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An account of heraldry used at the Scottish Games in Pleasanton.
Scottish Affairs, 2003
International Review of Scottish Studies, 2014
Little academic study has been conducted into the backgrounds of the men who chose to found regiments of Canadian militia in the pre-1914 period which were influenced on Scottish military traditions. This article seeks to redress the balance by profiling the backgrounds of the founders of the four militia regiments which contributed officers and men to the 16th Battalion, CEF in 1914. By examining key areas such as place of birth, ethnicity, wealth, religion, military experience, and political affiliation, the article shows the “types” of men who became involved in the formation of Scottish-themed militia regiments and highlights the importance of Scottish associational culture in the regiments’ establishment.
This paper explores the heritage, changing nature, and re-inscription of traditional practices. It highlights the processes through which Scottish song traditions have moved from being everyday, unremarkable practice to public spectacle and tourism performance. An historically grounded analysis of contemporary folk festivals and events in Aberdeenshire demonstrates how the content of folksong has become ever more fixed at the same time as performances have been re-signified to represent the region to both locals and tourists. The paper also traces out the processes of the spectacularization of tradition and the movement of individual songs from agricultural landscapes, through field, archive, and edited collection to contemporary folk festival and public display.
This paper delves into the phenomenon of identity within Scottish immigrant communities in North America by looking at one of the most commonly associated traits of Scottish culture: The Bagpipe Band. The Scottish Highland Bagpipe Band is one of the best methods by which to retain Scottish Identity in Scottish immigrant communities in North America because it combines many aspects of community events, language, and music to create a unique environment in which to grow Scottish culture. However, this is overlooked as much of what people think as Scottish relates to Highland Games and the Bagpipe as a sole entity. Through a quantitative study, this paper shows that Bagpipe Bands are one of the best ways to retain Scottish culture both in isolated and integrated communities of Scots in North America. This is done by comparing pipe bands of various grade levels and locations in the United States and Canada. This paper shows that Scottish Bagpipe Bands are an integral form of cultural preservation and give even the most isolated Scottish communities the ability to preserve their heritage.
The Gunns: History, Myths and Genealogy, 2024
November 2024. This text provides a radical, academically based view of Clan Gunn history. Gunns are best thought of as the original, non-related inhabitants of northern mainland Scotland. They do not have an Orkney Islands origin. They were not a clan at this stage as they did not have a founding ancestor. Gunns became a modern clan in 1803. The Gunn / Keith battles are myths, like so much other supposed Clan Gunn history. The first known Gunn was Coroner Gunn of Caithness who died around 1450. His eldest son started the MacHamish Gunns of Killernan line (later called the Chief of the Clan Gunn line). Gunns from the Chief of the Clan Gunn line have existed all around the world and the genealogy is explored in this book. The crucial line is from Margaret Gunn who was daughter of Chief Donald Crotach Gunn and John Gunn. This is the ongoing traditional Clan Gunn Chief line – the author is one of them. The idea that the Chief line was extinct is one of the many errors involved in the 2015 invention of a Clan Gunn Chief as is discussed in this text. This book is an important addition to Scottish Highland history. Further Gunn information can be found at clangunn1.blogspot.com and facebook.com/ClanGunn1 ISBN 978-1-326-87845-0
Heralds & Emblems, 2019
Notes on the function of the heraldic apparatus referring to Emanuele Tesauro, theoretician in Italian mannerism, and Walter Seitter, Austrian media philosopher. Published by Muzej – Museo Lapidarium, Novigrad-Cittanova www.muzej-lapidarium.hr Edited by Markus Hanakam, Roswitha Schuller, Jerica Ziherl
2007
Hunting inspired some of the greatest songs and stories of Gaelic literature and tradition—a theme which runs from the earliest Old Irish sources down to the literature of Modern Scottish Gaelic. This thesis examines the cultural history of hunting in the Scottish Highlands stemming from the late-medieval period through to the early modern. The three main areas covered are the iconography, literature and tradition of the chase. Many hunting topoi appear upon late-medieval west Highland sculptures, remarkably similar to those on earlier Pictish sculpture, which are complimented by the Gaelic literature and lore of hunting contained within Fenian ballads and narrative stories. The apogee of Gaelic hunting motifs are contained within panegyric poetry and verse of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, sustained in the main by a late manifestation of an heroic age. Such imagery reinforced and perpetuated the identity of the chief as the paragon of pre-modern Gaelic society, who was always seen as a hunter-warrior. Hunting themes and motifs are also prevalent within Gaelic folksong tradition. Although this overlaps in terms of content with the bardic imagery of professional poets, the vernacular folksongs offer a more emotive and direct response to moments of crisis or celebration. The scale of these great hunts in the Highlands, borne out by the literary evidence, from the medieval period onwards, reflects a complex matrix of power, patronage, politics and ultimately propaganda. As well as being a surrogate for war the tinchel, in Gaelic terms, was a seasonal mobilising of the sluagh, or host, who followed the fine, the Gaelic nobility. This enhanced their status while reinforcing clan solidarity in a shared symbol of sporting endeavour, by chasing the noble quarry of the deer. Notable, also, is illegal, or covert hunting which masked a complex deer-culture, and marked the familiar tension of exploiting natural resources by the many against the privileged few who tried to implement their inherited rights to hunt. Inevitably, superstition pervades much of the traditions of the hunt, as it would in any given belief system centred upon age-old customs. Hunting was an integral part of European culture, and it was a theme reflected in Gaelic literature, song, and tradition more evidently than in many other European cultures of a comparable period. This was because it reinforced strongly and perpetuated the idealised image of a warrior-hunter, the archetypal leader engendered within Gaelic cultural identity.
Draft for a comparative study of Scottish Highland Games and Swiss Aelplerspiele as practised in Unspunnen BE since 1805, the beginnings and origins and their historic and cultural context.
Culture, Nation and the New Scottish Parliament., pp. 199-214., 2006
This paper considers the images of Scotland presented at the opening of the Scottish Parliament, on 1st July 1999, and Scotland at the Smithsonian, in 2003. It combines participant-observations with quotation from tape-recorded interviews with participants in, and organisers of these events. These include Members of the Scottish Parliament, musicians and, in particular, Sheena Wellington, whose performances of songs by Robert Burns played key and iconic roles in both key events.
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Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore, 2015
The circulation and differentiation of the Scottish games and sports through time and space offers a fine example to study the mobility, adaptation and reconstruction of traditional rituals and festivals in general. On the one hand, traditional games such as folk-football or 'handba' remain closely connected with their original spaces and still take place at special times in the traditional Scottish calendar. On the other hand, the athletic sports and competitions known as the Highland Games have followed the Scottish diaspora in the British Commonwealth and have eventually spread all around the world. While the former address only a limited audience in the original communities, the latter have become famous and address a massive audience worldwide. While folk-football and 'handba' have remained strictly local, the Highland Games have become globalised sports. There is a paradox here, because the globalisation of the Highland Games contradicts the primitive image usually associated with the Scottish Highlands. In this article, I present some data collected both in Scotland and in the United States of America in order to show the changes in the ways that the traditional Scottish games and sports are performed in their original context and abroad. I especially try to show how the Scottish identity is disconnected from any spatial references in the new context of a global circulation of ritual patterns.
Argyll Colony Plus, 2003
Parliaments, Estates and Representation, 2009
Ritual is a key part of the parliamentary culture of national assemblies. Sounds, symbols and ceremonial provide continuity and the reassuring presence of traditional values. Both representatives and represented, before and after modern democratic developments, gathered then and gather now to observe the ceremonial proprieties and, in particular, where the indications of sovereignty and legitimacy are shared or transferred as played out in public view. This is seen most clearly in state openings of parliament as expressed within the available space and geography of ritual. But establishing a ritualistic tradition takes time. The vacillation and uncertainty over ceremonial for the new post 1999 Scottish Parliament, in the light of its medieval and early modern precursor, shows how articulating the rules of ritual can be fraught with difficulties. This is highlighted not merely by the first opening in 1999 but also those of 2003 and 2007 greeting the second and third sessions, and also the special opening of the new parliamentary chamber at Holyrood in 2004. 1 The historiography dealing with the old pre-1707 Scottish Parliament, that is before the parliamentary Union between Scotland and England, has grown in maturity in recent years as source-based studies have overcome the prejudiced accounts of three centuries. 2 However, both whig and nationalist histories retain a dismissive view of the old Scottish Parliament. Whether the Union delivered Scotland from institutional primitivism or the Act of Union was a dreadful sell-out by a Parliament only recently beginning to be representative and barely worth the saving, the old meeting of the Scottish estates is 1 For early modern Scotland the starting point is the slight historiography of general ceremonial. See for example Douglas Gray's 'The Royal Entry in Sixteenth-century Scotland' in S. Mapstone and J. Wood (eds.),
On a final note, I do not normally include accounts of personal experience in the doctoral papers that I write (although arguably I should do so more often) but on this occasion, in keeping with Jan Assmann's point concerning the social construction of culture, I felt it highly appropriate to do so. I recognize that I exercise some influence over the very culture that I describe and to the extent that I am representative of others who share my background, the views that I express may resonate and win the support and agreement of others. Therefore, the very act of writing a paper on this topic and sharing it can contribute to the culture of which I am a part. This is not so distant from the process by which a canon evolves and I will try to demonstrate this with an example in my writing.
This study considers and analyzes the motivations for Scottish outmigration to British North America during the eighteenth century from both an economic as well as cultural perspective. This paper posits that Scots utilized the mercenary profession that had long been a part of their way of life in order to achieve economic security and a degree of cultural preservation. It will also demonstrate that Scottish Highland Loyalism during the War of American Independence was not an abnormality, as some have suggested, but rather a continuation of certain Highland clans and families' adherence to a martial code of mercenary service for land. In order to arrive at this conclusion this study examines the history of Scottish mercenary service and Highland clan political loyalties beginning in the late medieval era through the formation of Highland regiments within the British army during the eighteenth century and culminates with these regiments' land grant based settlement of North America.
This chapter examines Scotland’s intangible cultural heritage—particularly the oral traditions of Gaelic- and Scots‑speaking communities—and situates it within both national policy debates and global heritage discourse. Shaw traces the historical development of folklore collecting from the Ossian controversy through the seminal nineteenth‑century work of John Francis Campbell, highlighting how these early efforts shaped external perceptions of Highland culture. He contrasts this with the twentieth‑century fieldwork of Hamish Henderson, Calum Maclean, and the School of Scottish Studies, whose extensive archival collections revealed the depth and diversity of Scotland’s oral traditions, especially among Travellers and Gaelic communities. Shaw argues that despite long-standing institutional neglect, Scotland possesses a uniquely rich “invisible legacy” of songs, stories, beliefs, and linguistic registers that function as cultural monuments. He critiques the limited governmental support for Gaelic and emphasises the need for long‑term, development‑oriented cultural policy. The chapter foregrounds Tobar an Dualchais / Kist o Riches as a landmark initiative that democratizes access to thousands of archival recordings and exemplifies how digital projects can revitalize intangible heritage. Shaw situates Scotland’s efforts within broader international trends, noting the growing recognition that intangible heritage fosters social cohesion, intercultural understanding, and political agency. He suggests that Scotland—despite its small size—could serve as a model for other minority cultures navigating globalisation, provided it continues to develop coherent policies that value oral tradition as a social, psychological, and economic asset. Ultimately, Shaw argues that intangible heritage is not a nostalgic luxury but a vital resource for community well‑being, national identity, and cultural sustainability.
Murray L Eiland