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The Scottish national identity is an interesting one. While not ones to boastful of the brilliance of their county, the Scots take great pride in their distinctiveness, albeit quietly, and tend to put emphasis on their differences to the rest of the United Kingdom rather that their similarities. However, they would not be enthused with how they are represented on an international level, or how other countries perceive them. Every country in the world has its stereotypes but few are as discreetly damaging as the dominant Scottish one. Tartan has played its part in Scottish history and continues to be a big part of what attracts people to the idea of Scotland. It is seen as one of Scotland’s most prominent symbols, but it carries connotations of backwardness and romanticism of a time long since passed that people across the world still believe is true of Scotland. It is strongly connected to a whole genre of thought that portrays Scottish people as hill dwelling, laborers, farmers and clansmen who hold traditionalist values. The thought of the Scottish soldier wearing his kilt, playing his bagpipes and running onto the battlefield with his face painted blue and his genitals on full display is enough to make any Scottish person cringe. This essay will argue that Tartan is a greatly overused symbol that is used to depict a version of Scotland that simply no longer exists.
Scotland is a country that takes great pride in its national identity. We take great pride in telling tourists of the differences between ourselves and the rest of the UK, in particular, with England. When evaluated against the rest of the UK, there is emphasis on the difference between Scotland and England but emphasis on the similarities between Scotland and the other countries. Movies such as Braveheart have ensured that the Scottish public is well aware of the circumstances that preceded their union with England. The Act of Union is routinely seen to be corrupt by the Scots, given that the nobleman, who is widely acknowledged to be responsible for signing it, James Douglas the second Duke of Queensbury, received a very large sum of money for himself upon doing so. Well known historic figures such as Sir William Wallace and Robert the Bruce are hailed as Scottish heroes and their stories are taught to young school children. People of the past who have stood for Scottish independence and distinctiveness have been looked on most favorably by history. Tartan has come to be a symbol that reminds us of these great figures. It is a reminder that we are not just an extension of England or “North Britain”. It is a symbol of what it means to be Scottish, a symbol of a common underlying belief in our country and a symbol of the values that Scotland holds dear, such as courage, pride and strength.
Ian Brown would argue that tartanry has become something of a joke, that it is used not only to express national pride and passion but it also embodies humor. The Scots are well known for their fierce but also ironic appreciation for their country (Brown, 2010). The irony of tartan is that it is primarily a modern invention. The tartan that we know today did not come into existence until the end of the 16th century but it is used to conjure images of a much simpler and highly romanticized time in history.
Tartan is often used as the symbol of national identity because historically, the population of Scotland was divided into groupings called clans, who would own their own varying amounts of land and pass on their family names etc. Each clan created it’s own individual tartan after it was brought back into fashion by King George IV. Although anyone could wear any tartan they liked, it was proper to wear your own clan’s tartan. It was a symbol of pride in your clan. While tartan in its origins was primarily confined to the Highlands, its appropriation has “also helped to translate Highland images and identities into Scotland as a whole” (McCrone, 2001, p135). What this means is that tartan has become a symbol not just for the highlands, but also of the country as a whole.
Tartan is widely liked by the Scottish people though not universally liked. There are those among the population who feel shame and embarrassment in varying degrees at any outward display of national pride, such as the wearing of tartan, or the singing of Scottish songs. Academic accounts of the “Scottish Cringe” are unheard of, as it is a phenomenon not universally accepted to exist at all. Despite this, empirical evidence, particularly from Scottish politicians, is in good supply and it provides a useful critique for the idea that all Scots are fiercely proud of their country and its potential.
Jack McConnell, the former First Minister, gave a speech to the Labor party, stating that he wished to end the Scottish Cringe and he wanted Scotland to enjoy it’s renewed confidence in the wake of devolution (BBC, 2004). Gary Johnston’s list of reasons Scots would be embarrassed to be Scottish seems to support the concept. It includes relatively minor things like certain peoples questionable fashion choices to serious issues such as sectarianism (The Herald Scotland, 2012), which Jack McConnell branded “Scotland’s Secret Same” (BBC, 2005).
The point is that tartan is used to portray the Scot’s pride in their country but the extent to which this is true is overstated. While the Scots are very inwardly proud of their country, they are also very modest, which is not something that is ever talked about. Modesty is not a tourist attraction while patriotism is, so the patriotism is overstated in order to bring in more visitors hoping to sample the Scottish culture. However, the Scottish culture is something, which in itself, is misrepresented.
Tourists often come to Scotland with a distorted idea of what the culture is actually like. They come expecting a version of life that has been described to them by Kailyard books. The whole Kailyard genre has been criticized for presenting a romanticized, simple version of country life were people were unaffected by the main worries and issued that were prevalent at the time when Kailyard was at its most popular, such as long ours of manual labor, poor sanitation, disease and poor life expectancy.
Tartan has become a symbol of the Kailyard way of life that never existed. Thankfully, the Kailyard is beginning to recede as the dominant theme in Scottish literature (McCrone, 2001, p137) but the elements of it can still be seen in popular culture, particularly in movies. Films like Braveheart and Greyfriars Bobby are the movies the world watches and it is where the world gets it’s ideas about what Scotland is like. Most of the world’s movies are written and produced in the USA and as such, people all over the globe have developed ideas and stereotypes about what the American people are like. The same can be said of these Scottish movies. Tartan is not actively promoting negative stereotypes of the Scots but it is not doing anything to help promote Scotland as a modern, industrial, progressive or forward moving place either. The stereotype of the parochial lifestyle is always going to be a hindrance as long as the Kailyard novels are influencing external perceptions of Scotland.
Tourists base their assumptions on what the Scottish culture is like on these movies, just like we do about America. Scottish movies are always riddled with tartan. They do not base their expectations on what Scotland is actually like in the present day and they know next to nothing about how Scotland developed into the society it is now. Tourists and outside visitors to the country are less interested in the history than they are in the iconography and the knickknacks they can take home with them. But they can easily be forgiven for this since our own citizens are unlikely to know much about their history either, unless they do their own research on the subject.
Scottish history is not taught in Scottish schools. In primary schools, our children are taught about the Roman Empire and the Ancient Egyptians. In secondary school, they are taught about the first and second World Wars and their aftermath. They are not taught about their own history and their own cultural development. This might contribute to the internal perception that tartan is more important than it actually is. Vary rarely will you find a Scot wearing tartan on a daily basis, if at all. The significance of the clans of ancient times have almost completely evaporated, with almost nobody knowing or caring what clan they are descended from. Tartan is only widely worn for special occasions such as graduations and weddings. It is hardly a part of the fabric of everyday life but we still attach great significance to it. It would be difficult to imagine it still would if the true history of tartan was common knowledge. In this sense, tartan is overused as a cultural icon.
Also, on a less important note, tartan is not the sole property of Scotland. There is evidence to suggest that tartan as origins that are much further back than the 16th century Scottish version we know today. There is well-preserved evidence of the Hallstatt culture of central Europe producing textiles that were remarkably similar to tartan. This evidence dates back to the sixth, seventh and eighth century (Banks, 2007). Tartan can be traced in other parts of the world right back to 3000BC (Scottish Tartans Museum). As earlier stated, tartan, as we know it did not come into existence until the 16th century so why has it become so strongly associated with Scotland? Tartan was used by Sir Walter Scott to sell Scotland to the first reigning monarch to visit Scotland for over 172 years, the King who would go on to make tartan once again acceptable and even fashionable (BBC History, 2013). Tartan was not a Scottish invention and the extent to which it is Scottish has been greatly exaggerated. The Scots have adopted tartan as a symbol of their nation but few of them realize where tartan actually came from, much like the outside visitors who are just as naïve about the origins of their coveted souvenirs.
In conclusion, the tartan is greatly overused when it comes to defining the Scottish national identity. The Scots believe that tartan is exclusively Scottish when it is not the case. Not all Scots like tartan and some even look upon it with distain when it is used in overly patriotic ways. It is used to conjure nostalgia of a time long since passed and a way of life that never existed. It distorts the world’s perception of what Scotland is actually like in the present day.
Bibliography
• Brown, I. 2010, From Tartan to Tartanry: Scottish Culture, History and Myth, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press Ltd.
• McCrone, D.2001, Understanding Scotland, The Sociology of a Nation, 2nd Ed, USA and Canada, Routledge. P135
• McCrone, D.2001, Understanding Scotland, The Sociology of a Nation, 2nd Ed, USA and Canada, Routledge. P137
• BBC News, 2004, 'I want to end the Scottish cringe', [online], available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3494686.stm [Accessed 9/11/2013]
• BBC News, 2005, ‘Scotland’s Secret Same`, [online] available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/4284023.stm [Accessed 10/11/2013]
• The Herald Scotland, 2012, ‘Why We Scots Love A Good Cultural Cringe` [online], available at http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/bloggers/why-we-scots-love-a-good-cultural-cringe.2012032669 [Accessed 10/11/2013]
• Banks, J., de la Chapelle, D. (2007). Tartan: Romancing the Plaid. New York: Rizzoli
• Scottish Tartans Museum, What Is Tartan? [online] available at http://www.scottishtartans.org/tartan.html [Accessed 13/11/3013]
• BBC History, 2013. Scotch myth: How Sir Walter Scott turned Scotland tartan, [online] available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/0/22756895 [Accessed 13/11/2013]
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