THE CELTS
Also by Malcolm Chapman THE GAELIC VISION IN SCOTTISH CULTURE THE VOICE OF PROPHECY AND OTHER ESSAYS BY EDWIN ARDENER (editor) HISTORY AND ETHNICITY (edited by Elizabeth Tonkin and Maryon McDonald)
The Celts The Construction of a Myth Malcolm Chapman Teaching Fellow in International Business Bradford University Management Centre PA
Malcolm Chapman 1992 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1992 978-0-333-52088-8 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published in Great Britain 1992 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Hound mills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-349-38949-0 ISBN 978-0-230-37865-0 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230378650 Transferred to digital printing 1998 04/780 First published in the United States of America 1992 by Scholarly and Reference Division, ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 978-0-312-07938-3 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Chapman, Malcolm (Malcolm Kenneth) The Celts : the construction of a myth I Malcolm Chapman. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Celts-History. 2. Celts-Social life and customs. 3. Ethnology -France-Piouhinec-Field work. 4. Plouhinec (France) - -Social life and customs. I. Title. GN549.C3C48 1992 940'.04916--<ic20 91-44261 CIP
THE CELTS
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Contents Acknowledgements Preface ix xiii 1 Who Are the Celts? 1 2 'A Branch of Indo-European' 14 3 Calling People Names 24 4 'A Wave of Barbarians..., 41 5 Celts into Welshmen 53 6 Celtic Continuity: Language 70 7 Celtic Continuity: People 76 8 Celtic Continuity: Culture 94 9 Romanticism 120 10 Classification and Culture-Meeting 146 11 The Celts and the Classics 165 12 Gerald of Wales 185 13 The Modem Celts 201 Appendix 1: Ker Ys 266 Appendix 2: The Heroic Age 269 vii
viii Notes Bibliography Index Contents 275 299 329
Acknowledgements I have been working on the themes of this book since I began postgraduate work as a social anthropologist. During this time I have been supported by a variety of grant-giving bodies and institutions -The Social Science Research Council (later Economic and Social Research Council, which gave me studentship and research project support, permitting much of the fieldwork on which this book is based), Balliol College, Oxford (where I was a junior research fellow), the Oxford Institute of Social Anthropology (where I was Bagby scholar), Bradford Grammar School Old Boys' Association (which provided a fieldwork grant at a needy time), and the Wenner-Gren Foundation (which provided funds for completion of the project) -I am sincerely grateful to them all. I am also grateful for various opportunities to present, in lecture and seminar, the ideas contained in this book: The Institute of Social Anthropology in Oxford invited me to give a series of lectures in Hilary Term 1988; I went to Denmark as guest lecturer in Easter 1988 by invitation of the universities of Aarhus and Copenhagen; and I had occasion to present relevant material at a conference at the University of Warsaw in December 1988- I am grateful to all these institutions, and to Dr Wendy James, Professor Kirsten Hastrup and Dr Zofia Sokolewicz, through whom the invitations came. The work is not any conventional kind of ethnography, but my experience of living and working in 'Celtic' areas has been crucial to working out the themes discussed herein. Acknowledgements to those areas where I have lived are, therefore, of immediate relevance. My involvement with Scottish Gaelic began some time ago, but the insights gained have been vital to my subsequent work, and I would like to thank all those who helped me learn the language. The process began in joint tuition with Edward Condry, in Edwin Ardener's kitchen. It continued in courses run by An Comunn Gaidehealach in Stornoway, and by Sabhal Mor Ostaig in Skye. I am particularly grateful to Miss Gwendoline Mulholland, Miss Annie MacLeod and Mr Alasdair Duncan. Since 1978, my main fieldwork concern has been in Plouhinec, in Finistere, and I am deeply grateful to the many people there that, through their kindliness, tolerance and generosity, helped me through the difficult social and linguistic problems of early fieldwork, and ix
X Acknowledgements have since become my friends; it is only in the context of heartfelt gratitude to the entire community that I cite the names that follow. Francis Rogel and family tolerated my early and doubtless rather enigmatic presence with good humour. It was on the deck of the fishing boat Notre Dame du Bon Voyage, during two happy summers of coastal fishing, that Plouhinec spoken Breton first began to make sense to me, and I am very grateful to the captain, Judicael Lagadec, and crew, Jean Cosquer, Fran~ois Kergreac'h, Jean-Louis Kerouredan and Alexis Donnart, for sharing with me their fishing boat and its activities. Henri Cabillic, secretary to the town hall, with his intimate knowledge of local history, has interests which met mine in many ways, and has given me all variety of help; not least in introducing me to his family, who have given greatly of friendship, hospitality and instruction, both to myself and to my wife. Alain Mourrain and family made me welcome in their bar and boulangerie, and I learnt much there both from them and from their customers, particularly Fran~ois Biliec and Roger Delobelle. The Mayor of Plouhinec, Henri Cogan, was always a source of robust kindliness and encouragement, and an expression of thanks to him serves, in some respects, as an expression of thanks to the entire commune. The Association Sportif de Plouhinec, a central institution of male social life in Plouhinec, allowed me to take part in its affairs, and I am grateful to its management, players and supporters. The Association Co-operatif Finsh~rien allowed me to look over its activities, and to voyage as passenger on the bateau d' assistance to the French tuna fleet: I am grateful to the director of ACF, Fran~ois Gloaguen, and to the captain and crew of the PCcheur Breton, for this privilege. Doris Ducancelle provided me with much needful friendship, help and advice at an early stage in fieldwork. Her daughter, Laura Ducancelle, was a copious source of information and encouragement. Many others have shared with me their hospitality and confidence, among them Jean Chapalain; Louis and Jeanine Le Guillou and family; Francis Thomas; Jean Drouglazet and family; Alain Chauvel; Alain-Pierre Condette; Claude Quillivic; Henri and Catherine Peuziat; Andre le Rest; Jeanne Plomb; Guy Gonidec; Victor Helias and family; Simone Cabillic and Agnes Riou; Jean-Yves Quere; and many others. I owe much to Guillaume Floc'h, a native of Plouhinec with linguistic and cultural interests rather like my own. Many aspects of our conversation are reflected in what follows, and I make general acknowledgement here of this. My greatest debt in Plouhinec is to
Acknowledgements xi Monsieur and Madame Henri Lautredou and family. I owe them much more than I can repay, in hospitality, kindliness and information. I am able to express my thanks here to Anne Lautredou; her husband Henri died in 1986, and I offer here warm gratitude to the memory of a close and valued friend. Away from Plouhinec, my principal intellectual debt, and a major moral debt too, is to Edwin Ardener. This will be clear from my frequent citation of his work. Mr Ardener's untimely death in 1987 has put the burden for the development of his rich ideas onto others, and I hope that he would at least have approved of the spirit and intention of the present work, while not necessarily approving of the skill of its execution. Shirley Ardener has been an unfailing source of encouragement and sound advice, and much of the initial impetus to the production of this book is owing to her. Many others, over the years, have helped with discussion, information and criticism. Among many, I am grateful to John Macinnes, Susan Parman, Edward Condry, Timothy Jenkins, Roger Just, Diana Forsythe, Michael Hurst, Kirsten Hastrup, Catherine Andreyev, Douglas Dupree, Robert Paine, Leonard Barkan, Evi Constantinou and Rosemary Mackechnie. During the long gestation of this work, my brother Graham Chapman has been a valuable critic. We have discussed similar issues many times, while wandering over mountains in Scotland and Wales, and I owe many insights and examples to these discussions. He is, what is a rare enough combination in Celtic spheres, informed, interested and detached. I am grateful both to him, and to his wife Karen, for the many opportunities that have been afforded for discussion. My sister Linda, a port of call in Plymouth on my many journeys between Oxford and Brittany, helped, through her hospitality, to make these journeys pleasant. Christopher and Mary Ayling provided many of the material conditions which made it possible for me to write this book in comfort and quiet. Mr Stanley Ayling provided kind encouragement. Being from Bradford is, in many ways, an advantage in life; it has been of particular and interesting use for someone attempting to understand the Celtic fringe. I am grateful to my parents for that, and for everything else, and I dedicate this book to them. My wife Jane has provided a very rare combination of resources - keen and rigorous intellectual stimulation, and friendly and witty criticism, coupled with all manner of practical and patient help. It is owing to her that this book ever got finished.
xii Acknowledgements I have not taken all the good advice that I have been offered. I am also well aware that not all those that I have referred to above will agree with what follows. I hope at least that they will find the argument of interest. The task that I have set myself is, I believe, a genuinely difficult one, and some at least of the deficiencies of this book arise from this difficulty. Some of the deficiencies, however, were doubtless avoidable, and for these I have no-one to blame but myself. I am grateful to the following for citation permissions: to Penguin publishers, for the Livy quotations on pages 44-7; to the National Geographic Magazine, for the quotations on pages 221-3; and to Oxford University Press, for the quotations from J.R.R. Tolkien on pages 243--8.
Preface I have tried, in this book, to bring social anthropology and Celtic studies into a fruitful meeting. The resulting hybrid is not part of any genre, and has few precedents that I know of. J. R. R. Tolkien wrote: To many, perhaps to most people outside the small company of the great scholars, past and present. 'Celtic' of any sort is... a magic bag, into which anything may be put, and out of which almost anything may come... Anything is possible in the fabulous Celtic twilight, which is not so much a twilight of the gods as of the reason. (Tolkien, 1963: 29-30) I have tried to deal here with a great range of material, and have put a foot into many pointed controversies. I have, moreover, left undone a great deal that I would have liked to pursue, failing to find either time in life or room in the book. When I look at all this, I wonder if the Celtic madness to which Tolkien refers might not have afflicted me, in spite of all my efforts to deny it. It is no exaggeration to say that all the chapters of this book, and even many of their subsections, want to be books themselves. I am very aware that the greater the attempted scope of the work, the greater will be the deficiencies. There is also a risk that the social anthropology will be over-familiar to the social anthropologist, and the Celtic material banal to the Celticist. Nevertheless, I hope that the intrinsic interest of the material, and of the meeting of subjects, will compensate for this. I have also tried to make this work an introduction to some major themes of modern social anthropology - themes which are illustrated, and I hope given life and interest, by detailed examples. This book was not conceived as a primer in social anthropology, but I like to think that it may, at least in some small part, serve this function. The book grows out of a rather unusual combination of interests and experience. I have learned twn Celtic languages, Breton and Scottish Gaelic, through having carried out four years' fieldwork in western Brittany and the Scottish Highlands and Islands. I have a long-standing interest in the relationship between language, history and ethnicity, which I have studied largely through Celtic material. xiii
xiv Preface I have been interested in the relationship between intellectual studies and ordinary life, both in the past and the present, and this too I have studied through primarily Celtic examples. I have a professional training in social anthropology, for good or ill, and I have a deep interest in Celtic matters, without necessarily being inspired by, or enthusiastic for, Celtic themes per se. The result is a work that owes little to conventional disciplinary boundaries. I am not as wellqualified to attempt this work as I would have wished; ideally, it would have been undertaken by a committee of specialists. No such committee exists, however, and if I had not attempted this work, probably nobody else would either. It is in this spirit that I offer the present work, aware that there must always be more to do, and more to learn. This book is about 'the Celts'. There is, however, a strong bias to those examples that I know best- the Scottish Gaelic and the Breton. It would take a much longer book to deal explicitly with all the examples. Nevertheless, I am confident that the approach can be applied to the generality of Celtic material. I hope that readers with more intimate knowledge of the Irish and Welsh examples (not to mention the Manx, Cornish and Gaulish) will do the comparative speculation for themselves. The material relevant to my concerns in this book is potentially limitless. The specific selection presented here is, then, to some extent arbitrary, resulting in part from accidents of my own experience. I have, however, a wide enough experience of comparative material not presented here, to be confident that even if I had written the book around entirely different examples, the same conclusions would have emerged. There are, as already intimated, many things which this book would like to be, but is not. I began with the intention of concentrating on classical dealings with the Celt. All the questions of definition and interpretation could have been fought in the classics: the same questions recur, however, in the modem material, which is why I have reduced the classical component to a chapter. The American angle is also more or less unexplored. I make occasional reference in what follows to North American dealing with the Celtic fringe, but this is rarely more than incidental. The place of the Celtic fringe in the North American conceptual space is a fascinating topic; its exploration, however, would require another book. There is also a wealth of unexplored comparative examples. There is, for example, in popular reporting from north-western Europe
Preface XV (from say, France, Germany and Britain), an apparent similarity in reported character of the Celtic, Latin and Slavonic peoples of Europe - all of them inconstant, emotional, eloquent, moody, unreliable, free from structure, overlapping into nature, and so on. I argue below that, in principle, we might expect all 'other' people to be perceived in this way. It is not surprising, therefore, that from a single point of view, there will be a continuous surrounding peripheral zone, apparently sharing the same characteristics. I leave open, however, the question of what is at the centre of this structure of perception in larger European terms, just as I leave undiscussed the many points of similarity between the Celtic, Latin and Slavonic examples. 1 This, too, must wait for another work. When one is asking questions about the constitution of a particular concept or category, one is obliged to do so using other concepts and categories which may be equally problematic, but which are not themselves under scrutiny. In order to create motion in one part of the conceptual space, one is obliged to assume lack of motion in the other parts - to fit the lever, to find a fulcrum, one has to have somewhere to stand. A reader might well wonder, for example, why the Celts should come under such scrutiny when others are left alone -the English, the French, the Germans, the 'Indo-Europeans', and so on? There is no reason, of course, other than the practical limitations of argument and space. A like approach to other categories of European ethnic and linguistic analysis is invited, and could only be welcome.