Research Catalog

Title

Highland heritage : Scottish Americans in the American South / Celeste Ray.

Author

Ray, R. Celeste

Publication

Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, c2001.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

256 p. : ill., maps; 25 cm.

Summary

"Each year, tens of thousands of people flock to Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina, and to more than two hundred other locations across the country to attend Scottish Highland Games and Gatherings. There, kilt-wearing participants compete in athletics, Highland dancing, and bagpiping, while others join clan societies in celebration of a Scottish heritage. As Celeste Ray notes, however, the Scottish affiliation that Americans claim today is a Highland Gaelic identity that did not come to characterize that nation until long after the ancestors of many Scottish Americans had left Scotland." "Through ethnographic and ethnohistoric research, Ray explores how Highland Scottish themes and lore merge with southern regional myths and identities to produce a unique style of commemoration and a complex sense of identity for Scottish Americans in the South. In the process, she challenges those who argue that ethnicity is tethered to race and that celebrations of ethnicity by European Americans are celebrations of "whiteness." More than a contemporary response to multiculturalism, Ray argues, these affirmations of Scottish-American heritage draw on centuries-old traditions and transnational links with the Scottish "homeland."" "Blending the objectivity of the anthropologist with respect for the people she studies, Ray asks how and why we use memories of our ancestral pasts to provide a sense of identity and community in the present. In so doing, she offers an original and insightful examination of what it means to be Scottish in America."--Jacket.

Subject

• Highland games > Social aspects > Southern States
• North Carolina > Ethnic relations
• Scottish Americans > Southern States > Ethnic identity
• Scottish Americans > Southern States > Folklore
• Scottish Americans > Southern States > Social life and customs
• Southern States > Ethnic relations

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [235]-249) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Ch. 1. Highlandism and Scottish Identity: The Origins of Contemporary Ethnic Expression -- Ch. 2. Scottish Heritage and Revival in North Carolina -- Ch. 3. Kith and Clan in the Scottish-American Community -- Ch. 4. The Brigadoon of the Scottish-American Community: Scottish Highland Games and Gatherings -- Ch. 5. Heritage Pilgrimage and a Sense for Scottish Places -- Ch. 6. Warrior Scots -- Ch. 7. Scottish Heritage, Southern Style.

ISBN

• 0807825972 (alk. paper)
• 0807849138 (pbk. : alk. paper)

LCCN

^^^00060722^

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library