." This position also recognizes that Highlanders may historically have included bloodlines from the Gaels, Norsemen, Picts, etc but considers them to now be blended into one distinct ethnicity.

As a mixed-blood Canadian kilt-wearer, I obviously don't subscribe to this theory. I'm just presenting it in order to try and explain the rancour expressed by some Scots at the sight of non-Scots wearing the kilt or even true Scots wearing it the "wrong" way.

[Father Bill]

I'm guessing the objection of some Scots to perceived "Others" wearing (or manufacturing and selling?) the kilt has much to do with nationalism. The kilt is an important symbol of Scotland in general and the Highlands in particular. In this type of thinking, ethnicity would be an insufficient claim to the national attire of Scotland, so a fully Scottish-blooded individual who is born and raised in another country is actually purloining the kilt as a national symbol. The extreme of this type of kiltocentrism would be a desire to restrict kilts to Highland Scots, thereby excluding Lowlanders as well.

To the argument that this would result in the eventual extinction of the kilt from lack of support, the reply would be "better that, than to have the kilt worn by anyone else." This position also recognizes that Highlanders may historically have included bloodlines from the Gaels, Norsemen, Picts, etc but considers them to now be blended into one distinct ethnicity.

As a mixed-blood Canadian kilt-wearer, I obviously don't subscribe to this theory. I'm just presenting it in order to try and explain the rancour expressed by some Scots at the sight of non-Scots wearing the kilt or even true Scots wearing it the "wrong" way.

I was dealt with contemptuously at Lodge a few weeks back because I didn't have enough of an accent. I guess it falls into that category. The fellow showed up the other evening at a Kilted Degree Team and appeared to sulk the entire evening, despite the thick accents of many of the kilties.

You just can't please some folks, I guess.

[Irish Jack O'Brian]

Thanks CMcG,

That is a wonderfully succinct explication of the Highland über alles mentality.

[mookien]

Dale and chrisupyonder: That's very interesting, though I suspect you would use a different adjective. I had never heard of that condition before. I'm sorry to read that you are afflicted with it. Is there any idea of the genetic source - chromosome, gene, protein, etc.? I hope, and pray, that any treatment you pursue is successful.

My guess is that it developed in the Viking population from the recoil shock of centuries of chopping off peoples heads with those Dane axes. ;-)

[Chirs]

Now that we're well and truly into the realisation that we're all of 'mixed blood', let's stir it up a bit.

One of my favourite things to tell 'racial enthusiasts' is that, if you're of European extraction, your ancestors are probably from India. It appears, from archeological records, that a large migration from the northern part of India happened some 10,000 years ago bringing the Aryan people to (what we today call) Europe. Prior to that it appears that the Aryans may have originated in the Middle East. The end result of the migration is: all of us Europeans are of Indian/Iranian extraction.

There is no chance that anyone is a pure anything. It doesn't exist. Those who make racial claims of any kind are making political statements and that is a horse of a different colour.

(It is entertaining to join those who chant "Aryan Power" with "Power to the Brown People".)

[chrisupyonder]

Dale and chrisupyonder: That's very interesting, though I suspect you would use a different adjective. I had never heard of that condition before. I'm sorry to read that you are afflicted with it. Is there any idea of the genetic source - chromosome, gene, protein, etc.? I hope, and pray, that any treatment you pursue is successful.

My guess is that it developed in the Viking population from the recoil shock of centuries of chopping off peoples heads with those Dane axes. ;-)

Ha! Ha! I do (err not) habitually chop peoples heads off!
It is not painfull and I do not intend to seek any cure as I am now 65. Its just that I cannot flatten my hand out and is only slightly painfull if I try to force it. But it may prove my Viking/Norman/Scottish ancestry of which I am proud. I am currently reading A Brief History of The Vikings by Jonathan Clements. The Last Pagans or the First Modern Europeans?

A very interesting book.

[Cherub]

I hereby declare that non-Americans* are "not allowed" to wear blue-jeans and baseball caps!

*Canadians count as "Americans"....

now deems fighting words...I will definitely not be counted as an American
thank you very much

although you probably meant it as a compliment.

see anybody can be a jerk, if they don't have a social filter..i just turned mine off for a second and you see what happens.

people without said filter should be locked away with all the others with the same problem, in about a week they would all be dead and good riddance.

[CDNSushi]

I was approached by a kilting expert who informed me that I was NOT ALLOWED to wear a kilt unless I was Scottish. He also told me that he was Scottish and therefore knew this for a fact. Whereas I was English and didn't.

Hindsight is 20/20 but it would have been most entertaining, if you had just mustered the most sarcastically "proper" English accent you could (in the style of a most exaggerated Sherlock Holmes), and exclaimed: "By God, sir! You are correct! Quickly, to the constabulary! I must turn myself in at once!" ith:

Then again, that could just be my own perverse sense of schadenfreude talking here.

[chrisupyonder]

I hereby declare that non-Americans* are "not allowed" to wear blue-jeans and baseball caps!

*Canadians count as "Americans"....

I do not and never have worn blue-jeans but I have and do wear baseball caps most of the time. A very comfortable and sensible headwear. Is this allowed? for a Scoto-English?