![]() Next came the Norse, popularly but wrongly named Vikings. This has implications for, inter alia, genealogy, Scottish cultural and language studies, ethnicity and Y-DNA testing. The nature of these two structures-Clan and Family-are compared and contrasted, and a case made for greater recognition of the Lowland Family as the pre-eminent form of social structure in Scotland. ![]() The uncritical adoption of the term “Clan” ignores and minimizes the larger and more important Lowland Family structure. In reality, the clan system was a minority social structure in Scotland. The cultural appendages of that-kilts, tartans and Gaelic language-are considered uniformly Scottish. The “Clan” appellation has been applied wrongly to all of Scotland, as though this were the universal or at least the dominant form of social/kinship organization. Yet, a substantial number of these do not represent Highlands or Borders Clans, but are really descendants of Lowland Families. Anyone who has visited a Scottish Games or Gathering in North America will be struck by the number of Clan societies occupying tents around the Games ground and participating in a “Parade of Tartans”. ![]()
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