All Things Scottish:

 Material Culture and the Scottish Revival in North America

UPDATE PAGE

March 18, 1997

When I started this project I intended to use the "invention of tradition" framework to mainly criticize the production of Scottish symbols in North American. I think now, however, that a more useful structure to the paper would be one that presents many Scottish material paraphenalia in North America as examples of folklore. The "invention of tradition" proponents argue that the new traditions are without historical precedent and, therefore, essentially bogus. Implicit in this argument, I think, is that the study of the perpetuation of invented traditions is a waste of time. In contrast to the ideas of the "invented tradition" folklorists argue that traditions, rather than being constructed and then maintained unchanged, are a continual process of selection and re-selection. I think if I set up the study of North America Scottish material culture tradition in this way, the dubious nature of its beginning becomes less important and will make it easier to deal with the more relevant question of why these traditions continue.

Any questions or comments? Feel free to e-mail me: rmaclean@chass.utoronto.ca.