Marrying Into Modernity: a Social and Cultural History of Weddings in Scotland, C.1930-2018
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McLean, Murray Andrew (2020) Marrying into modernity: a social and cultural history of weddings in Scotland, c.1930-2018. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/81467/ Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Marrying into Modernity: A Social and Cultural History of Weddings in Scotland, c.1930-2018 Murray Andrew McLean BA (Hons), MSc Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosphy School of Humanities College of Arts University of Glasgow 2 Abstract This thesis examines the history of weddings in Scotland from the 1930s to the present day. The early part of this period saw significant growth in Scotland’s marriage rate, alongside the development of a highly visible wedding culture that has survived the decline of marriage in subsequent decades. Weddings have therefore been a dominant feature of Scottish society, both in terms of the number that have taken place and in their prominence in popular culture. Moreover, they exist at the intersection of categories that are often treated separately by historians, with the law, religion, economics, identity, popular culture, and community all having a role to play in the formation and celebration of a marriage. The thesis therefore treats weddings as nodes in complex networks composed of these different forces. From this perspective, their development becomes an index of wider historical change in Scotland and beyond. Data provided by the National Records of Scotland, alongside published statistics, is used to trace the shifting demographic and denominational profile of weddings over the period, with local newspapers providing visual and written evidence of ritual features such as dress and venue. The local press is also used to explore the function of weddings within the wider communities in which they took place. These sources are supplemented by responses to a survey designed by the author to elicit further quantiative and qualitative insight into the experience of getting married in Scotland. What emerges is the history of a culture profoundly shaped by modernity and its legacies. In section one, concerning the period from the 1930s to the 1970s, modernity is shown to have operated from below, in the spontaneous standardisation of popular practice, as well as from above, in the legal and ecclesiastical reforms that provided the parameters within which this occurred. Wedding culture is moreover shown to have been a constitutive element of community life. Section two traces the development of wedding culture ‘after modernity’, as its prior social basis unravelled from the 1970s onwards. No longer shaped by community or by a standardised lifecycle, weddings increasingly existed for their own sake, with both the law and popular culture placing increased emphasis on the right to individualised ritual. The ‘modern’ culture of weddings is thus shown to cast a long shadow, obscuring the underlying structural changes that have eroded its wider function in Scottish society. 3 Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................. 2 List of Tables ........................................................................................................................ 5 List of Figures ....................................................................................................................... 5 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... 6 Author’s Declaration ........................................................................................................... 7 Introduction: Modern Scotland through Its Weddings .................................................... 8 Prologue: Pieces of Paper ............................................................................................... 8 Rationale ......................................................................................................................... 9 Why Scotland? .............................................................................................................. 12 Wedding Studies ........................................................................................................... 13 (After) Scottish Modernity............................................................................................ 20 Sources .......................................................................................................................... 31 Section 1: Weddings and Modernity ................................................................................ 38 Chapter 1: The End of Irregularity: Official Regulation and Popular Practice, c.1929-1950 ...................................................................................................................... 38 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 38 The Reform Context ..................................................................................................... 40 Modernity and the ‘Territorial’ Church ........................................................................ 43 Irregular Weddings? ..................................................................................................... 52 War and the Introduction of Civil Marriage ................................................................. 59 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 64 Chapter 2: The Rise of the White Church Wedding, c.1939-1960 ............................. 67 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 67 War and the White Church Wedding ............................................................................ 68 White Church Weddings and the ‘Golden Age’ of Marriage ....................................... 77 Negotiating the Religious/Civil Divide ........................................................................ 81 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 90 Chapter 3: We Are Gathered Here Today: Weddings and Community in 20th Century Scotland ............................................................................................................ 92 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 92 Community Lived and Imagined .................................................................................. 93 The Local Press ............................................................................................................. 96 Weddings and Space ................................................................................................... 102 Public Identities .......................................................................................................... 112 Decline ........................................................................................................................ 116 4 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 122 Section 2: Weddings after Modernity ............................................................................ 126 Chapter 4: Deregulation and Decline: The Law and Demographics of Scottish Weddings, c.1977-2018 ................................................................................................. 126 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 126 The 1977 Act and Beyond .......................................................................................... 127 The Politics of Ritual: Reform in the 21st Century ..................................................... 136 Destination Weddings: The Geography of Marriage since the 1970s ........................ 143 Conclusion: Scotland and Gretna ............................................................................... 150 Chapter 5: Wedding Culture in Transition, c.1960-1990 ......................................... 153 Introduction: The Other ‘68 ........................................................................................ 153 Religious Weddings in Transition .............................................................................. 155 The Rise of Civil Weddings, c.1960-1978 ................................................................. 161 Across the Divide: Wedding Culture, c.1970-1990 .................................................... 168 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 176 Chapter 6: From Kirk to