“Dh’fheumadh iad àit’ a dheanamh” (They would have to make a Place): land and belonging in Gaelic Nova Scotia
Year: 2017
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This thesis explores the way land has been perceived, described and experienced by Scottish \nGaels in Nova Scotia. It examines how attitudes towards land are maintained and perpetuated \nthrough oral traditions and how oral history, legends and place names have fostered a sense of \nbelonging in an adopted environment. Drawing on archival research and contemporary \nethnographic fieldwork in Gaelic and English, it explores how people give anonymous aspects of \nthe natural and built environment meaning, how personal and cultural significance is attached to \nlandscapes, and how oral traditions contribute to a sense of place. \nExploring a largely unofficial tradition, my thesis includes a survey of Gaelic place \nnames in Nova Scotia that shows how settlers and their descendants have interpreted their \nsurroundings and instilled them with a sense of Gaelic identity. It also considers local traditions \nabout emigration and settlement, reflecting on the messages these stories convey to modern \nresidents and how they are used to construct an image of the past that is acceptable to the \npresent. \nGiven its focus on land, this work investigates the protective attitude towards property \nlong ascribed to Highland Gaels in the province, considering local perspectives of this claim and \nevaluating its origins. It also examines the personal and cultural impact of social stratification \nbased on land in the region, namely between properties located along the shore and those in the \nbacklands. Providing a more holistic understanding of rural depopulation, my thesis challenges \nromantic views that frame out-migration as a symptom of cultural wanderlust, demonstrating \nconnections to linguistic and cultural loss and making clear the continued importance land plays \nin the lives of those who moved away. Taken together, this material explores the complex and \nhighly developed connection to land expressed by Gaels in Nova Scotia and provides a case \nstudy of how an immigrant group can invest a landscape with meaning over time.
Author: Shamus Y. MacDonald
Language: English
Subfield: Demography
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2805692840