Scottish Customs

Customs can be well-known or obscure, old or new, yet all play an important part in society and their study rewards us with fascinating insights into our culture and history. Sheila Livingstone's wide-ranging and meticiously researched book details the customs associated with such topics as weddings and work, birth and death, childhood and courtship, health and illness, food and drink. Extracts from classic works of Scottish literature are used throughout to illustrate the subjects discussed. Customs can be traced back to the time of the Druids, Celts, or Romans, and wherever possible the origins of these ancient traditions are given.

Customs play an important part in all societies and offer fascinating insights into a country's history and culture. Scotland boasts a multitude of unique customs, many of which can be traced back to the times of the Druids, Celts and Romans. This book introduces hundreds of Scottish customs associated with a huge range of topics. As well as customs associated with key events of our lives, from birth to death, it also includes customs associated with the world of work, food and drink, health, animals and nature. Extracts from written works through the ages bring these customs to life and show how important they have been in the story of Scotland for thousands of years.

Originally published in 1978, this book explores the relationship between the Gaelic and English spheres of life, from the life of the bilingual Gael, in the confrontation of Highland and Lowland Scotland and the literary expressions of these. It is argued that the picture of Gaelic society that is popularly accepted does not owe its form to any simple observation, but to symbolic and metaphorical requirements imposed by the larger society. Beginning with the birth of the Romantic movement and moving on to modern Gaelic literature and anthropological studies, aspects of the relationship of a dominant to a ‘minority’ culture are raised. The racial stereotypes of Celt and Anglo-Saxon that were widely accepted in the 19th Century are also discussed, and the understanding of how a dominant intellectual world has used Gaelic society in the process of seeking its own definition is pursued through a study of the concepts of ‘folklore’ and the ‘folk’.

This book gives an insight to what life was like in Scotland during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. What folk ate, drank, their music and general way of life. Clan tartans did not exist until the early 1800s and this book explains in detail the dress and weaponry of a Highlander and why they wore Highland garb. The Jacobite battles from 1689-1719 are also outlined for the reader.

This volume takes a fresh look at the literary culture of the Scottish Enlightenment and the wider impact of imaginative literature on Enlightenment culture in general. Covering key authors and work in areas as varied as philosophy, medicine, travel writing, religion, drama, history, publishing, and the periodical press, it provides scholars and students with a timely re-evaluation of the links between imaginative literature and the larger project of Enlightenment in Scotland and beyond.