This thesis explores how the people of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland - a rural region of Britain - engaged with the British Empire in a period commonly referred to as the 'Age of High Imperialism'. It does so by exploring civil society activity in the area, and examines how different aspects of domestic life - religion, politics, culture, associational activity - shaped engagement with the Empire or imperial ideas. Scholarship on the place of the Empire back 'home' in Britain has recently stressed the patchwork nature of imperial engagement, with recognition given to the fact that both British society and the Empire itself were never monolithic entities. A 'Four Nations' approach to empire has been one of the most fruitful outcomes of this new focus, and this body of scholarship has explored how each of the four nations of Britain had different relationships with the Empire, and the impact this had on individual national identities. However, both this body of literature and the wider literature on 'imperial Britain' have remained overwhelmingly urban in focus, and have failed to explore whether the models for empire engagement they portray varied outside of Britain's main urban centres. By exploring the place of the Empire in a predominantly rural region, this study therefore breaks new ground, and in 'thinking regionally' about the place of the Empire in British society it provides a clear challenge to much of the conventional literature on the Empire's impact at home in Britain. In particular, by looking at the issue through a regional prism this thesis challenges both the 'Four Nations' and 'British World' models put forward by historians, by showing clearly that local contexts and local factors often mitigated the applicability of these wider ideas. In the former case, Highland contemporaries rarely celebrated the Scottish dimensions of empire, and instead placed to the fore both their local and regional contributions. In the latter case, many individuals rejected the very notion that a Greater Britain existed across the seas, and both class and language emerge clearly as factors separating the region's lower classes from full engagement with this wider idea. Throughout this study it will be shown that local factors were vital to shaping popular engagement with empire, and that often these factors precluded the spread of cultures of empire, or shaped perceptions of empire in highly negative ways.

This thesis examines the development of goat and sheep herding in the Levant during the Neolithic period, and focuses particularly on the emergence of caprines as major early domesticates and the development of specialised pastoral economies. It is divided into two sections. The first consists of a critical review of published palaeoclimatic, archaeological, archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data, which are integrated to provide baseline interpretations of caprine domestication and the development of specialised pastoral economies. The second section presents the results of a zooarchaeological analysis of the faunal assemblage from the Neolithic site of 'Ain Ghazal, located in the Jordanian Highlands, which are evaluated in the context of the two baseline interpretations presented in the first section. The relative merits of the different methods by which archaeological caprine remains can be identified to species are also discussed. It is argued that goats were probably first domesticated in or immediately adjacent to the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon Mountains during the 10th millennium b.p., and that mouflon were probably first domesticated in the piedmont zones of the Taurus and Zagros Mountains during the first half of the 9th millennium b.p. The independent domestication of goats in the Zagros Mountains during the first half of the 9th millennium b.p. is regarded as a strong possibility. It is concluded that the concepts of there have been a temporal gap between the appearance of the earliest permanent agricultural villages and the earliest domestic caprines, and that significant periods of loose-herding preceded the full domestication of these species, may need to be reconsidered. Pastoral economies during the Levantine Neolithic seem to have been based on sedentary animal husbandry aimed at subsistence-orientated meat production. There is however some evidence that simple forms of distant pastures husbandry, still focused on subsistenceorientated meat production, may have developed during the Neolithic period.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Glasgow, 2007. / Ph.D. thesis submitted to the Department of Scottish Literature, University of Glasgow, 2007. Includes bibliographical references. Print version also available.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Glasgow, 1996. / Ph.D. thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts, Department of Scottish History, University of Glasgow, 1996. Includes bibliographical references. Print version also available.

The Lewisian of Barra has been found to comprise foliated orthogeneisses ranging; in composition from basic amphibolites, pyroxene and hornblende granulites and intermediate amphibole-bearing quartzo-feldspathic rooks to more acid gneisses of dioritic and granitic composition. It includes some inter-foliated acid rocks which may be paragneisses. The whole complex is cut by the Hebridean Thrust and the petrography of some strongly magnetic gneisses associated with the Thrust belt has also been described. The gneisses were intruded at an early stage by basic dykes, represented by rooks ranging from amphibolites to pyroxene granulite in composition. Cross-cutting relationships between Lewisian dykes and rectilinear quartzo-feldspathic pegmatite veins consider to have been injected along axial planes of folds are used to relate the phases of dyke instrusion and migmatization to the overall tootonic sequence. Structural analysis has been carried out on planner and linear fabric date recorded on a base map on the scale of 1:0, 560, from thin section and also from the attitudes of structural elements recorded from selected localities in which the structure is particularly well exposed. Data recorded on the map have been considered separately from the following areas; the total area mapped; areas on each side of the main Thrust outcrop; areas exposing large scale structures; several small areas defined by an arbitrarily located grid to the west of the main thrust outcrop. Form the results of the structural analysis and from consideration of structural relationship in the field a tectonic sequence has been determined. The first recognizable event after the formation of the original banding was the development of isoclinal folding, followed by regional metamorphism in the amphibolites facies and succeeded in turn by the emplacement of basic to intermediate intrusions. Three successive phases of intrusion hive been recognized here. Next, folding took place on axes now trending at 30°followed by boudinage and agmatite formation and three further phases of basic intrusions. Part of the overthrust sheet exposed on the east coast was then subjected to regional metamorphism up to pyroxene granulite grade. Movement on the Hebridean thrust probably began soon after this, end asymmetrical folding about axes now plunging to 350 °established the present general orientation of the foliation and produced axial planar traces which trend south-east. The gneisses were then folded about sub-horizontal axes trending at to 150°, prior to strong folding about sub-horizontal axes trending at 100 °which resulted in the present dominant fold pattern. Finally, very open folding took place about 60 °trending axes. Except during the last fold period, migmatization was associated with all the folding and followed by pegmatite injection parallel to fold axial planes. Style has not been found to be a reliable guide to the chronological classification of folds. Open signoidal tension gashes related to the thrusting indicate that this movement continued after the final folding, and show the trusting to have beta directed to the west at an angle of elevation of between 5°and 10°, A comparison on has been wade between the structure of this area and that discussed in some published work on the Lewisian elsewhere in the Outer Isles and the Scottish Mainland. The petrogrphy and metamorphism of six phases of Lewisian dyke intrusives have been studied, and various possible mechanisms to account for dyke reorientation by sheer have boon examined in conjunction with the field relationships of these bodies. It is concluded that the intrusives have not been substantially reorientated with respect to the foliation since their emplacement a discussion is presented on the effects of ana texis on basic, intermediate and acid, gneisses, on the employment of quartzo-feldspathic pegmatite veins, and on the formation of boudinage and agmatite. Three relative ages of pegmatites have been distinguished early coarse quartzo-feldspathic pegmatites with dark feldspars, later pink quartzo-feldspathic pegmatites and late white quartzosc pegmatites.

This thesis examines the politics of local, governance in the Scottish Highlands, taking the Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) network - made up of a central core and 10 Local Enterprise Companies (LECs) - as its institutional focus. It synthesises regulationist approaches and neo-Marxist state theory to explain LECs as part of a broader process of re-regulation under consecutive Conservative governments. LECs are unelected, business-led agencies operating at the local level. The political discourse through which LECs were established and promoted created expectations of local autonomy among business representatives that clashed with the centralising tendencies of Thatcherism. The thesis examines how the resultant tension between local initiative and central control has been worked out within the HIE network. It relies on data collected from seventy semi-structured interviews with representatives of HIE, LECs, local authorities, businesses and community groups. The initial chapters introduce the research and consider key methodological issues, set out the theoretical framework, and review the practices of the Highlands and Islands Development Board (HIDB, HIE's successor). The thesis then explores the key tension between local initiative and central control, explaining how it has been mediated and resolved through routine institutional practices. It also examines HIE-LECs relations with other key agencies, notably local authorities, through selected examples of multi-agency partnerships and assesses LECs' local accountability and representativeness. Finally, a concluding chapter sets out the main findings and considers their implications. While key managerial 'technologies' such as targeting, audit and financial controls allow central government to monitor and steer the HIE network, the thesis argues that the authoritative resources of the HIE core - grounded in the combination of local knowledge and technical expertise inherited from the HIDB - enables it to adapt key aspects of the operating regime to its own purposes. Local autonomy is limited by the relative centralisation of the Network, and LECs operate in a system of structured flexibility in which their scope to adapt policy to local conditions is constrained by state rules and procedures. In emphasising that local autonomy is limited by hierarchical mechanisms of control, the thesis argues that local governance in the Scottish Highlands continues to be underpinned by government. It also points to the limits of the regulation approach and neo-Marxist state theory as theoretical perspectives, suggesting that neo-Foucauldian writings on govemmentality are useful in providing stronger analytical purchase on the specific mechanisms and procedures through which state regulation is practised.

This thesis is an interdisciplinary study with two major objectives, namely to investigate both the cultural and historical developments which took place between c.795 and c.1000 in the West Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Various types of evidence are examined in order to understand the impact of the Norse upon the preexisting population of Western Scotland and vice versa. In Chapter 1, the onomastic evidence is reviewed in order to isolate the total area of Norse settlement, and to find within it areas where this settlement developed in differing ways. In Chapter 2, I survey the archaeological evidence. Chapter 3 examines the linguistic situation pertaining in the west vis a vis Norse and Gaelic, while Chapter 4 reviews the evidence for the survival or otherwise of Christianity. Particular attention is paid to the investigation of the people called Gall-Gaidheil 'Foreign Gael'. Using onomastics and historical sources, the area of their ethnogenesis is isolated and their linguistic and religious affiliation explored. Chapter 5 examines the evidence for their later presence in Galloway. On the historical side, Chapter 6 investigates the Norse raids and settlement and provides a date for these events. Also in Chapter 6, and in Chapters 7 and 8, I focus upon the political links between the West Highlands and Islands and the kingdoms of Scotland and Dublin during the ninth and tenth centuries.

Highland history of the middle ages continues to be regarded generally as separate from the history of the Lowlands, as well as the political history of Scotland. To a large extent, the perception of two distinct societies within Scotland during this period has been swept aside, but few moves have been made to integrate fully the history of clanship into that of Scotland as a whole. This case study of the Mackintoshes and Clan Chattan seeks to examine clanship from a sociological as well as a historical perspective. Kinship was a fundamental characteristic of clan society, but these relationships were not limited to blood relatives. The creation of Active kinship through ties of customary obligation within a clan reinforced clan solidarity and cohesion, a vital factor for the geographically disparate Clan Chattan confederation. Within the locality, Active kinship was established by the contraction of more formal alliances which had social, political and economic objectives. The creation of these relationships enabled the clan to survive and expand. For central Highland clans like the Mackintoshes and Clan Chattan who lived in close geographic proximity to Lowland society, the extension of fictive kinship facilitated easy assimilation across the perceived divide in Scottish society. The realisation on the part of clan chiefs that cordial relations with the crown would be beneficial to the clan as a whole saw a movement throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries towards closer integration with Lowland society. This examination of clanship places the history of the Highlands into a wider political and social context. While clanship was a unique phenomenon within Scotland, it should not be examined in isolation, but rather as an integral part of Scottish political life.

The Highland Clearances have featured in many historical analyses over the past thirty years and have particularly attracted the attention of socio-economic historians interested in the study of agricultural changes, their causes and multi-faceted impact on the Highland region and society. Yet it seems that the increasingly refined knowledge that the period now enjoys has hardly percolated down to the popular interpretation given of the events. The present study concerns itself with the popular representations of the Highland Clearances which, to a large extent, are consensual and are revealing of the collective attitudes towards the period, especially in the crofting districts. The first part concentrates on the historiographical background of the period since the nineteenth century, so as to establish the fund of knowledge gradually accumulated on the times, the standpoints adopted by the various historical currents and the evolution in historical methods and perspective. To convey the collective perception on the Clearances, three areas are selected: twentieth-century Scottish fiction, political writings and the museum world. Through the individual analysis of each, the themes, elements and viewpoints which have been given priority, will emerge. The popular representation of the Clearances yields as much information on the way people see their past as on current attitudes and concerns since it is, more often than not, recycled to fit a particular reading. It is also, because of its consistency and its recurrence, a mark of the significance of the period in the collective memory and sense of identity of the inhabitants of the crofting districts.