An Ethnography of Caithness, North Scotland Kimberley Masson Phd
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Kinship and belonging in the ʻland of strangersʼ : An ethnography of Caithness, North Scotland Kimberley Masson PhD University of Edinburgh 2009 Abstract This thesis is concerned with the heart of Caithness, the northernmost region of mainland Scotland. Based on 18 months participant observation in the coastal village of Lybster and the surrounding area, it explores concepts of kinship and belonging. The thesis examines characters, places, and events in both everyday and ritual settings. I trace the creation and maintainence of community, and the construction and blurring of the boundaries of belonging as well as paths of social transformation. I examine how Caithnessians perceive themselves as 'strangers' in their own nation, thus creating increasingly localized ties that bind. Significant in all of this, in a locality where migration has historically been important, is an analysis of how 'others' and their identities play a constitutive role in the self-identification processes of Caithnessians. I consider ascribed and achieved ways of belonging - the genealogical and performative journeys that are involved in fitting into this locality. I examine the contradictions, nuances, and negotiations that are evident in definitions of selves and others and the constitutive relationship between them. All of this is part of a wider investigation into how people conceptualise themselves and others. I argue that what I have called ‘island-mindedness’ characterises the identities of this mainland population and leads to a side-stepping of national identity. In the context of current research on the nation, such ethnographic illumination of the complexity of notions of identity in specific regions is essential for a rounded anthropological understanding of Scotland. By offering a close exploration of a community based on kinship, this thesis aims to illuminate new ways of approaching the nuances of everyday life. I suggest that it is in the encounters of everyday life - more than in claims and categories - that identity work and kinship are most complex and most meaningful. ii For Angus And in memory of Chuck Jedrej and John Masson iii Contents Maps vii Note on pronunciation x Acknowledgements xi Introduction 1 Scenes from the life of Lybster 2 The ethnographic method 13 Communities, imaginations, and boundaries of the mind 18 White Settlers, creative kinship and rethinking representation 21 Scottish identity, roots, and routes of belonging 24 Structure of the thesis 30 1. Waterlines: learning Lybster harbour, learning Lybster life 35 The creation of a ʻspirited populationʼ 36 ʻThe Boy Johnʼ: Fishing and family life 42 Gender and generation 46 ʻNever toldʼ: on being a fisher 51 Children and the harbour 52 The World Knotty Championship 56 2. Homes and public houses: the centrality of intimate space 60 From the outside looking in: houses as structures 63 Of unlocked doors, un-drawn curtains, and unlimited feeding 65 The daily routine: learning Lybster ways 68 Visiting and feeding 70 The house inside villagers: placing homes in Lybster belonging 72 Children and houses: the epitome of genealogy and intimacy 74 Death and the inheritance of houses 76 'Settling down': household patterns and intimate relationships 78 Houses, relationships, and business: blurring domestic boundaries 79 The shortbread book: community organisation 82 Being Lybsterian, owning Lybster houses 83 The public house as private space 85 On not ʻputting out the signʼ 86 3. Togetherness and difference: Relationships between communities, villages, and regions 89 The complexities of closeness 91 Understanding distinctions: why Lybster is not Dunbeath 93 Jock: an example of inter-village cooperation 95 ʻMy whole life, I thought it existedʼ : imagined rivalries 97 Four kinds of Caithness 98 Playing identity games: Caithness and Sutherland 101 Collective memory and the fight to forget: the lingering Gaelic myth 103 Half in, half out 107 iv ʻBut it doesnʼt matter…ʼ: Caithnessiansʼ analyses of identity 111 4. Knowing your aishan: the close family and family-friends 114 Genealogical memory 114 Finding yourself: roots tourism and dormant links 120 Femly: friends-as-family and their significance in everyday life 121 Newness and the weight of tradition 122 Creating the parent-child relationship 124 Siblings and cousin-siblings 126 Breaking the aishan 129 5. The ʻbest place to be youngʼ? : Young people, becoming, and belonging 131 Widening the world: when rural children become town pupils 132 Village children as an undivided group 135 Waiting: young people, bus shelters, cigarettes and alcohol 136 ʻThe intention is to get youths involvedʼ : organizational structures 138 Finding freedom: rites of passage that open the world 140 The Inverness effect 143 The shared employment path 145 At home in the world: young people and housing 149 At home in your thirties: being the eternal boyagie 151 Pride of place: feelings of belonging amongst young people 152 6. Myths and motivations of movement: Caithness exile and expectation 154 Anticipating elsewhere: young peopleʼs push-pull relationship to home 154 Disillusionment and disconnection?: the idealisation of ʻbettermentʼ 158 Investigating exile: from ʻdepopulationʼ to real-life dilemmas 163 Impressions of exile from those who stay 164 Reticence and reiteration of rootedness: naming, placing, memory and forgetting 168 Inheriting Exile: Children learning to long for Caithness 171 ʻI wrestle with returnʼ: temporality and the transformation of exiles 174 7. ʻIncomers donʼt have a storyʼ : Processes of belonging amongst White Settlers and Atomics 177 Dealing with difference 178 Peripheral attitudes: Scottish incomers perceived as ʻself-excludingʼ 181 Atomics: the ʻsub-speciesʼ of Caithness 183 UKAEA housing: the architecture of isolation? 186 Local Atomics? : Caithnessian employees at Dounreay 188 Pass the milk: the realities of everyday exclusion 190 Incomer children and the negotiation of belonging 191 Other kinds of other: questioning arrival and belonging 194 v 8. Caithness is an island: self-representation and relationships with the rest of the nation 195 Gala week: a socio-political comment on identity 196 Claiming racism, reclaiming roots: a Gaelic furore and identity misappropriation 199 Keeping Caithness: the content of a border 204 Identity strategies: Caithness tourism and marketing go national 206 Waiting and changing: Caithness feelings towards the nation 209 Conclusion 216 Bibliography Appendix: Census results for Lybster village, 2001 vi Map of Scotland, showing Caithness vii Caithness, showing Thurso, Wick, Lybster, and Dunbeath viii This is not the back of beyond … This is the heart of beyond K. MacNeil 2006 Caithness is infiltrated with a palpable sense of being under-imagined. This was somewhere that nobody much had troubled to conceive of. Will Self 1998 …The people would yet live, the people themselves. Neil M. Gunn 1946 ix Note on pronunciation In Caithness dialects (of which there are multiple variations), a common marker is the length of vowels: Broad ‘a’ becomes ‘aa’ – e.g. all is aal ‘i’ becomes ‘ee’- e.g. big is beeg ‘o’ is shortened – e.g. home is hom and road is rod ‘oo’ becomes ‘ee’ in some words – fool becomes feel, foot is feet Diphthongs such as ‘ea’ or ‘oy’ become ‘ey’ or ‘iy’ – seat becomes seyt, boy is biy ‘Th’ is sometimes elided – ‘the’ becomes e, ‘that’ becomes at Final ‘-et’ or ‘-it’ becomes ‘-d’ and a word beginning ‘I’ is sometimes preceded by ‘h’. So ‘it’ becomes hid The glottal stop is dropped in the Caithness accent such that the ‘t’ in words like ‘water’ or ‘later’ is not pronounced Initial ‘wh’ becomes ‘f’ – ‘what’ becomes fit, who is fa. Most nouns are suffixed with ‘-ie’: mannie, bookie, shoppie and so on. The diminutive is created by ‘-agie’ such as boyagie and lassagie. Finally, the clearest examples of Caithness accent are perhaps these: ‘J’ and soft ‘g’ become ‘ch’ at the start of a word. For instance, the John O’Groat Journal is the Chonny Groat Chornal and George is Cheordag Any final ‘-ing’ word becomes ‘-an’. Saying becomes sayan, doing is doan. Throughout, I have tried where possible to use phonetic spellings to aid comprehension. x Acknowledgements In Caithness, many people made the research an absolute pleasure In particular: Carrie, Elsa, Carina, Gracie, George, Alison, Gordy, David, Kate, Neil, Cathie, Alice, Tam, Shirley, Jock, Jan, Terry, Sandy, Ian, Laura, Neilie, Mary, Edward, Martin, Michaela, Sarah, Maggie, John, Janet, Ann, Gordon, May, Zena, Johnny, Jill, Michael, Liam, Jenna, Kieron, Kenny, Dawn, Ian, Margaret, Jaclyn, Andy, Mack, Julie, Gordy, Eric, Iain, Bunty, Bill, Nicola, Eric, Geordie, John, David, Hugh, Elsie, Julie, Suzie, Martin, Stephen, Eilidh, Ricky, Jonathan, Dom, Magnus, Gail, Kirsty, Ailie, Stephen, Glenda, Bryony, Em, Joy, Steve, Jo, George, Charlie, Fergus, everyone at the Inver, the Bayview, the Comm, and Harmsworth Park. I wholeheartedly thank Alec T. for his extraordinary humour and support, and for our every perfect Friday afternoon. My Lybster family – Alec, Jeanette, and Diane Calder with Eric and Eileen Farquhar – deserve wholehearted thanks and love. Alec’s sense of family, fun, and dedication impacted greatly on me. Jeanette’s wisdom, hearty laugh, and love makes her the best friend a girl could have. Diane’s devotion and sense of endless possibility means so much to me, I’m proud to be her honorary sister. Eric’s cheeky grin delights me, and his hard work astounds me. Eileen’s love, knowledge, and interest made this research possible. I am constantly inspired by her. Carrie Gunn – with her quick wit and love – made me feel right at home: for gala floats and ‘Cecelia’ in the Bayview, I thank her. Also, heartfelt thanks to George Carter for our laughter, endless shared stories, and his care. True kinship was created during fieldwork and my relationships in Caithness remain strong. In Edinburgh, Janet Carsten and Lynn Jamieson have been fantastic supervisors and made time to make this project a pleasure. Gill Haddow’s friendship and laughter has brought much joy to the project. My fellow anthropology postgraduates need thanks for their sincerity and support as we shared this journey.