Reimagining Culture: Histories, Identities and the Gaelic Renaissance
by
Sharon Macdonald
ISBN: 9781003086512
Publication Date: 2020
Review by Tre Seibert
Chapter 4 Review
Agriculture, Tradition and People in Gaelic Culture
Crofting was considered a way of life in the Scottish Highlands. A croft is a word to describe specific farms in Ireland, which were small plots of land accompanied by a small house. This type of farming was a way of life for people in Ireland at the time, and even then was considered an ancient tradition. Crofting was a specific way of life for people, they practiced many values, “closeness to nature, self-sufficiency, unhurriedness, tradition and neighbourliness” (Macdonald, 102). An organization that was concerned with crofting was the Islands Development Board whose goal was to “preserve a Highland way of life”(Macdonald, 102). In 1886 the board passed the 1886 Crofting Act, which ultimately gave more rights to crofters, but also kicked off a ‘new’ community of crofters. The community was defined by “kinship continuity of landholding over the generations, equal rights for all 'the people' (crofters), and activity in crofting agriculture.” (Macdonald, 103). Although it is hard to accurately define was a crofter is, the board does give it a definition, “(The) official definition of a croft operational in the 1980s is that it is a smallholding within the 'crofting counties' with an annual rent not exceeding £100 or an area of inbye land not greater than 30 hectares.”(Macdonald, 103) It is very difficult for people to acquire crofts without being in the family line, certain townships can decline applications to purchase crofts. This made it a challenge to ultimately preserve crofting as a tradition.
Crofting from a traditional standpoint preserves the way of life crofters lived. It provides a connection between the past and the present, “my father and his father before him worked the croft”(Macdonald, 105) It provides a ‘tangible’ connection with the past within the details that come along with way of life crofting entails, such as “fetching the cattle home and scything the hay.”(Macdonald, 105) Crofters were looked at as people who had much independence and people who didn’t rely on the country's imports for food, thus becoming respected people within the communities. To many people crofting isn’t just about preserving an ancient tradition, to them it's a “pale reflection of the past” (Macdonald, 105). Crofters enjoyed the nostalgic past, “It's not like it used to be ... When we started out [1930s] you wouldn't have seen anybody baying in hay. The crofts were worked right down to the shore. They can't be bothered with the croft today.”(Macdonald, 106) Crofters nowadays enjoy the land they have, but don’t enjoy the work that comes with it; implying that they preserve the nostalgic past and that crofting is more than just profits. “The thing is today that there's plenty of subsidies, and plenty that are happy to have them. But there's not so many happy to put the work in.” (Macdonald, 106) In Katherine Stewarts novel, “Crofts and Crofting”, she goes into detail about the history of Crofting, along with the tradition and ways of crofting the land. Katherine Stewart explains her own accounts regarding this way of life, in her other novel “The Crofting Way”, Stewart explains more of her own accounts after living years on a croft.
Bibliography
Macdonald, Sharon. “Reimagining Culture (Ethnicity and Identity).” “A Way of Life”: Crofting, Tradition and People, 1st ed., Routledge, 1997, pp. 101–27. Taylor Francis, doi:10.4324/9781003086512.
Stewart, Katherine. Crofts And Crofting. Revised, e-book, Mercat Pr, 2006.
Stewart, Katharine. The Crofting Way: Katharine Stewart’s Years on the Land. e-book, The Mercat Press, 1999.
Reimagining Culture: Histories, Identities and the Gaelic Renaissance
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