Abstract

My ethnographic research theorizes the multiple meanings of Scottishness and Scottish identity, the contradictions between these definitions and describes the development and functions of the National Piping Centre in Glasgow. This is a thesis that explores Scottishness--and the politics surrounding that identity--by way of a number of individual pipers and two key exponents in particular. It uses the tried and tested anthropological methods of microsocial fieldwork and case-studies to ground an appreciation of abstract concepts such as 'identity' and 'Scottishness' in particular lived lives. What this thesis demonstrates is that the new piping is about musicianship rather than iconic or symbolic national identity, synthesizes other musical traditions and is global--thus transforming traditional or stereotypical ideas of Scottishness.