Highland Homecomings: Genealogy and Heritage Tourism in the Scottish Diaspora

The popular practice of genealogy or family history research, a central theme of this book, is dominated by arboreal metaphors: we speak of the 'family tree' and of having 'roots'. The 'global commonplace' of migration and displacement has spurred a contemporary quest for roots or origins: a journey to the 'source'. Highland Homecomings looks at the role of place, belonging and territorial attachment in an age often characterized by placelessness, mobility and dislocation. In particular, the book explores flows of people, images, objects, ideas, symbols and stories within a Scottish diaspora, focusing on journeys made by people of Scottish descent dispersed thought the world, to pursue genealogical research and seek out places associated with their ancestors., and particularly the phenomenon of 'roots tourism' in the Scottish Highlands and Islands.

Prologue: Other Landscapes 1 Introduction 2 An Itinerant Anthropology 3 Genealogy and Heritage Tourism in the Scottish Diaspora: An Overview 4 Imagineering Home 5 Home Spaces, Homepages, Homelands 6 '¬~Be of this Land' 7 Sites of Memory, Sources of Identity 8 Homecomings 9 Exiles and Emigrants: Negotiating the Moralities of Migrant Family Histories 10 Heuristic Journeys Bibliography Index