Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 2,0, University of Passau, language: English, abstract: On 20th August 2017, the small village Wittental in the rural countryside of the Black Forest celebrated the tenth anniversary of hosting their traditional Highland games. According to a newspaper announcement the event was firstly introduced in 1999 and ever since has been organised by the local community every second year, offering sport competitions like the ‘Heavies’ as well as music, food and Scottish Whisky tasting. But why is an ancient Scottish tradition practised in the South of Germany? Is it an example of the Highland games being used by Scottish people to identify with their origins and Scotland? Or is it simply an invented marketing idea to promote a sport event of a remote Black Forest village aiming at attracting visitors through a well-known name? This paper will concentrate on the Scottish Highland games in Scotland as well as in other parts of the world. Despite the fact that they are separated from their original background and could be seen as an invented tradition by the British, there is reason to classify them as heritage as well. Albeit their hybrid form between invented tradition and heritage, Scottish people all over the world hold on to the Scottish Highland games as they have the ability to create the basis for a common identity. To explain this, in the following the ideas of ‘Heritage’ and ‘Invented Tradition’ will shortly be introduced, a historic background of the event’s development throughout the centuries will be given and all this information will be applied in an analysis of the Highland games.

"This is a work of great value to all who seek knowledge of Scottish-American events, and who wish to understand what surely must be one of the most interesting, colorful, and evident ethnic occurrences in the U.S." -W. R. McLeod vice-chairman, Dunvegan Foundation Clan McLeod "The author's enthusiasm for the Scottish Highland Games, and indeed her expertise, are reflected in this long-awaited work. All who are interested in the story of this enduring and popular festival will be grateful to Ann Donaldson for her conscientious research. It is a fine tribute to those Americans of Scottish descent who have contributed to keep this unique aspect of their culture vibrantly alive in the New World." -Gerald Redmond author of The Sporting Scots of Nineteenth Century Canada Discover the Scottish Highland Games, celebrated in over thirty U.S. states every year. Participants compete in the caber toss, Highland dancing, piping and drumming, fiddling, and many more competitive and non-competitive events. The Scottish Highland Games in America recognizes the players and events that keep the modern Games alive and exciting. Readers will discover the history of the Games, rooted in Scotland and celebrated in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries where Scots have settled. A complete state-by-state listing of the Games and their events is also provided. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Emily Ann Donaldson is a devoted Games fan, a participant in Scottish country dancing, and a member of several Scottish associations.

This book explores the role of tourism as a means to express 'nation' and 'nationhood'. Based on field research in southwest and central Scotland it shows how various historical accounts, cultural icons and images, events and celebrations create a meaning of the Scottish nation. It examines the narratives, either explicit or implicit, produced at heritage-related tourism sites and how these become interwoven with the ideology of a nation. This volume will be of use to researchers and students in tourism and heritage studies, Scottish studies, culture and identity, nationalism and national identity; as well as to tourism and heritage industry professionals and policy-makers.

Each year, tens of thousands of people flock to Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina, and to more than two hundred other locations across the country to attend Scottish Highland Games and Gatherings. There, kilt-wearing participants compete in athletics, Highland dancing, and bagpiping, while others join clan societies in celebration of a Scottish heritage. As Celeste Ray notes, however, the Scottish affiliation that Americans claim today is a Highland Gaelic identity that did not come to characterize that nation until long after the ancestors of many Scottish Americans had left Scotland. Ray explores how Highland Scottish themes and lore merge with southern regional myths and identities to produce a unique style of commemoration and a complex sense of identity for Scottish Americans in the South. Blending the objectivity of the anthropologist with respect for the people she studies, she asks how and why we use memories of our ancestral pasts to provide a sense of identity and community in the present. In so doing, she offers an original and insightful examination of what it means to be Scottish in America.

This book presents a captivating story about traditional sports and games in the current world. It moves from Denmark to the Basque Country and to Scotland, exploring traditional games in their local contexts. It highlights the numerous, practical functions of traditional games, showing that these games are very valuable, necessary, and actually fit the needs of our times! It offers an original perspective on traditional sports and games, providing captivating stories from personal trips to these countries and numerous practical descriptions and inspirational ideas about how to use traditional games in practice.

This book argues that while Anglo-Saxon culture has given rise to virtually no myths at all, myth has played a central role in the historical development of Scottish identity. Hugh Trevor-Roper explores three myths across 400 years of Scottish history: the political myth of the "ancient constitution" of Scotland; the literary myth, including Walter Scott as well as Ossian and ancient poetry; and the sartorial myth of tartan and the kilt, invented--ironically, by Englishmen--in quite modern times. Trevor-Roper reveals myth as an often deliberate cultural construction used to enshrine a people's identity. While his treatment of Scottish myth is highly critical, indeed debunking, he shows how the ritualization and domestication of Scotland's myths as local color diverted the Scottish intelligentsia from the path that led German intellectuals to a dangerous myth of racial supremacy. This compelling manuscript was left unpublished on Trevor-Roper's death in 2003 and is now made available for the first time. Written with characteristic elegance, lucidity, and wit, and containing defiant and challenging opinions, it will absorb and provoke Scottish readers while intriguing many others. "I believe that the whole history of Scotland has been coloured by myth; and that myth, in Scotland, is never driven out by reality, or by reason, but lingers on until another myth has been discovered, or elaborated, to replace it."-Hugh Trevor-Roper