| Society-HIGHLAND-SCOTS The Highland Scots are an isolated and culturally conservative people of the Western Highlands of Scotland. The division of Scotland into Highlands and Lowlands is based on ethnic, linguistic, historical, and geographical distinctions. The Highlands are characterized by such social features as crofting tenure, strong community feeling, and a Gaelic-speaking population. Physical and geographical barriers have hindered communication with the rest of Scotland and England. This is particularly true of the Inner and Outer Hebrides, islands off the north-western coast of mainland Scotland. The area also includes the five remaining "crofting" counties of Caithness, Sutherland, Ross and Cromarty, Inverness, and Argyll, but excludes the Orkneys and Shetlands. The specific ethnographic focus of this file is on the Isle of Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides in the county of Inverness. There are about 500 islands in the Inner and Outer Hebrides. Lewis and Harris is located at lat. 57 degrees 40 min.-58 degrees 40 min. N and long. 6 degrees-7 degrees W. It is actually one island, although the two sections are often treated separately. In 1951, the entire Western Highlands population was 119,071. This figure represents a decline of 40.7 percent since 1851. Lewis is the most densely populated area of the Outer Hebrides; in 1961 it contained 21,934 of the entire 32,607 Outer Hebrideans. The density on Lewis in 1951 ranged from 50 to 400 persons per square mile. The density on Skye, in the Inner Hebrides, was 13 per square mile. The Highland Scots are bilingual in Scots Gaelic and English, but the Hebrides is the only area of Scotland which can be characterized as a Gaelic community. According to Parman (1972: 132), "Gaelic is the language of hearth, home, family, and community. English the language of education, the business world, and various transactions with the larger society." Townships are concentrated primarily along the coast, since the inland area of Lewis and Harris is either barren or infertile bog. This coastal location also permits exploitation of sea resources. Townships are owned, often by commercial companies or public bodies or trusts, although a few are individually owned. The township consists of a collection of individual crofts and communal grazing lands. Crofting is a "system of hereditary tenure of individually held small patches of cultivated land combined with communal use of grazing land" (Ducey 1956: 38). Plots of land average between 5 and 10 acres. Crops include oats and hay for the stock, plus a few potatoes and garden vegetables for family use. A farmer also generally has a few cows and one or two dozen sheep. Each crofter in a township also has rights to share in a large area of grazing land. The communal element of the crofting system is the distinguishing feature of land use and community life of the Highland Scots. The effective economic unit is not the individual farm, but rather the communal crofting township. The crofting system of land use and township organization grew up in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Previously the land was held by clans and distributed to clansmen in a "runrig" system of widely dispersed holdings. This system was also to a large extent communal, but the focus was upon the clan. The clan was a four-generation, patrilineal family, whose members could trace descent from the founder. It was headed by a chief, who, in addition to being a father figure, was the administrator and lawgiver to the clansmen. Local representatives of the chief were called tacksmen. Clansmen were given land as joint- or sub-tenants of the chief and/or tacksman. The entire social and economic life of the community was centered upon the clan. When the system of land use changed and the clan declined, the family structure also changed into what Ducey calls an "amorphous extended family." With the decline of the clan system, the community became more geographically oriented. The primary difference between crofting and the runrig system is that in crofting, individual holdings are consolidated. With the Crofters Holdings Act of 1886, crofting areas were defined, and assurance was given of security of tenure, hereditary succession, and fair rent. Townships are characterized by "primitive democracy," (i.e., all adult men vote) and decisions must be unanimous. The township itself, however, is not considered to be the effective social community among the Highland Scots. The social community is the crofting neighborhood, which consists of a number of neighboring townships. According to Ducey (1956: 52) the neighborhood is characterized by a "greater wealth of formal and informal interpersonal activities in which the people associate." In addition, mutual aid replaces cooperation in economic activities. Before the twentieth century, agriculture was subsistence based and fishing supplemented the diet. With the growth of the tweed industry and wage employment, sheepherding has increased in importance and most crops grown are for fodder. Fishing has declined steadily, while wage labor has increased. The Harris Tweed industry has export earnings of over 2,500,000 pounds a year, and it is extremely important to the people of Lewis and Harris. A weaver works at home at a hand loom. Weavers must buy their own equipment and maintain their own workshops, although the individual weavers are affiliated with mills. The independence of the weavers permits the continued maintenance of the crofting system of land use. Ducey claims that in spite of the decline of the clan system, cultural continuity has been maintained through a shift in the focus of the cultural system to religion. The Highland Scots adhere to a particularly ascetic brand of Presbyterianism. Religion prevades all aspects of life. Ducey (1956) and Parman (1972) contain overviews of the Highland Scots. Culture summary by Marlene M. Martin Ducey, Paul Richard. Cultural continuity and population change on the Isle of Skye. Ann Arbor, University Microfilms, 1956 [1971 copy]. 3, 9, 405 l. maps, tables. (University Microfilms Publications, no. 00-17,051) Dissertation (Anthropology) New York, Columbia University, 1956. Parman, Susan Morrissett. Sociocultural change in a Scottish crofting township. Ann Arbor, University Microfilms, 1972 [1973 copy]. 5, 11, 227 l. maps, tables. (University Microfilms Publications, no. 72-26,,459) Dissertation (Anthropology) -Rice University, 1972. 7845 | |
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