“The Hebrides had won a central place in European culture, but one tightly circumscribed by the defining characteristic of loss. The vitality of its Gaelic culture was subject to ignorance, indifference and prejudice. Its understanding of the relationship with land and place, and its culture of community, represented a profoundly different world view, and was pushed aside – or was actively suppressed – in a painful process of loss and conflict” (Bunting 2016: 128)
Madeline Bunting’s travel narrative set in the Hebrides (islands off of Scotland’s west coast, pronounced heb-rid-ees) explores not only the natural beauty of these seemingly remote islands, but also the intense romanticization, imperialism and cultural appropriation that has shaped the perception of them over the years. Bunting mixes history with her own feelings to understand her place and the place of her country within these Scottish isles in her book Love of Country.
This book is not an anthropological text, but rather more historical, philosophical and reflective. This does not mean that it is not useful to anthropologists. Travel narratives have been used by many anthropologists to contemplate perception. A good example of this is Julie Cruikshank’s Do Glaciers Listen, where she contrasts colonial explorers’ narratives to indigenous ones, emphasizing the different ways in which nature is perceived.
The quote above is placed among a larger discussion of 18th century Scotland and its relationship to Britain as a whole. What happened to the Gaels in Scotland mirrors what happened to many groups of people worldwide. At worst, Gaels were suppressed, seen as barbaric, evicted from their land, and at times killed because of the culture they followed. At best they were ignored. However, while the rest of Britain looked down on their northern compatriots, they deeply admired the landscapes in which they lived. Today, Bunting explains, Scotland continues to be romantically marketed to tourists as a sublime travel destination, wild and uninhabited. This perception of Scotland is reminiscent of the 18th century ignorance of the people who live in these places: “The Romanitc tourist’s gaze represented a cultural disruption; it ignored or averted its eyes form the impoverished inhabitants to celebrate the beauty of the natural forms” (Bunting 2016: 125).
In fact, today many of these islands are largely uninhabited, or at least hold very scarce populations, but only seeing the beauty of the landscape and ignoring the harsh history that has rendered them uninhabited is a sure mark of an ignorant tourist. In her chapter on the island Rum, Bunting explains what has become known as ‘the Clearances,’ or the forceful evictions of the Hebridean inhabitants in the early 1800’s.
Bunting does a great job at portraying both the beautiful and the ugly dimensions of travel in the Hebrides. She contemplates her own role in visiting these islands: “I recognize Romanticism’s erasure of the Gaelic past, but find myself caught still within its tradition. I appreciate how it has inspired me to begin the search for place, but increasingly acknowledge that it is a deceptive guide” (Bunting 2016: 129). Although not a text inspired by anthropological theory and thought, it definitely reminisces on important anthropological ideas.
References:
Bunting, M. 2016. Love of Country: A Hebridean Journey. London, UK: Granta.
Cruikshank, J. 2005. Do Glaciers Listen? Local Knowledge, Colonial Encounters, and Social Imagination. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press
The Edited Jottings of an Amateur Anthropologist 