Working the fabric: resourcefulness, belonging and island life in the Harris Tweed industry of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2019 Joana S. Nascimento Social Anthropology, School of Social Sciences Blank page 2 Table of Contents List of figures ................................................................................................................... 7 Abstract .......................................................................................................................... 11 Declaration ..................................................................................................................... 13 Copyright statement ..................................................................................................... 13 A note on pseudonyms and illustrations ...................................................................... 15 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ 17 Abbreviations ................................................................................................................ 19 Introduction. Working the fabric ........................................................................ 23 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................. 23 2. An industry of paradoxes: Harris Tweed, the islands, and the world ..................... 29 3. Crofting and weaving: resourcefulness, precariousness, and anticipation .............. 35 4. Working the fabric: land, labour and belonging ..................................................... 39 5. The thesis chapter by chapter ................................................................................. 47 Chapter 1. Where Harris Tweed is made: ‘remoteness’, resourcefulness and island life .............................................................................................................. 51 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................. 51 2. People, place, and the making of livelihoods, values, and histories ....................... 60 3. ‘From the land comes the cloth’ .............................................................................. 62 4. Challenging ‘remoteness’: perceptions, representations, and experiences of ‘island life’ ............................................................................................................................... 68 4.1. Remote from where? ......................................................................................... 68 4.2. ‘Remoteness’, frontiers, and provenance ......................................................... 73 4.3. ‘Remoteness’, resourcefulness, and Island Proofing ....................................... 77 5. Protecting the Harris Tweed industry, local livelihoods, and the common good .... 80 6. Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 84 3 Chapter 2. Following the tweed van: road stories, productive encounters, and local experiences of a global industry ......................................................... 89 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 89 2. On the road ............................................................................................................. 95 3. Following the tweed van ........................................................................................ 98 4. Road stories and personal narratives .................................................................... 104 5. Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 109 Chapter 3. Time, work and value in Harris Tweed weaving ..................... 113 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................... 113 2. Time and value, work and life .............................................................................. 119 2.1. Work time, ‘value’ and ‘values’ ..................................................................... 119 2.2. Work time and Marx’s labour theory of value ............................................... 121 2.3. Work time, discipline, and everyday experiences of work ............................. 123 3. Weaving work and life .......................................................................................... 126 3.1. Working from home ...................................................................................... 126 3.2. Time, work and family life ............................................................................. 127 3.3. Patience, uncertainty and perceptions of time .............................................. 129 3.4. Time, labour flexibility and ‘freedom’ ........................................................... 133 3.5. Time, productivity and work rhythms ............................................................ 135 3.6. Pride, vocation, and self-discipline ............................................................... 137 4. Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 141 Chapter 4. Weaving lives and livelihoods: anticipation, personal narratives, and the pursuit of a good life .......................................................... 143 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 143 2. Living through the highs and the lows .................................................................. 148 2.1. Anticipation: from labour histories to personal narratives .......................... 148 2.2. New looms, old concerns, renewed hopes ..................................................... 154 3. A life worth leading: ‘local’ livelihood strategies and the pursuit of a good life . 159 3.1. Resourceful lives and livelihoods: occupational pluralism and diverse career histories ................................................................................................................. 159 3.2. Work satisfaction, place-making, and the pursuit of ‘good lives’ ................. 165 4. Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 172 4 Chapter 5. Manufacturing repertoires: the politics and poetics of production, ‘tradition’ and representation ......................................................... 175 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 175 2. ‘Representing’ the industry ................................................................................... 178 3. Shared repertoires .................................................................................................. 181 4. ‘Speaking our language’ ........................................................................................ 186 5. On production: between inherited and living repertoires ...................................... 195 5.1. Shared work, rhythms, and patterns .............................................................. 195 5.2. Protecting the industry and ‘respecting the cloth’ ......................................... 200 5.3. Inheritance and ‘living history’ ...................................................................... 202 6. Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 204 Conclusion. On stamping and beyond ............................................................... 207 1. ‘Finishing’ as a new beginning ............................................................................. 207 References .................................................................................................................... 219 Word count: 75,829 5 Blank page 6 List of figures Fig. i.1. Map of the Outer Hebrides. 21 Fig. 0.1. HTA-issued label over Harris Tweed in a grey Herringbone 24 pattern. (Image courtesy © HTA) Fig. 0.2. Stamping of the Orb trademark (n.d.) (Image courtesy © HTA) 24 Fig. 0.3. Some of the stages of production in the Harris Tweed industry. 31 Stages a. to f. and i. to l. take place at the mills, while stages g. and h. take place at weavers’ domestic loomsheds. Fig. 0.4. Meters of cloth stamped with the ‘Orb’ Trademark between 37 1911 and 2016. (Source: HTA November 2017, personal communication) Fig. 1.1. Celebrated Harris Tweed weaver Marion Campbell (MBE) 54 scraping crotal from the rocks with a spoon in Harris (n.d.). (Image courtesy Harris Tweed Isle of Harris) Fig. 1.2. Crotal (and other lichens and mosses) on a rock on the west 54 side of Lewis. Fig. 1.3. Carrying peat in creels. (Image courtesy Gairloch Museum and 57 Archive) Fig. 1.4. Some of the indigenous plants used, in the past, for producing 64 natural wool dyes in the Outer Hebrides (Source: Thompson 1969: 38). Fig. 1.5. Palette of dyed wool used as reference for specific yarn colour 65 ‘recipes’. Figs. 1.6. and 1.7. Two still frames from the 1958 film ‘Off the Map’, 68 filmed by Tom Steel and sponsored by the National Trust for Scotland. The piece, which is nearly 27 minutes long, is ’a travelogue