275 Years!

[Woodsheal]

...Then again, upon arriving on these shores perhaps the Darien Highlanders, and those who followed, should have immediately ditched their kilts and donned blue-jeans and baseball caps....

[madmacs]

...Then again, upon arriving on these shores perhaps the Darien Highlanders, and those who followed, should have immediately doffed their kilts and donned blue-jeans and baseball caps....

They might have been confused with frenchies if they started wearing serge de nimes...

[Peter Crowe]

CDNSushi,

I agree with a lot of what you say, and I believe that cultural exchange runs in both (or many) directions. As far as the kilt is concerned well the genie is out the bottle long ago. However, Jock and people who hold similar opinions to him are (IMHO) merely trying to explain the customs and living heritage from which the modern kilt and civilian highland dress (of which it is an essential part) have been nurtured for nearly 200 years.

There is much about American life and culture I truly admire. I even get that there are always opportunities to reinvent oneself because living here over the past eight years has caused all sort of subtle changes to my attitudes and outlook as I progress through my life journey. I know I am not expressing this as well as I should, but the experience of making your home in another country changes you even though you paradoxically retain your essence of self (as I am sure living in Japan has done for you). I am thinking here along the lines of the dialectic contradiction of a 6-year-old boy who becomes a 60-year-old man, the same person but different- or the acorn and the oak tree, the same essence but different. I also think that for those of us in that situation, we need some ballast in order not to get lost in a constantly changing culture which often mixes different ethnic traditions haphazardly.

This is where awareness of tradition evolving slowly over generations of custom and habit as posited by Edmund Burke or David Hume is a helpful and necessary corrective. Note, I said tradition not some fixed period in History (valid though that may be), if only to remind ourselves that the kilt is still hugely symbolic of a living culture held dear by many people.

None of this discussion is about morality or life and death it's about different experiences and perspectives on a much loved item of clothing and what it represents.

[Bugbear]

...
This is where awareness of tradition evolving slowly over generations of custom and habit as posited by Edmund Burke or David Hume is a helpful and necessary corrective. Note, I said tradition not some fixed period in History (valid though that may be), ...

Just wondering, to which work by David Hume are you refering? I'm interested in having a look.

[Peter Crowe]

Just wondering, to which work by David Hume are you refering? I'm interested in having a look.

If memory serves (it's been a while since I read it), Hume's 'Enquiry on Human Understanding'

[James Hood]

Though a true United States of American midwesterner with eastern and a bit of western Euro gene pool, gotta admit, on trips to Europe, there was no "disgust" or disdain" of Eurofolk wearing blue jeans or baseball caps. Kinda "global-amusing," actually.

[Nick the DSM]

Glad to see this Darien "colony" actually worked out.

[Downunder Kilt]

Some more history of the colony is here. http://home.sprintmail.com/~ejb/Darien.htm

Interesting to note that the decendants of the original highlander immigrants fought in the Civil War as mounted cavalry

[AN COIGREACH ALBANNACH]

Woodsheal,
As ever you always bring the most interesting and historicaly accurate subjects to the table! Thank you and also Downunderkilt for the fascinating links.Of course just more proof that a strong and enduring sence of Scottish identity can travel and be passed onwards by Scots wherever they may go.Such bravery and resilience in battle!I appreciate the bravery and inner strength of the women also.

This just underlines to me something that I read or heard years ago about the American civil war and the confederate soldiers.I am in no way well versed in this part of American history so I am happy to stand corrected,but is it not true that the blood curdling 'rebel yell' used to effect in the confederate battlefield charge was said to be a direct and close descendant of the highland war cry?

Also that the both Scots and Irish were quite heavily represented in the confederate troops?

I must admitt the history of my family outside of Scotland does not even go back,at the earliest,before the early 1920's,some coming out from Scotland even later than that,and it may be for that reason that district tartans never held more than a quickly passing interest to me.However the information held in the links makes me see that some of the district tartans of the new world do have real Scottish authenticity,in the gaelic, pre '45 repression sence.

I do understand some Scots who are uncomfortable with 'non Scots' wearing the kilt in a way.If Scots and thier kin weren't a bit insular and a bit clannish(read tribal)then they and we(descendants)would not be who we are.You can't expect a people who have spent so much of thier history fighting other folk and each other to not have a pretty wide territorial streak in them.

However, can any Scot who reads about the grit,just pure out and out balls that these immigrant soldiers and other Scots immigrants have shown in different areas in different ways,still not fathom how this strength of character would not continue to be identified with and celebrated by thier offspring? Those that could not apreciate this,well,they've got me scunnered.They are the real Scots,we(descendants)were not born there,so at the end of the day they have a perfect right to hold thier opinions.

But to think of those brave lads holding off the Spannish in that bloody marsh!If one can't see that deeds like that take the proud seed of Scotland and plant it to grow strong in another land,then to me ,in my own opinion,one is disrespecting ones own people,heritage,and what makes a Scot,a Scot.

Woodsheal,I really love your work.I'm not really sure how this honour roll works,and I'm not one to be overly impressed by swanky titles(yon's glesga wurrkin cless fur ye!)but you are one who I'd have no problems seeing on it!
Look forward to more!

[Riverkilt]

We descendents of emmigrants are still blood relatives.

Guessing that if all of the descendents of emmigrants alive today were somehow able to return home to Scotland all at once we'd be hard pressed to find a place to stand. The country would be crammed with descendents of the emmigrants from around the World.

It is the nature of Man to move on, seek new ground.