robertmackayclan

Posted: **11:28 PM - Oct 24, 2006**

Here's an interesting article. It's actually part of a larger article called "This Could Have Been Mine": Scottish Gaelic Learners in North America.
7. Tartanism Deposed
Scottish heritage is celebrated generally in North America with the conspicuous display of symbolic ethnicity, most especially tartan. The exaggerated form of Scottish identity which relies on these visual markers is generally referred to as "Tartanism" (c.f. Celeste Ray 2001). Although many Gaelic learners have some interaction with the mainstream Scottish heritage movement, most view it with dissatisfaction if not downright disgust. There were many caustic responses to question 47 ("What do you think of the way that Scottish heritage is generally represented and celebrated in North America?"), but a small selection will summarize the perspectives of most Gaelic learners:

It's a grotesque and abominable caricature.

Kitsch. It is all show and no substance. Things such as the [name omitted] Highland Games, for example, are ridiculous, superficial crap. I would much rather sit around a large wooden table in a run-down cottage in Nova Scotia with some older Cape Breton Gaels and learn songs while pounding tweed. That, the day-to-day folk interaction, is what culture is. It is not showboating with tartans, pipes, and caber tossing.

It is generally not well understood by many, even the members of the many clan societies. After 15 years as an officer in several capacities in Clan Donald, USA it still surprises me how many people have "Hollywood" perceptions of Scotland and "Mel Gibson" ideas of Scottish history.

The "Tartan Monster" takes the lion' share of money and attention in North America but Gaelic learners feel that the Scottish heritage movement does not adequately represent the heritage of the Highlands. A survey participant's anecdote about how she was initiated into Gaelic symbolizes this conflict:

I had picked up a copy of Morag MacNeil's Everyday Gaelic at the 1997 Flora MacDonald Games [in North Carolina], in order to see if learning Gaelic was possible for me. While I was perusing the book, a fellow in a kilt no less, said "No one can speak that anymore and it was unintelligible when they did." Well, I bristled at that and promptly bought the book. Almost immediately, I started recognizing phrases that my grandmother and grandfather had used and became a learner.

At the same time, some participants reflect (in a rather post-modern manner) that the "invented traditions" of Highlandism cannot be wished away or even educated away, despite the belief that Gaelic provides more authentic ways of understanding and celebrating Highland culture:

Tends to be something of an ersatz, ahistorical identity - more attention needs to be paid to language. At the same time, people have the right to take from traditions whatever they find most amenable to their own self-understanding, and even if what they appropriate is not "true" in some sense they should not be criticized for it.

Mostly a travesty, but it does provide otherwise rootless people with something to cling to and make them happy. I wish more people could turn their time and energy to the more interesting and more genuine Gaelic culture but I recognize that this is entirely out of my power to change and not worth worrying about.

A The illusion of a static and homogeneous Scottish heritage and identity (Ray 2001: 46-52, 86-7) is quickly shattered by exposure to Gaelic oral tradition. Articulate participants did not hesitate to slaughter sacred cows when explaining how learning Gaelic has changed their perceptions of Scottish heritage (question 38):

I am less a tartan-and-bagpipe fan (though I still wear the kilt and listen to the pipes); I am aware that I am descended from crofters, farmers, ordinary soldiers, about whom little is recorded; I am jaundiced by the Bonnie Prince; I regret the loss of our land to economic and other interests that paid little heed to those who loved the land.

Associated reading has shown me the differences between the Lowlands and Highlands, and how in many ways Lowlanders were more hostile to Gaelic culture than the English.

It should be little surprise that those who expend considerable effort in learning Gaelic and understanding primary sources in the language (songs, folktales, and so on) become critical of Highlandism and less invested in the popular iconography of Scottish heritage:

I have a little more of a sense of what the culture is in terms of its own language, its own way of expressing itself, as opposed to English interpretations of it and Anglicised versions of it.

I have happily dropped all my preconceived notions of what it means to have Scottish heritage, and all the material trappings that surround those notions.

In North America, those symbols are very important markers of being Scottish, the most public references to that ethnicity. I don't attend highland games in this country for the reason that they take on too much importance. They are the least important to me, with the exception of the old music for the pipes, the pibroch and dance music for the pipes. The military/parade connection is of no interest to me. Gaelic seems to be disjunct from all the public display, hidden, if not nearly lost in the noisy confusion.

I am developing a strong aversion to Scottish Kitsch and tartanism.

Similarly in Nova Scotia, "most learners who achieve proficiency in Gaelic will shed many of the tartanist notions they may have, or otherwise compartmentalize them as separate from their Gaelic identity" (Dembling 1997: 117).

Tartan is the badge of identity for those in the Scottish heritage movement, but tartan is notably absent during most of the course of Gaelic learners' events. Gaelic communities in both Scotland and Nova Scotia (in particular) have long since become estranged from tartan and kilts (see Dembling [1997: 35-9] for discussion of Nova Scotia). Given the self-conscious rejection of Highlandism by Gaelic learners, many people shun the display of Highland costume at Gaelic language events. If clothing is worn to send a message, it is more likely to be a T-shirt commemorating a past Gaelic learners' weekend or a Gaelic college or concert (or the Irish or Welsh equivalent) than a piece of tartan.

I wear a kilt and dress up for Highland games, and will continue to do so, but I'm becoming increasingly embarrassed at the artificiality of this environment.

I think that the language is a more integral part of the culture; after all, I doubt that many of my Scottish ancestors played the pipes or wore kilts, but I'm sure that most of them spoke Gaelic. I belong to two clan societies and it always surprises me that there's never a peep of Gaelic in any of their newsletters.

It is unusual for tartan or kilts to be worn during the course of normal Gaelic learners' events. When things become more "formal," such as during the official céilidh of the ACGA Immersion Weekend, however, a few people choose to don tartan or kilts (which are, after all, rather expensive items of clothing). The social atmosphere provides the freedom to indulge in such attire, but it is highly unusual for people to ask each other about their tartan or clan; they are far more likely to ask about their last visit to Cape Breton, how to find an unusual Gaelic book, or where to find the words of a song they were heard singing.

Responses to question 39 further illustrate that Gaelic learners perceive tartans and kilts to be inauthentic sublimations for Scottish heritage:

Kilts and tartans are more or less modern, even fake, and take no effort. The pipes do take a great deal of effort and knowledge, but are rather limited in comparison to the breadth of culture contained in language (and lost with it). The language is in danger of disappearing which the other aspects mentioned are not.

Gàidhlig is the heart and soul of the culture, whereas things such as kilts and bagpipes are only superficial amenities. A language reflects a way of thinking and viewing the world, and it is the mind of a people that makes them "a people."

[Gaelic is] more important, I think, because Gaelic predates all those things and will likely post-date them too. In Nova Scotia tartanism and military-style bagpiping tend to move in to areas where Gaelic has died out but where the people still feel a need to connect to something they are told is Scottish (e.g. Antigonish).

Especially in the US, the kilt and tartan are tossed about as examples of Scottishness with little concern over accuracy or chronology. Gaelic, to me, comes across as the "genuine article" as compared to the contrived tartan/shortbread/Victorian version of the Highlands.

Posted: **10:51 PM - Oct 25, 2006**

I believe the study of Gaelic and Gaelic Traditionalism actually helps to better understand our family and our history. It sheds light on the true history of Scotland and helps to dispel the myths and notions that people have on Clans and Scottish history in general.

I know that for members of our family that Gaelic would likely be a second language if one were to attempt to learn it.

We do not know if Robert Mackay Sr. himself actually spoke Gaelic. From what we know, the language of the group he came to be associated with spoke and wrote in English. They used a peculiar kind of English as was common for Friends to do to try and refrain from giving honourific titles to persons of prestige, instead calling everyone they encountered 'thee' and 'thou'.

Our ancestors were not bagpipe playing, kilt wearing people. They were farmers & merchants, craftsmen, ministers, etc. same as what the Gaelic groups will tell you about their members. No one in the Gaelic language communities puts on such a show as one would find in a Highland Games or Scottish Festival that you see in North America.

I find learning about this quite interesting. It definitely sheds some light in where our roots really came from. Robert Mackay's name is obviously one of Gaelic origin. No reason to assume that the name 'Mackay' would be acquired from any other source but 'Mac Aoidh'.

This does not mean definite connection with Clan Mackay as in Gaelic societies as well as other European groups, surnames came about in many ways. Mac (meaning son of) and Aoidh (has been rendered as Hugh or more accurately 'Fiery or Impetuous one') could easily have been frozen at some point in Robert's ancestry as a Gaelic person named 'Aoidh' had a son who would have been (name) Mac Aoidh and then the name was frozen and Anglicised as 'Mackay'.

We know from the DNA tests that the majority of the various people named Mackay being tested showed no relationship to each other which lends support to the statement above.

There is much more myth surrounding the Clans in Scotland as understood by people in North America than there is fact. I'm glad our family does have a definite historical record and as Hunter Branson McKay said 'that the notation of the Robert McKay Family of Virginia is sufficiently illustrious to require attempting to borrow from no other source.'