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Scottish people

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This article is about the Scottish as an ethnic group. For information about residents or nationals of Scotland, see Demographics of Scotland.
Scots
Regions with significant populations
Scotland:
   5,000,000
Noticeable Scottish Populations

United States:
   9,200,000 (including Scotch-Irish, may not include those who are Scotch-Irish but have chosen to declare Irish)[1]
United Kingdom:
   5,000,000 (UK other than Northern Ireland & Scotland)[citation needed]
Australia:
   5,000,000
Canada:
   4,500,000
New Zealand:
   2,000,000
South Africa:
   1,000,000
Ireland :
   1,000,000[citation needed]
Brazil:
   1,000,000
Netherlands:
   750,000[citation needed]
Poland:
   500,000[citation needed]
France:
   500,000
Carribean :
   500,000

Scandinavia :
   250,000
Languages
Scottish Gaelic, Scots, English
Religion
Christianity, Other, None
Related ethnic groups
Irish, Manx, English, Frisians, Scandinavians, Welsh, Cornish, Bretons

The term Scottish people is used here to describe the indigenous people of Scotland, a distinct insular European ethnic group. The article covers their historical backgrounds and roots in respect to genealogy and the culture.

Clarifying the scope of this article

The words Scot (see Scots) and Scottish each have two different meanings.

  1. One refers to the people who live in or come from, the northern third of the island of Great Britain, and the surrounding smaller islands: Scotland.
  2. The second is that group of people who came themselves or whose ancestors came into that territory from Ireland: the Scoti or Scotti of Scotia or Alba. (Although the word Scottish is rarely used to denote this historical ethnic group.)

Similar people to the second group came to other parts of Great Britain, in Wales and Cornwall (later into England) over the past 1,700 years but there, they were assimilated while their proportionately larger numbers in the north meant that they came closer to dominating the peoples who already lived there. Indeed, to the extent that Scotland is named after them, they did dominate.

This double meaning should be borne in mind when reading the following attempt to unravel the complex threads which form the modern ethnic and cultural tapestry of Scotland.

This article deals only with the first definition. For a presentation of the second topic, see Scots (ethnic group).

The indigenous ethnic groups of Scotland

The indigenous people of present day Scotland are mainly descended from six ethnic/cultural groups, two Celtic, two Germanic, and two of indeterminate origin.

  • The Beaker People, who were the first documented bronze-age culture in Scotland, having colonized the British Isles and much of Europe. Aside from their Standing stones/Stone circles, and other megalithic antiquities, little is known of their culture.
  • The Picts, of undetermined origin, who occupied the country north of the Forth and Clyde. Their name derives from the Latin word for painted, as they were called by the Romans. These people used wode, a blue pigment, in body paint and tattoos.
  • The Brythonic-speaking Britons who were a Celtic people akin to the Welsh and who once dominated the territory south of the Clyde and also the Forth until Anglian settlement, and subsequent intermarriage.
These first three groups were present at the time of the earliest historical record, but the Beaker Folk have left no clues to their language. Likewise, the Picts left virtually no written record of themselves so little first-hand knowledge of their history or ephemeral culture exists. Ancient legends indicate the Picts had origins in "the east" (Baltic, Scandinavia), or in "Scythia" (the Steppes). These legends cannot be verified.
  • The Highland Scots (or Scoti or Gaels) came into western Pictavia from the north of Ireland from the third century onward. A hardy people, they were already accustomed to the difficulties of the harsh North Atlantic climate, poor soils, and short growing seasons. Over a prolonged period, they spread from their initial colony in Dalriada (Argyll). There was a secondary colonisation in Galloway, in the territory of the Brythonic-speakers. There was still a considerable amount of cross migration between Ireland and the Highlands, until the end of the Medieval period as clans and family groups maintained ties across the Irish Sea.
These last two were Celtic. The Picts were probably not Celtic, and although Caucasians, they were perhaps not even Indo-European. Analysis of the remains of the Beaker Folk indicate they were also Caucasians, built huge megalithic tombs to honor their kings, but little evidence of their culture and no evidence or their language has survived.
  • The Northumbrians were an offshoot of the Angles who moved into south-east Scotland from the fifth century and intermarried with the Brythonic ethnicities. Their attempts to spread north and west of Edinburgh were short-lived. They settled the lowlands from Edinburgh south and in Lothian.
  • The Scandinavians invaded northern and western Scotland in the 9th century and to some extent, intermarried with the others.
These last two were Germanic peoples. Many people of the Orkney and Shetland Islands consider themselves more Scandinavian than Scottish, and this is also reflected in their distinct dialects.

A complex heritage

The Beaker People were the first documented cultural group in Britain. They were skilled at making ornaments from gold, and examples of these have been found in graves of the wealthy Wessex culture of southern Britain. Early Bronze Age Britons buried their dead in stone tombs beneath earth mounds known as barrows, often with beaker pottery alongside the body. Later in the period, cremation was adopted as a burial practice with cemeteries of urns containing cremated individuals appearing in the archaeological record. People of this period were also responsible for building many famous prehistoric sites such as the Standing stones throughout Scotland, and the rest of the British Isles. Their overall impact on the Caledonian population is disputed.

The Picts are considered an aboriginal people whose antecedents remain unknown. In the Pictish heartland around Fife, there is a consciousness of the distinctive Pictish legacy, including facial features. The majority of place names across the north-east of Scotland are Pictish in origin including Aberdeen, Findochty, Arbroath and Forfar to name a few.

The Scots (or Gaels) who came from Ireland, and the Brythonic-speaking Celts (akin to the Welsh) who once dominated the territory south of the Forth and Clyde, are the Celtic nationalities. The Scandinavians were principally from Norway and settled in the north and west, rather than the Danes who settled in Yorkshire and the adjacent English coast. The Norse arrived in the early Viking period of the 9th-century, and in time intermarried with the Scots and Picts. The Angles had settled the lowlands and Lothian, a couple of centuries before the Scots arrived, and gave to Scotland its lowland language.

After the Norman magnates had conquered England, they moved on to exert political influence in Scotland. While this was significant in Scottish political history, it was not a great influence on the ethnic mix in Scotland, except at the highest social levels. In addition and later, Scotland took over the Norwegian territory of Orkney and Shetland.

The most evident influence on the explicitly Scottish, modern culture comes from the Highland Scots, it is therefore akin to that of the Irish but clearly distinct, however, many people of Scotland share much common heritage with the people of Scandinavia and modern day England.

Return to Ireland

In the 17th and 18th centuries the Anglo-Scottish crown sent thousands of loyalist Protestant settlers from the borderlands of England and Scotland to Ulster (the northern province of Ireland). Ulster had been the source of the Scots of Argyll, whose kingdom, Dalriada had lain both in Antrim and in Argyll. The 17th century colonists were planted among the Catholic Irish natives, whom they attempted to displace. The Anglican, Anglo-Irish community did not intermarry with the Irish to the same extent as the Presbyterian Scots-Irish community. Since originally the Presbyterians from Scotland in Northern Ireland faced much of the same discrimination as their Irish Catholic neighbours under the Penal Laws, they tended to sympathise and identify with them more. Although, it has to be said, this does not show up clearly in modern Northern Irish politics.

The Scottish diaspora

Today there are in Scotland, about five million people with varying amounts of Scottish ethnicity. As well as these, in the Scottish diaspora, there are more than 8 million [2] (Scotch-Irish included) in America and a large population in Australia. Scottish culture has particularly thrived in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia (Latin for "New Scotland") where both Lowland and Highland Scots settled in large numbers and is the home of the Gaelic College of Celtic Arts and Crafts. Please see the articles on the Highland Clearances, the Lowland Clearances, and the Ulster-Scots for more information on the Scottish diaspora.

Anglicisation

see main article: Anglicisation

There are also many Scottish surnames which have become "anglicised" (made to sound English) over the centuries. Davis, Bruce, Campbell, Salmond, Marshall, Christie, and Joy are just a few of many examples. This arose in part from effects of the Act of Union of 1707, enacted under Queen Anne, of the Scottish House of Stuart. In this, the parliaments of England and Scotland agreed to unite to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Following rebellions in Scotland, involving invasions of England, there were attempts by the English and lowland Scots, to "anglicise" Scottish culture.

However most Scottish surnames have remained predominantly Gaelic albeit altered to suit English phonetics (as with Irish surnames). Thus MacAoidh in Gaelic is MacKay in English and MacGill-Eain in Gaelic is MacLean and so on. Mac (sometimes Mc) is common as it once meant (son of). MacDonald, Balliol, Gilmore, Gilmour, MacKinley, MacKintosh, MacKenzie, MacNiell, MacRyan, MacPhearson, MacLear, McDonald, McKenzie, MacAra, MacNamara, MacManus, Lauder, Menzies, Galloway and Duncan, are just a few of many examples of traditional Scottish surnames. There are of course, also the many surnames, like Wallace and Morton, stemming from parts of Scotland which were settled by peoples other than the (Gaelic) Scots.

In 1603, the English and Scottish Crowns united under King James VI of Scotland (King James I of England). The border clans were banished to England, Northern Scotland, and Ireland.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The [3] US Census 2000. The 2000 US census shows 4,319,232 people claiming Scotch-Irish ancestry.
  2. ^ [4] The website states the following : Scotland is a land of five million people. A proud people, passionate about their country and her rich, noble heritage. For every single Scot in their native land, there are thought to be at least five more overseas who can claim Scottish ancestry - that's many, many millions spread throughout the globe. (30 million)

References

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