Scottish outlook on kilted Americans?

[Jock Scot]

Mine's a large Talisker, what's yours Bill? Any one else?

[Nathan]

I suppose many(most?) of us are ethnic some ones. I know I am. I know I am swimming against the tide here, but for me "ethnic-Scot" whilst being accurate in its description, just does not cover what I am trying to say.

Why can't you just be, Canadians/Americans/Wherevers? No one is denying you your roots, no one(in this thread) is saying don't wear the kilt, they are saying wear the kilt if you wish, no one is saying that you cannot recite Doric poetry, no one is saying that you cannot play the pipes, no one is saying that you cannot eat haggis 7 days a week(sorry I am trying to lighten up the post) these are entirely your choice. So I repeat.

Scots are just Scots, so it really escapes me and, dare I say it, many Scots, why Canadians for example, cannot be ,well, just Canadians.

*Sigh* I'm going to pretend you really don't understand yet and aren't being deliberately obtuse.

The reason we cannot be "well, just Canadians" is that our identities are just not that simple. Why can't you be "well, just British"? I think the answer is that, while it's true that you are (at least for now) the countryman of someone from say, Suffolk, you have a distinctive history and culture by virtue of being Scottish and prefer to identify with that. But analogies rarely hold up under serious scrutiny so let me break it down to you like this.

In the case of Canada, while I share much in common with Jamaican-Canadians, Indo-Canadians, French-Canadians, Canadian born Chinese etc... , we're not exactly the same. We wear different cultural clothing when we wed, eat different food, make different music and often speak different languages in our homes. We don't have a monolithic and homogeneous culture. We have a Multicultural one and that fact is enshrined in the laws of our nation.

And if I understand your views on the matter correctly, you're not saying that we cannot "play the pipes", "recite Doric poetry" or "eat Haggis 7 days a week", you're just saying that if someone like me does so, it will be somewhat bizarre and inauthentic.

When I tell you that I'm an ethnic Scot, I'm underlining the fact that when I engage in the cultural practices of my father and my region and my ancestors, I am practicing my own culture, not engaging in a fetishistic mimicry of some "foreign" culture.

I can't control whether anyone is Scotland knows or cares about this fact but I am happy that people like Neloon, and the many record labels and Scottish festivals that do business with Nova Scotia musicians, have demonstrated that some do recognize the bond of kinship and shared history.

Why can't you just be, Canadians/Americans/Wherevers?

Why can't poop taste like chocolate? 'Cause that's just not how the world works.

[neloon]

Oh well, it now appears that XMarks the Scot/"Scot"/not Scot/non-Scot/ethnic Scot/Canadian/American/Texan/Wherever....!!
Did I miss somebody? Oh yes - Jock. I think he describes himself as "British(Scottish Department)".
Alan

[aonghas]

And me, Mohawk with some Scottish blood .
Nathan and others, you are what you are bar none, take heart enjoy/express/live your heritage.
Like water over a duck let this anguish pass, Creator bless you. Yoh

[Jock Scot]

Nathan you forget one thing. The Scots are just as much a mixed race as anywhere else in the world. The consequence of that is that Scotland has had to absorb and adapt to a multitude of traditions, we still are---Just like much of the rest of the world. Perhaps we might have been at this blood mixing caper rather longer than the new Canadians have and not forgetting the original native poulation of Canada either, although when you consider where in the world you newcomers all hail from I doubt that, but no one has a monopaly over the gene pool. Not even Scotland.

[neloon]

And me, Mohawk with some Scottish blood .
Nathan and others, you are what you are bar none, take heart enjoy/express/live your heritage.
Like water over a duck let this anguish pass, Creator bless you. Yoh

"For a' that, an' a' that,
It's coming yet for a' that,
That Man to Man, the world o'er,
Shall brothers be for a' that." RB

Alan

[Nathan]

Nathan you forget one thing. The Scots are just as much a mixed race as anywhere else in the world. Perhaps we might have been at this blood mixing caper rather longer than the new Canadians have and not forgetting the original native poulation of Canada either, although when you consider where in the world you newcomers all hail from I doubt that, but no one has a monopaly over the gene pool. Not even Scotland.

I'm not really talking about blood alone, I'm talking about culture. That, too, can be inherited. I'm quite aware that Frasiers came from Normandy and many Clans had Viking origin and that the Dal Riata Irish culture absorbed Picts and Viking and French folks, and that lowlanders have a high percentage of Angle and Saxon heritage, and that a lot of modern Glasgow residents have more recent Irish roots etc... and that all of these ingredients have been mixing for quite some time. What developed from that mixture was at least one great culture, and I would argue two great cultures. Some may divide it up even more, but that's how I see it.

When my family arrived in Canada, they were Scottish Gaels and so were their neighbors and their extended family and their fellow parishioners etc... The viking origins in their genetics was a footnote of history, nothing more. Their Gaelic culture was their identity and that is what they chose to preserve and pass on.

What I'm talking about is not some disgusting eugenic definition of ethnic purity. Ethnic and ethic comes from the same Greek root word, "ethnos" which belies that fact that culture has more to do with your practices and customs than your genetic pedigree. People pass culture down in families so that is why ancestry is germane to the discussion, but Lee Cremo was a M'ikmaw native and one of the best Scottish fiddlers of his era.

I happen to be a genetic descendant of Somerled, First Lord of the Isles, and I happen to be a genetic descendant of the Gaels of Lewis and Barra and Skye and Lochaber but the reason I get my back up when I'm called a "non-Scot" is that this Scottish identity has been handed to me and nurtured in me since birth by my family, my Island, my Province and my Country. We don't just learn music that was composed in Scotland, we compose Scottish music and are tradition bearers.

So I'll say it again, when I put on the kilt or sing a Gaidhlig song at a local Feis, or step dance or go to the Highland Games and watch the heavies and pipe band competitions with interest, I'm participating in my own culture.

I think I've established my point more than well enough and I'll thank you to refrain from taking the liberty of defining someone else's identity on their behalf.

[Jock Scot]

Now that you have got that off your chest Nathan, would you care to join Father Bill and me for a metaphorical drink?

[Nathan]

Now that you have got that off your chest Nathan, would you care to join Father Bill and me for a metaphorical drink?

Sure, I'll pour you both a metaphorical glass of Glen Breton. Slàinte Mhath!

[JohntheBiker]

Laphroaig, double, straight up.

However, as a Canadian, I will continue to celebrate my hyphenated culture (Scottish-Canadian, English-Canadian, Danish-Canadian) and will likely feel more comfortable wearing a kilt in Canada than in Scotland.