From Publishers Weekly
Ray, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of the South, examines "the phenomenal growth of the Scottish heritage movement across the U.S. in past decades" and presents it as a case study in how American ethnic identity is formed over time. Interestingly, for instance, Ray notes that the movement is dominated by "highlandism," the phenomenon whereby Scottish Americans, regardless of their ancestral region, "claim a Highland Scots identity constructed in the 19th century through romanticism, militarism and tourism." A preponderance of Scottish societies, games, cultural events, military reenactments and venues for the study of genealogy and clan traditions exist in the South, where Scots have settled for centuries. Indeed, according to Ray, the "memory of Scottish ancestral tradition has merged with that of the Southern experience." Founded in 1955, North Carolina's Grandfather Mountain Highland Games annually draws crowds of 30,000. Half of all Scottish societies and one-third of the 200 U.S. clan gatherings and festivals are located in the South. After nine years of participating in and interviewing at community events, Ray studies the identity politics borne out in the attire, oral traditions, publications, clan pride, the role of women, songs and dances, heritage dinners, game innovations, displays of weaponry and other Scotticisms encouraged by the movement, as well as by film and TV (Braveheart; Highlander) and by Scotland's tourism campaign in this country. The book is a curious combination of resource compendium, exhaustively detailed anthropological study and astute cultural criticism. Extensive research, clear prose and respect for her subjects will win this authoritative work favor among Scottish American enthusiasts and academics alike. 40 photos, maps and charts. (Mar. 12)Forecast: This book clearly defines its own market: it will have guaranteed word-of-mouth publicity among society members and participants in the heritage celebrations Ray describes in the South and elsewhere.
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Review
Anthropologists, ethnographers, and students of Southern studies will find Ray's work valuable. (
Choice) The strong pull of the homeland has manifested itself in a surprising number of American southerners. Ray's scholarly and readable examination of that pull offers insight into this fascinating minority group. (
Bloomsbury Review)
[Ray] recreates in detail the annual Highland games and gathering at Grandfather Mountain, N.C., for those of us who don't know our sporrans from our claymores. (A Nota Bene selection of
The Chronicle of Higher Education)
[A] combination of resource compendium, exhaustively detailed anthropological study and astute cultural criticism. Extensive research, clear prose and respect for her subjects will win this authoritative work favor among Scottish American enthusiasts and academics alike. (
Publishers Weekly)
As a textbook, this would be a thought-provoking and enjoyable addition to local history, oral history, and ethnic history syllabi, as well as those in anthropology and sociology. (
H-Net Book Review)
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.
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. Blending the objectivity of the anthropologist with respect for the people she studies, she 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.
