[Sca-cooks] Scottish food

[Volker Bach]

johnna holloway schrieb:
>
> There was a series that ran in the UK back
> in 1984-85 called Scotland's Story.
> It was a series that detailed the history
> of Scotland. One of the things that I remember
> best about it was part of one of the last
> programs. Most of a village had gotten together
> and made the choice to emigrate to either Canada
> or the USA back in the early-mid 1800's. The ones
> that stayed were still scrambling for a living in
> the 1980's on a very hard unforgiving land. The
> descendants of those who went to the USA and Canada
> were all teachers, doctors, lawyers, professional
> people with careers and good jobs. When queried as
> to what this meant, someone from the US responded
> about the situation with the words "Be glad they got
> on the boat!" Certainly in terms of US history
> the Scots and Scots-Irish can't be overlooked
> in terms of their contributions, be they the stock of
> a marginal land or not.
>
> As to if the Scots were losers or not in terms of
> history, I certainly wouldn't overlook the fact
> that their kings had the unfortunate habit of going
> out and getting themselves killed so that the heirs
> to the throne could be crowned as mere children.
> Never a good situation and it happened again and again.

well, Scotland, at least after 1100, is hardly the
perfect exacmple of a primitive, marginal society.
The medieval kingdom's heartlands were certainly
well-regulated and had urban centers worthy of the
name. However, I would argue that the clan culture
of the Highlands *is* an example of those
'losers', being displaced, marginalised and
expelled by the more highly organised, pacified
culture that the kings representend. We are, after
all, not talking in terms of nations (though many
English love to think that they civilised
Scotland).

Giano