| Scottish Emigrants |
Article Index for Scottish |
Website Links For Scottish |
Information AboutScottish Emigrants |
This article is about the Scottish as an Ethnic Group . For information about residents or nationals of Scotland , see Demographics Of Scotland .
The term Scottish people is used here to describe the indigenous people of Scotland , an Ethnic Group from the northern British Isles . The article covers their historical backgrounds and roots in respect to Genealogy and the Culture . CLARIFYING THE SCOPE OF THIS ARTICLE The words Scot (see Scots ) and Scottish each have two different meanings. #One refers to the people who live in or come from, the northern third of the island of . #The second is that group of people who came themselves or whose ancestors came into that territory from '' or '' Scotti '' of Scotia or Alba . (Although the word ''Scottish'' is rarely used to denote this historical ethnic group.) This use of the word is interchangeable with the term Gaels . Similar people to the second group came to other parts of Great Britain, in Wales , Devon , Cornwall , and north west England over the past 1,700 years but there, they were assimilated while their proportionately larger numbers in the north meant that they came closer to dominating the peoples who already lived there. Indeed, to the extent that Scotland is named after them, they did dominate. This double meaning should be borne in mind when reading the following attempt to unravel the complex threads which form the modern Ethnic and Cultural tapestry of Scotland. This article deals only with the first definition. For a presentation of the second topic, see Gaels . THE INDIGENOUS ETHNIC GROUPS OF SCOTLAND The indigenous people of present day Scotland are mainly descended from six ethnic/cultural groups, two Celt ic, two Germanic , and two of indeterminate origin.
::These first three groups were present at the time of the earliest historical record, but the Beaker Folk have left no clues to their language. Likewise, the Picts left virtually no written record of themselves so little first-hand knowledge of their history or ephemeral culture exists. Ancient legends indicate the Picts had origins in "the east" ( Baltic , Scandinavia ), or in " Scythia " (the Steppes ). These legends cannot be verified.
::These last two were Celt s. The Pictish Language has been placed among the Insular Celtic Languages , in the sub-group of Brythonic Languages . Analysis of the remains of the Beaker Folk indicate they were also Caucasians, built huge megalithic tombs to honor their kings, but little evidence of their culture and no evidence or their language has survived.
::These last two were Germanic peoples. Many people of the Orkney and Shetland Islands consider themselves more Scandinavian than Scottish, and this is also reflected in their distinct dialects. A COMPLEX HERITAGE The Beaker People were the first documented cultural group in Britain. They were skilled at making ornaments from Gold , and examples of these have been found in graves of the wealthy Wessex Culture of southern Britain. Early Bronze Age Britons buried their dead in stone tombs beneath earth mounds known as Barrow s, often with beaker pottery alongside the body. Later in the period, cremation was adopted as a burial practice with cemeteries of urns containing cremated individuals appearing in the archaeological record. People of this period were also responsible for building many famous prehistoric sites such as the Standing Stone s throughout Scotland, and the rest of the British Isles. Their overall impact on the Caledonian population is disputed. The Picts are considered an aboriginal people whose antecedents remain unknown. In the Pictish heartland around Fife , there is a consciousness of the distinctive Pictish legacy, including facial features. The majority of place names across the north-east of Scotland are Pictish in origin including Aberdeen , Findochty , Arbroath , Perth and Forfar to name a few. The Scots (or Gaels) who came from Ireland, and the Brythonic-speaking Celts (akin to the Welsh) who once dominated the territory south of the Forth and Clyde, are the Celtic nationalities. The Scandinavians were principally from Norway and settled in the north and west, rather than the Danes who settled in Yorkshire and the adjacent English coast. The Norse arrived in the early Viking period of the 9th-century, and in time intermarried with the Scots and Picts. The Angles had settled the lowlands and Lothian, a couple of centuries before the Scots arrived, and gave to Scotland its lowland language. After the Norman magnates had conquered England, they moved on to exert political influence in Scotland. While this was significant in Scottish political history, it was not a great influence on the ethnic mix in Scotland, except at the highest social levels. In addition and later, Scotland took over the Norwegian territory of Orkney and Shetland. The most evident influence on the explicitly Scottish modern culture comes from the Highland Scots. It is therefore akin to that of the Irish but clearly distinct, however, many people of Scotland share much common heritage with the people of Scandinavia and modern day England . For the global genetic make-up of the Scottish people and other peoples, see also: and [https://www5.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html Return to Ireland In the 17th and 18th centuries the Anglo-Scottish/British Crown sent thousands of loyalist Protestant settlers from the borderlands of England and Scotland to Ulster (the northern Province of Ireland). Ulster had been the source of the Scots of Argyll , whose kingdom, '' Dál Riata '' had lain both in Antrim and in Argyll. The 17th century colonists were planted among the Catholic Irish natives, whom they attempted to displace. The Anglican , Anglo-Irish community did not intermarry with the Irish to the same extent as the Presbyterian Scots-Irish community. Since originally the Presbyterian s from Scotland in Northern Ireland faced much of the same discrimination as their Irish Catholic neighbours under the Penal Laws , they tended to sympathise and identify with them more. Although, it has to be said, this does not show up clearly in modern Northern Irish politics. THE SCOTTISH DIASPORA Today there are in Scotland, about five million people with varying amounts of Scottish ethnicity. As well as these, in the Scottish ) and Holland( {Link without Title} ). ANGLICISATION see main article: Anglicisation There are also many Scottish surnames which have become "anglicised" (made to sound English) over the centuries. Davis, Bruce, Campbell, Salmond, Marshall, Christie, and Joy are just a few of many examples. This arose in part from effects of the Act Of Union Of 1707 , enacted under Queen Anne , of the Scottish House Of Stuart . In this, the Parliament s of England and Scotland agreed to unite to form the United Kingdom Of Great Britain . Following rebellions in Scotland, involving invasions of England, there were attempts by the English and lowland Scots, to "anglicise" Scottish culture. However most Scottish surnames have remained predominantly Gaelic albeit altered to suit English phonetics (as with Irish surnames). Thus MacAoidh in Gaelic is MacKay in English and MacGill-Eain in Gaelic is MacLean and so on. Mac (sometimes Mc) is common as it once meant (son of). MacDonald, Balliol, Gilmore, Gilmour, MacKinley, MacKintosh, MacKenzie, MacNiell, MacRyan, MacPhearson, MacLear, McDonald, McKenzie, MacAra, MacNamara, MacManus, Lauder, Menzies, Galloway and Duncan, are just a few of many examples of traditional Scottish surnames. There are of course, also the many surnames, like Wallace and Morton, stemming from parts of Scotland which were settled by peoples other than the (Gaelic) Scots. In 1603, the English and Scottish Crowns united under King James VI Of Scotland (King James I Of England) . The border clans were banished to England, Northern Scotland, and Ireland. NOTES |
|
|