Celtic Survival

[wire_mother]

Comments

[rimrunner]

I agree that genetics != culture. My father's ancestry is Welsh, but that doesn't make us Celtic; we don't speak Gaelic, we have no ties to the country (Dad's ancestors left for the Americas in the 1600s). Going strictly by genetics, the most Celtic country in the world is the United States, which clearly isn't true from a cultural perspective (and a lot of them live in Appalachia-also, wrongly in my opinion, considered a backward culture).

[wire_mother]

exactly, on all points. one of my own reasons for being so involved in Gaelic cultural matters (though not as involved as i'd like to be) is because of a desire i have to connect with the living culture, something that was lost in my family only a couple of generations ago. however, i wouldn't do it if i weren't also convinced that there are elements of Gaelic (and other Celtic, as well) culture that are essential for the future of humanity.

which is not to say that it is the only culture which is so valuable, but it is among the most endangered of the important ones.

as for so-called "backward" areas in the US, Appalachia is a source for a lot of very interesting and sophisticated music and "folk art". if you add the Ozarks and Ouachitas, you find a very vital culture that is only dying because of the perception that it creates poverty (since they are poor, obviously their culture makes them that way - just as it is with living Celts in most of the Celtic nations).

[rimrunner]

I discovered Jack Tales via my storytelling class last summer. I have a tentative theory that Jack is a sort of Americanized version of Jack o' the Green, but need to do more research. In any case, he's an intriguingly complex sort of character, exactly the kind of personality people forced to self-reliance would tell stories about.

There is some folk music, particularly from western New England and also down in the Virginia area, that sounds a lot like some of the Scandinavian music I listen to-which also influenced Celtic culture, way back when. The similarities could be chance, or not. If I ever go for that ethnomusicology master's like I keep threatening to do, this is what I'd study.

[wire_mother]

you'll also notice that the stories of Asterix the Gaul by Goscinny and Uderzo seem similar in many ways to Jack tales. this seems to be because both derive their story from Lugus/Lúgh stories....

[thasolumn]

very good. publishing it anywhere?

[wire_mother]

thanks!

i hadn't planned on it, but who knows?

[thewronghands]

part of the problem is that Celtic areas are seen as backward and poverty-stricken, much as Americans might see Mississippi. this means that no one wants to stay there, raise a family there, speak the language of such a losing group.

As an Irish-speaker from Mississippi... yeah. I actively made an effort to learn Irish for reasons very similar to this, and even with that, I'm not planning on having kids, so I'm not sure how much passing on of a living language I'll be doing. Sigh.

[wire_mother]

i admit that i find myself sometimes stricken with the sort of prejudice that is common in the US against the deep South. however, by remembering the minority cultures elsewhere, i can usually get over it pretty quickly.

i would like to emphasize (though i can see that most of you have understood it) that i don't mean that the cultures are actually "loser" cultures, only that they are so perceived, even by members of the cultures in question.

[rimrunner]

Since the Deep South produced the music that is the wellspring of American musical endeavor, I often find myself defending southern culture (well, also, my dad's from Louisiana).

Although the persistent racism is, to say the least, deeply unfortunate.

[wire_mother]

i don't defend the attitudes of individuals within cultures, even if those attitudes seem endemic to the culture. it's taken many years of active progressivism in Urban Western culture for racism and sexism to be reduced to the levels they are currently at, and one may note that they are not completely eradicated there. progressive attitudes are still the minority in Gaelic areas, and the same may be true (i don't know one way or the other) in Brythonic ones. the progressive ideology is not tied to culture - look at how it is starting to affect Japan, for instance.

re: music - yeah, when everything from bluegrass to the blues, jazz to rock and roll all come from the South, you know something is going on there, artistically speaking. so far, the only major American musical style that hasn't originated there is rap.

Lest we forget.

[stardragonca]

Cape Breton Island-most native speakers of Gaelic in the world.Not fading away either.

Re: Lest we forget.

[wire_mother]

i'd understood that the number of native Gàidhlig speakers on CBI was decreasing, and that there was an effort underway to preserve it, as well. in any case, i attempted to stick to the "Six Nations", at least in the initial post.

as an aside, isn't there some dialectical difference between Gàidhlig in Scotland and Gàidhlig in Cape Breton Island?

.

[stardragonca]

In the last twenty years or so,the young have embraced it as part of their heritage:Gaelic pop on radio,etc.The greatest threat is unemployment forcing young people to leave.
In terms of dialect,it's about 300 years removed from Scotland's.Many archaic expressions survive which are not used elsewhere.Due to a very rural society there are few words for technical things(but they usually adopt the current term used in Scotland.)Since it is a predominantly oral culture,literacy is not wide spread,but the interest is there.

the last person to have spoken the language died

[stardragonca]

Yes.The last native speaker of Cornish died in 1970.
But a language that has children speaking it is not dead.