Tartanry

[2] The phenomenon was explored in Scotch Myths, a culturally influential exhibition devised by Barbara and Murray Grigor and Peter Rush, mounted at the Crawford Centre at the University of St Andrews in the Spring of 1981.

[15] More broadly, tartanry is the perceived reduction of Scottish culture to kitsch, twee, distorted imagery based on ethnic stereotypes – such as tartan, kilts, bagpipes, caber tossing, and haggis.

While Scottish Gaelic is a living language, that has developed and grown with modern culture, tartanry presents it as a dead relic and curiosity, and those acting from this perspective may simply redefine words, or change their spellings to gibberish, for no other reason than to appear quaint or exotic.

[18] Balmorality, called a particular "dimension of tartanry",[10] was coined by George Scott-Moncrieff to refer to upper-class appropriation of Highland cultural trappings, marked by "hypocrisy" and "false sentiment" that trivialised the past and was an escapism from social realities.

The term is a reference to Queen Victoria's purchase of Balmoral Castle in 1842 for a years-long retreat, decorating it in excessive amounts of tartan, and her subsequent patronage of "Highland" styles and activities with her consort, Prince Albert.

[4] Ivor Brown (1955) coined the term tartanitis as distinct from Balmorality:[4] ... a Lowlander himself, [Harry Lauder] promoted the idea ... that the workmen of Clydesdale habitually went aroaming in the gloaming clothed like the chieftain of Clan McCrazy.

The proper name for this type of Highland fever is not Balmorality, but TartanitisTartanism was suggested in 1992 by Ian McKay as a distinct term for the zealous adoption of tartan, kilts, and other symbols of Scotland by Scottish expatriates and multi-generational diaspora in North America and elsewhere.

Few people seemed to be aware that, at no remote period, a Macdonald or a Macgregor in his tartan was to a citizen of Edinburgh or Glasgow what an Indian hunter in his war paint is to an inhabitant of Philadelphia or Boston.

They might as well have represented Washington brandishing a tomahawk, and girt with a string of scalps.The designation of individual clan tartans was largely defined in this period and they became a major symbol of Scottish identity.