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Highland Homecomings Research Project |
| ...there is an increasingly felt need for ‘some expressive relationship to the past’ and for attachment to particular territorial locations as ‘nodes of association and continuity, bounding cultures and communities’. There is a desire to be ‘at home’ in the new and disorientating global space. (Morley & Robins, Spaces of Identity) |
The research explores the ‘cultural flows’ that exist within the Scottish Highland diaspora, focusing on journeys made by individuals and groups of Scots descent from North America, Australia and New Zealand to the Scottish Highlands, pursuing genealogical research, seeking out ancestral places, visiting what may be considered as ‘sites of memory’ and ‘sources of identity’. The study investigates how such sites function as ‘contact zones’ (Clifford), as nodes in the landscape where an otherwise diverse and dispersed people gather to create a common past for themselves, places where they tell their constitutive narratives, their ‘shared’ stories of the past (Connerton; Kapferer; Nora; Young).
Scottish Highland diaspora: cultures of exile and the retention of distinct identity
‘Diaspora’ has become an anthropological ‘buzzword’ used to describe almost any dispersed group regardless of the circumstances of its dispersal. It is, however, an appropriate description of the Scottish Highland experience where a complex and ambivalent history of emigration has generally been dominated by a moral rhetoric of involuntary exile. The narrative of Scottish emigration to North America, Australia and New Zealand from the late-eighteenth century onwards is thus replete with motifs of defeat, betrayal, eviction and loss of homeland—note the typical evocation of Culloden, the Highland Clearances, the Famine, and the ‘white-sailed’ emigrant ships in art, literature, popular history and heritage centre displays (Mackay; Macdonald; Richards).
In spite of two centuries of movement and migration, a sense of belonging to a distinctively Scottish community is maintained in the diaspora by a powerful emotional attachment to an imagined homeland—the Highlands of history and myth—and a celebration of tradition and continuity. Certain regions in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are ironically described as ‘more Scottish than Scotland’. Highland language, dance and music traditions have survived in some Nova Scotian communities, for example, and have recently been reintroduced to the Scottish Highlands where they had become extinct. What is particular to the Scottish Highland experience that has led to this retention of distinct identity in contrast to other emigrant groups? How have diasporic perceptions of the imagined homeland been affected by increased access to global media, internet and travel?
Globalisation, heritage-tourism and constitutional change in the Scottish Highlands
The proliferation of new interpretative centres, folk museums and history trails throughout the Scottish Highlands and Islands bears witness to the increasing popularity of ‘heritage-tourism’ (Macdonald & Fyfe; Rojek & Urry). This renewed fervour for the local and the particular may be understood in terms of a more general cultural response to the perceived homogenising forces of globalisation. However, a more nuanced explanation is required taking into consideration the significance of tourism for the Scottish Highland economy—it is the region’s largest industry—(Gold & Gold; McCrone, Morris & Kiely) and the political restructuring taking place in Scotland subsequent to the 1997 constitutional referendum (Pattie et al).
Scottish devolution: a case of ‘internal post-colonialism’?
Much of the recent anthropological discussion on the ‘politics of identity’ has been concerned with the post-colonial world of emerging nation-states, underprivileged indigenous groups and ethnic minorities in their struggle to assert legitimate cultural identities in the face of largely Western hegemony (Anderson; Appadurai; Bhabha; Said). The usefulness of this literature is not restricted to the understanding of ‘exotic others’, however, and it may also be appropriately employed in the analysis of Western ‘colonising cultures’.
The relationship between England and Scotland, for instance, has been characterised as one of ‘internal colonialism’ (Hechter) and there is some justification for regarding the current period of structural change in Scotland as one of ‘internal post-colonialism’. The processes of Scottish devolution promise the return of at least some of the structures of statehood to a country which has been described as a ‘stateless-nation’ (McCrone), indicating that this will be more than a symbolic independence. As has been seen in other emerging states, the need to establish alternative networks of alliance is paramount. It will thus be important to understand how Scotland’s relationship with the European Community and, particularly, with North America may be affected by the decentring of Westminster in Scottish politics. The strong political bond between the Republic of Ireland and the Irish-American community in the United States provides a salient analogy.
ESRC Thematic Priorities: identity and the changing world
In a context which epitomises the spatio-temporal dynamics of globalisation, the research concerns itself with those issues highlighted in the ESRC’s thematic priorities 3 and 9, addressing questions raised in the sections, ‘Globalisation, identity and culture’ (3) and ‘Changing values and identities’ (9). Considering the increase in cultural and geographical mobility, the research asks whether a sense of territorial rootedness is still possible? Are there more appropriate metaphors (fluvial rather than arboreal, perhaps)? What exactly is a sense of identity? How is it formed and reformed? Why is it apparently becoming more important? How does this change in value relate to processes of globalisation?
The research investigates how modern communications and media systems enable emigrant Scots to question established assumptions about their past and reassess their identification with the vivid, though simplistic, cultural narratives of eviction and exile. To what degree are the journeys diasporic Scots make to the ‘Old Country’ attempts to engage with the ‘complex truth’ of their heritage, providing opportunities for the reassessment of collective and individual identity? Or, as is sometimes argued, are they merely occasions for the passive consumption of marketable tourist experiences? What responsibilities do those bodies concerned with heritage interpretation and promotion have considering the often serious, identity-forming implication of the stories told?
Research methodology
The study of cultural flows and journeys necessitates an approach to fieldwork which will allow both dynamism and depth. Precedents have been established in the analysis of pilgrimage. Preston, in particular, develops a method of cognitive mapping in which the subjective experiences of pilgrims (accessed through interview and participatory techniques) are ‘traced’ onto the pilgrimage system’s geographical, historical, sociocultural and economic contexts (accessed through survey techniques and documentary research). Emphasising the importance of tracing the affective responses of pilgrims as they move from shrine to shrine, Preston describes pilgrimage as a “circulation of people, ideas, symbols, experiences, and cash.” The movement of pilgrim-tourists around heritage sites in the Scottish Highlands may be similarly defined.
More recently, Marcus has outlined a method of ‘multi-sited ethnography’ which demonstrates a willingness to engage with the dynamics of globalisation. Marcus advocates a number of “tracking methodologies” which enable the ethnographer to posit “logics of relationship, translation, and association” in otherwise discontinuous, fractured and ephemeral contexts. He promotes an opportunistic strategy of ‘following’ the movements of people, things, metaphors, stories, conflicts, and so on; an approach strikingly analogous to the way in which heritage-tourists themselves explore and make sense of their experiences.
I propose to utilise some of the tracking techniques of these models, but also to develop context-specific approaches. The (local) Highland heritage-landscape is implicated in a broader (global) mediascape, such that one context cannot be analysed without the other. The internet is becoming an increasingly important aspect of this local-global nexus—the Scots have a particularly strong ‘web’ presence—and I intend to develop a methodology with which to explore this area.
Research Context 1—Scottish Highlands:
A research headquarters will be established at a strategically-located heritage centre, permitting routine visitor contact, community interaction, access to archival resources and a local base for visits to other heritage sites and centres. An extended network of participating centres will then be set up which will provide a general base for data collection (I shall, for example, distribute visitor questionnaires that can be returned to any of the participating centres). I intend later to set up an exhibition of the research findings that will tour around these centres.
Research themes include encounters with ‘sites of memory’, structure of journeys, genealogical research techniques, heritage-tourists’ interaction with other visitors and local people, experiential differences for diasporic and other visitor-groups, narritivisation of journey. Such material will be accessed through visitor profiles (questionnaires, compilation of ‘visitor book’ data, etc.), extended visitor interviews (biographical and genealogical data, etc.), itinerary mapping (excursion plans, etc.), heritage site surveys (interpretation boards, visitor experience, site management, etc.), souvenir analysis (photographs, mementoes, postcards, etc.), participation in cultural events (Highland games, folk festivals, heritage walks, exhibitions, etc.), and liaison with heritage bodies (promotion of heritage sites, implementation of policy, etc.).
I shall maintain contact with participating visitors, ‘mapping’ their return journeys, investigating the impact/assimilation of the ‘homecoming’ experience on their routine life (via correspondence, follow-up questionnaires, etc.).
Research Context 2—Global Media & Communications:
Exploration of ‘vicarious’ contact zones and the transmission of knowledge of the Scottish Highlands within the diaspora. I shall investigate the manner in which the Highlands are imaged and imagined within the diaspora. Contexts include: tourist promotion (internet, posters, brochures, television, etc.), social networks (e-mail, letter-writing, telephoning, travelling, etc.), ‘diasporic’ art and literature, international organisations (clan societies, St Andrew’s societies, genealogical research networks), education. I am interested in the thematic links between university departments within the diaspora (e.g. Canadian Studies at Edinburgh and Scottish History at Cape Breton). Much of this will entail dialogue with an expanding global network of contacts (utilising electronic and conventional communications).
The internet will form an integral part of this context, not only as an information resource and arena for analysis, but as a methodological tool. A web site will be created for the research and promoted via existing Scottish-interest sites. The site will include details of the research project, on-line questionnaires, ‘discussion boards’ and confidential e-mail facilities, permitting both open debate and personal correspondence.
Paul Basu, April 1998
Economic & Social Research Council funding application statement
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