David MacRitchie
Encyclopedia
David MacRitchie was a Scottish
folklorist
and antiquarian
.
and attended the Edinburgh Southern Academy, the Edinburgh Institute and the University of Edinburgh
. He did not gain a degree but qualified as a Chartered Accountant
. His father had been a surgeon in the East India Company.
to study the history and lore of Gypsies. He was also a member of several folklore societies. In 1914 he joined the Council of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
, serving as vice-president from 1917 - 1920. He was noted for his interest in archaeology
, being appointed as a trustee for Lord Abercromby
's endowment for an Archaeology department at the University of Edinburgh. He was also a member of the Scottish Arts Club and Vice-president of the Philosophical Institution.
In 1922 until his death he served as the treasurer of the Scottish Anthropological and Folklore Society.
to have been rooted in a historical pygmy, dwarf or short sized aboriginal race, that lived during Neolithic Britain
or even earlier.
has noted that the folklorist John Francis Campbell
first founded this school of thought about 30 years before MacRitchie. Carole G. Silver, Professor of English at Yeshiva University
has also traced the euhemerist theory of fairies further back to Walter Scott
in his Letters on Demonology (1830). With the emergence of anthropological schools in the late 19th century, various renowned anthropologists such as Edward Burnett Tylor
(1871) became proponents of the euhemeristic origin of fairies, in direct conflict with the religious or psychological theories of their origin.
and regards fairies as being a folk-memory of a "small-statured pre-Celtic race" or what Tylor
theorised as possible folk memories of the aborigines of Britain. MacRitchie's theory subsequently became known in the late 19th century by folklorists as the "Ethnological or Pygmy Theory". The euhemeristic theory of fairies became considerably popular through MacRitchie's key works The Testimony of Tradition (1890) and Fians, Fairies and Picts (1893). Different theories however in the late 19th century and early 20th century surfaced concerning the racial origin of the proposed dwarf aborigines of Britain and these theories ranged from proposing that they were real African Pygmies, Eskimos or a short statured Mediterranean race
. MacRitchie himself argued in his Testimony of Tradition, under a chapter subheading entitled "A Hairy Race" (p. 167) that they were somewhat connected to the Lapps or Eskimos, but were a distinct race because of their very long beards, concluding: "one seems to see the type of a race that was even more like the Ainu than the Lapp, or the Eskimo, although closely connected in various ways with all of these" (p. 173). In MacRitchie's view the indigenous population of Britain were thus a "quasi-European" Ainu
race, with minor Mongoloid traits who he considered ancestral to the Picts
, a view earlier proposed by Walter Scott
. The identification of fairies with Picts
, MacRitichie based primarily on the earlier accounts by Adam of Bremen
and the Historia Norwegiæ which describe the Picts of Orkney as "only a little exceeding pygmies in stature". MacRitchie also discovered through the The Orcadian Sketch-Book by Walter Traill Dennison
(1880) that legends across Scotland describe the homes (usually underground dwellings) of the fairies as "Pict's Houses" and so he believed the Picts were literally the basis of fairies in British folklore. In Fians, Fairies and Picts (1893), The Northern Trolls (1898) and The Aborigines of Shetland and Orkney (1924) MacRitchie attempted to further identify the fairies of British folklore with the Finfolk
of Orkney mythology, the Trows of Shetland myth, the Fianna
of Old Irish Literature and the Trolls as well as the Svartálfar and Svartálfaheimr
(elves or dwarfs) of Norse mythology. A 12th century Irish manuscript is found referenced in Fians, Fairies and Picts which equates the Fianna
to fairies, but this is one of the few literary sources MacRitchie used as evidence, instead he turned to philology and comparative mythology
.
who became convinced that fairies were modeled on an indigenous population of Britian, specifically the Neolithic long barrow
makers. The archaeologist William Boyd Dawkins
found MacRitchie's views also appealing, since in his Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period (1880) he considered Upper Paleolithic
culture across Europe (including Britain) to have been founded by a proto-Eskimo or Lapp
race, a view at the time which was popularised after the discovery of "Chancelade Man", in southwestern France by Leo Testut
in 1889. Scientific consensus after the 1930's however agreed that the remains of "Chancelade Man" were Cro-Magnon
, however some modern anthropologists still propose Cro-Magnon morphological traits appear dictinctly in Lapps
. Within folklore, MacRitchie's euhemeristic view of fairies developed a racialist school which considered that the fairies and other beings such as elves and goblins of British myth represented primitive pre-Aryans
, a view proposed most notably by John S. Stuart Glennie, Laurence Waddell and Alfred Cort Haddon
. According to Haddon: "fairy tales were stories told by men of the Iron Age of events which happened to men of the Bronze Age in their conflicts with men of the Neolithic Age". In both Haddon's and Waddell's view the fairies or other beings of British folklore
were based on the Neolithic inhabitants of Britain.
Among folklorists who considered, supported or praised MacRitchie's views were Laurence Gomme, who in 1892 published Ethnology in Folklore which argued folklore preserved a strong racial history of conquered or replaced indigenous peoples. The folklorist Charles G. Leland who positively reviewed MacRitchie's book The Testimony of Tradition (1890) wrote "The book should be of exceptional interest to every folk-lorist, both on account of its subject-matter and also on account of the manner in which it is treated".
strongly criticised MacRitchie's theory in his The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries (1911). This prompted MacRitchie to respond to such criticisms in several articles published in the Celtic Review (October 1909, January 1910). It was mostly however MacRitchie's theory that the Picts
were a dwarf or short statured race which was strongly rejected. Most historians of the day rejected Mackenzie's "Pygmy-Pict" theory. T. Rice Holmes
for example mocked MacRitchie's claims, considering them eccentric and baseless since no archaeological evidence had ever proven of a "race of pre-neolithic or even prehistoric pygmies existed in this country". Other scholars attempted to pick holes in MacRitchie's claims on mythology, for example Wentz
noted that the Fianna
of Irish myth are sometimes described as "giants". MacRitchie acknowledged these criticisms in his own writings but attempted to work around them and provide solutions:
Therefore in MacRitchie's view the Irish myths and folkloric accounts which describe the Fianna
as "giants" only did so in a non-literal figurative sense to describe their savage type nature, not size. This idea was later expanded upon in his The Savages of Gaelic Tradition (1920) yet was not well received by contemporary folklorists. However ancient authors such as Macrobius shared MacRitchie's beliefs that the "giants" of mythology were not giants in size, but huge in impiety (or their primitiveness). According to MacRitchie there were also "two" Pictish races, the former were the aboriginal dark Lappish or Ainu
race while a later white-skinned red-headed group invaded them, who he considered the Caledonians
.
were a dark-skinned people, a claim which elicited the interest of Afrocentrist
authors, but has no support amongst mainstream historians or scientists.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
folklorist
Folkloristics
Folkloristics is the formal academic study of folklore. The term derives from a nineteenth century German designation of folkloristik to distinguish between folklore as the content and folkloristics as its study, much as language is distinguished from linguistics...
and antiquarian
Antiquarian
An antiquarian or antiquary is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient objects of art or science, archaeological and historic sites, or historic archives and manuscripts...
.
Early Life
David MacRitchie was the younger son of William Dawson MacRitchie and Elizabeth Elder MacRitchie. He was born in EdinburghEdinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
and attended the Edinburgh Southern Academy, the Edinburgh Institute and the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
. He did not gain a degree but qualified as a Chartered Accountant
Chartered Accountant
Chartered Accountants were the first accountants to form a professional body, initially established in Britain in 1854. The Edinburgh Society of Accountants , the Glasgow Institute of Accountants and Actuaries and the Aberdeen Society of Accountants were each granted a royal charter almost from...
. His father had been a surgeon in the East India Company.
Career as folklorist
In 1888 MacRitchie founded the Gypsy Lore SocietyGypsy Lore Society
The Gypsy Lore Society was founded in Great Britain in 1888 to unite persons interested in the history and lore of Gypsies and rovers and to establish closer contacts among scholars studying aspects of such cultures. David MacRitchie was one of its founders and he worked with Francis Hindes Groome...
to study the history and lore of Gypsies. He was also a member of several folklore societies. In 1914 he joined the Council of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland is the senior antiquarian body in Scotland, with its headquarters in the National Museum, Chambers Street, Edinburgh...
, serving as vice-president from 1917 - 1920. He was noted for his interest in archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
, being appointed as a trustee for Lord Abercromby
John Abercromby, 5th Baron Abercromby
John Abercromby, 5th Baron Abercromby was a Scottish soldier and archaeologist. The second son of the George Abercromby, 3rd Baron Abercromby and Louisa Penuel Forbes, on his death in 1924 he had no male issue and as a result the Barony Abercromby became extinct.-Career:He was a Lieutenant with...
's endowment for an Archaeology department at the University of Edinburgh. He was also a member of the Scottish Arts Club and Vice-president of the Philosophical Institution.
In 1922 until his death he served as the treasurer of the Scottish Anthropological and Folklore Society.
Fairy Euhemerism
David MacRitchie was a prominent proponent of the euhemeristic origin of fairies, a theory tracable to the early 19th century that considers fairies in British folkloreBritish folklore
British folklore refers to the folklore of any of the home countries of the United Kingdom. For more information see :*English folklore*Scottish folklore*Welsh mythology*Irish mythologyOr :...
to have been rooted in a historical pygmy, dwarf or short sized aboriginal race, that lived during Neolithic Britain
Neolithic British Isles
The Neolithic British Isles refers to the period of British, Irish and Manx history that spanned from circa 4000 to circa 2,500 BCE. The final part of the Stone Age in the British Isles, it was a part of the greater Neolithic, or "New Stone Age", across Europe.During the preceding Mesolithic...
or even earlier.
Origins
MacRitchie is often credited as being the founder of the euhemerist school regarding British fairies. However historian Edward J. CowanEdward J. Cowan
Edward J. Cowan FRSE is a Scottish historian. He is Director of the University of Glasgow's Dumfries Campus and Professor of Scottish History and Literature...
has noted that the folklorist John Francis Campbell
John Francis Campbell
John Francis Campbell , Celtic scholar, educated at Eton and Edinburgh, was afterwards Secretary to the Lighthouse Commission...
first founded this school of thought about 30 years before MacRitchie. Carole G. Silver, Professor of English at Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University is a private university in New York City, with six campuses in New York and one in Israel. Founded in 1886, it is a research university ranked as 45th in the US among national universities by U.S. News & World Report in 2012...
has also traced the euhemerist theory of fairies further back to Walter Scott
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
in his Letters on Demonology (1830). With the emergence of anthropological schools in the late 19th century, various renowned anthropologists such as Edward Burnett Tylor
Edward Burnett Tylor
Sir Edward Burnett Tylor , was an English anthropologist.Tylor is representative of cultural evolutionism. In his works Primitive Culture and Anthropology, he defined the context of the scientific study of anthropology, based on the evolutionary theories of Charles Lyell...
(1871) became proponents of the euhemeristic origin of fairies, in direct conflict with the religious or psychological theories of their origin.
The Theory
Fairy Euhemerism, as developed by MacRitchie attempts to rationally explain the origin of fairies in British folkloreFolklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
and regards fairies as being a folk-memory of a "small-statured pre-Celtic race" or what Tylor
Edward Burnett Tylor
Sir Edward Burnett Tylor , was an English anthropologist.Tylor is representative of cultural evolutionism. In his works Primitive Culture and Anthropology, he defined the context of the scientific study of anthropology, based on the evolutionary theories of Charles Lyell...
theorised as possible folk memories of the aborigines of Britain. MacRitchie's theory subsequently became known in the late 19th century by folklorists as the "Ethnological or Pygmy Theory". The euhemeristic theory of fairies became considerably popular through MacRitchie's key works The Testimony of Tradition (1890) and Fians, Fairies and Picts (1893). Different theories however in the late 19th century and early 20th century surfaced concerning the racial origin of the proposed dwarf aborigines of Britain and these theories ranged from proposing that they were real African Pygmies, Eskimos or a short statured Mediterranean race
Mediterranean race
The Mediterranean race was one of the three sub-categories into which the Caucasian race and the people of Europe were divided by anthropologists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, following the publication of William Z. Ripley's book The Races of Europe...
. MacRitchie himself argued in his Testimony of Tradition, under a chapter subheading entitled "A Hairy Race" (p. 167) that they were somewhat connected to the Lapps or Eskimos, but were a distinct race because of their very long beards, concluding: "one seems to see the type of a race that was even more like the Ainu than the Lapp, or the Eskimo, although closely connected in various ways with all of these" (p. 173). In MacRitchie's view the indigenous population of Britain were thus a "quasi-European" Ainu
Ainu
Ainu or Aynu may refer to:*Ainu people, of Japan and the Russian Far East**Ainu language**Ainu music**Ainu cuisine*Ainu , a primordial spirit in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings*Äynu people, of Western China...
race, with minor Mongoloid traits who he considered ancestral to the Picts
Picts
The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
, a view earlier proposed by Walter Scott
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
. The identification of fairies with Picts
Picts
The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
, MacRitichie based primarily on the earlier accounts by Adam of Bremen
Adam of Bremen
Adam of Bremen was a German medieval chronicler. He lived and worked in the second half of the eleventh century. He is most famous for his chronicle Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum .-Background:Little is known of his life other than hints from his own chronicles...
and the Historia Norwegiæ which describe the Picts of Orkney as "only a little exceeding pygmies in stature". MacRitchie also discovered through the The Orcadian Sketch-Book by Walter Traill Dennison
Walter Traill Dennison
Walter Traill Dennison was a farmer and folklorist. He was a native of the Orkney island of Sanday, in Scotland, United Kingdom, where he collected local folk tales. He published these, many in the local Orcadian dialect, in 1880 under the title The Orcadian Sketch-Book...
(1880) that legends across Scotland describe the homes (usually underground dwellings) of the fairies as "Pict's Houses" and so he believed the Picts were literally the basis of fairies in British folklore. In Fians, Fairies and Picts (1893), The Northern Trolls (1898) and The Aborigines of Shetland and Orkney (1924) MacRitchie attempted to further identify the fairies of British folklore with the Finfolk
Finfolk
In Orkney folklore, Finfolk are sorcerous shapeshifters of the sea, the dark mysterious race from Finfolkaheem who regularly make an amphibious journey from the depths of the Finfolk ocean home to the Orkney Islands. They wade, swim or sometimes row upon the Orkney shores in the spring and summer...
of Orkney mythology, the Trows of Shetland myth, the Fianna
Fianna
Fianna were small, semi-independent warrior bands in Irish mythology and Scottish mythology, most notably in the stories of the Fenian Cycle, where they are led by Fionn mac Cumhaill....
of Old Irish Literature and the Trolls as well as the Svartálfar and Svartálfaheimr
Svartálfar and Svartálfaheimr
In Norse mythology, svartálfar are beings who dwell in Svartálfaheimr . Both the svartálfar and Svartálfaheimr are solely attested in the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson...
(elves or dwarfs) of Norse mythology. A 12th century Irish manuscript is found referenced in Fians, Fairies and Picts which equates the Fianna
Fianna
Fianna were small, semi-independent warrior bands in Irish mythology and Scottish mythology, most notably in the stories of the Fenian Cycle, where they are led by Fionn mac Cumhaill....
to fairies, but this is one of the few literary sources MacRitchie used as evidence, instead he turned to philology and comparative mythology
Comparative mythology
Comparative mythology is the comparison of myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics. Comparative mythology has served a variety of academic purposes...
.
Support
MacRitchie's rationalisation of fairies, as having their basis as a historical population of dimunitive size won over much support from anthropologists from the late 19th century who questioned the religious or psychological origin of fairies. A notable proponent of the theory who had read MacRitchie's earlier works published in the Celtic Review was Grant AllenGrant Allen
Charles Grant Blairfindie Allen was a science writer, author and novelist, and a successful upholder of the theory of evolution.-Biography:...
who became convinced that fairies were modeled on an indigenous population of Britian, specifically the Neolithic long barrow
Long barrow
A long barrow is a prehistoric monument dating to the early Neolithic period. They are rectangular or trapezoidal tumuli or earth mounds traditionally interpreted as collective tombs...
makers. The archaeologist William Boyd Dawkins
William Boyd Dawkins
Professor Sir William Boyd Dawkins, FRS, KBE was a British geologist and archaeologist. He was a member of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, Curator of the Manchester Museum and Professor of Geology at Owens College, Manchester. He is noted for his research on fossils and the antiquity of man...
found MacRitchie's views also appealing, since in his Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period (1880) he considered Upper Paleolithic
Upper Paleolithic
The Upper Paleolithic is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. Very broadly it dates to between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago, roughly coinciding with the appearance of behavioral modernity and before the advent of...
culture across Europe (including Britain) to have been founded by a proto-Eskimo or Lapp
Sami people
The Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are the arctic indigenous people inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Kola Peninsula of Russia, and the border area between south and middle Sweden and Norway. The Sámi are Europe’s northernmost...
race, a view at the time which was popularised after the discovery of "Chancelade Man", in southwestern France by Leo Testut
Leo Testut
Leo Testut was a French physician, born in Saint-Avit-Sénieur. Son of don Juan Testut and María Deynat. He studied medicine in Burdeos having been interrupted because of war in 1870. After the war he was reincorporated in 1878 to the School of Medicine of Burdeos, having completed his studies with...
in 1889. Scientific consensus after the 1930's however agreed that the remains of "Chancelade Man" were Cro-Magnon
Cro-Magnon
The Cro-Magnon were the first early modern humans of the European Upper Paleolithic. The earliest known remains of Cro-Magnon-like humans are radiometrically dated to 35,000 years before present....
, however some modern anthropologists still propose Cro-Magnon morphological traits appear dictinctly in Lapps
Sami people
The Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are the arctic indigenous people inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Kola Peninsula of Russia, and the border area between south and middle Sweden and Norway. The Sámi are Europe’s northernmost...
. Within folklore, MacRitchie's euhemeristic view of fairies developed a racialist school which considered that the fairies and other beings such as elves and goblins of British myth represented primitive pre-Aryans
Aryan race
The Aryan race is a concept historically influential in Western culture in the period of the late 19th century and early 20th century. It derives from the idea that the original speakers of the Indo-European languages and their descendants up to the present day constitute a distinctive race or...
, a view proposed most notably by John S. Stuart Glennie, Laurence Waddell and Alfred Cort Haddon
Alfred Cort Haddon
Alfred Cort Haddon, Sc.D., FRS, FRGS was an influential British anthropologist and ethnologist.Initially a biologist, who achieved his most notable fieldwork, with W.H.R. Rivers, C.G. Seligman, Sidney Ray, Anthony Wilkin on the Torres Strait Islands...
. According to Haddon: "fairy tales were stories told by men of the Iron Age of events which happened to men of the Bronze Age in their conflicts with men of the Neolithic Age". In both Haddon's and Waddell's view the fairies or other beings of British folklore
British folklore
British folklore refers to the folklore of any of the home countries of the United Kingdom. For more information see :*English folklore*Scottish folklore*Welsh mythology*Irish mythologyOr :...
were based on the Neolithic inhabitants of Britain.
Among folklorists who considered, supported or praised MacRitchie's views were Laurence Gomme, who in 1892 published Ethnology in Folklore which argued folklore preserved a strong racial history of conquered or replaced indigenous peoples. The folklorist Charles G. Leland who positively reviewed MacRitchie's book The Testimony of Tradition (1890) wrote "The book should be of exceptional interest to every folk-lorist, both on account of its subject-matter and also on account of the manner in which it is treated".
Criticism
MacRitchie's theories of fairies sparked criticism from proponents of the religious or psychological origin of fairies. Walter Evans-WentzWalter Evans-Wentz
Walter Yeeling Evans-Wentz was an anthropologist and writer who was a pioneer in the study of Tibetan Buddhism.-Biography:...
strongly criticised MacRitchie's theory in his The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries (1911). This prompted MacRitchie to respond to such criticisms in several articles published in the Celtic Review (October 1909, January 1910). It was mostly however MacRitchie's theory that the Picts
Picts
The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
were a dwarf or short statured race which was strongly rejected. Most historians of the day rejected Mackenzie's "Pygmy-Pict" theory. T. Rice Holmes
T. Rice Holmes
Thomas Rice Edward Holmes , who usually published as T. Rice Holmes or T.R.E. Holmes, was a scholar best known for his extensive and "fundamental" work on Julius Caesar and his Gallic War commentaries....
for example mocked MacRitchie's claims, considering them eccentric and baseless since no archaeological evidence had ever proven of a "race of pre-neolithic or even prehistoric pygmies existed in this country". Other scholars attempted to pick holes in MacRitchie's claims on mythology, for example Wentz
Walter Evans-Wentz
Walter Yeeling Evans-Wentz was an anthropologist and writer who was a pioneer in the study of Tibetan Buddhism.-Biography:...
noted that the Fianna
Fianna
Fianna were small, semi-independent warrior bands in Irish mythology and Scottish mythology, most notably in the stories of the Fenian Cycle, where they are led by Fionn mac Cumhaill....
of Irish myth are sometimes described as "giants". MacRitchie acknowledged these criticisms in his own writings but attempted to work around them and provide solutions:
Therefore in MacRitchie's view the Irish myths and folkloric accounts which describe the Fianna
Fianna
Fianna were small, semi-independent warrior bands in Irish mythology and Scottish mythology, most notably in the stories of the Fenian Cycle, where they are led by Fionn mac Cumhaill....
as "giants" only did so in a non-literal figurative sense to describe their savage type nature, not size. This idea was later expanded upon in his The Savages of Gaelic Tradition (1920) yet was not well received by contemporary folklorists. However ancient authors such as Macrobius shared MacRitchie's beliefs that the "giants" of mythology were not giants in size, but huge in impiety (or their primitiveness). According to MacRitchie there were also "two" Pictish races, the former were the aboriginal dark Lappish or Ainu
Ainu
Ainu or Aynu may refer to:*Ainu people, of Japan and the Russian Far East**Ainu language**Ainu music**Ainu cuisine*Ainu , a primordial spirit in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings*Äynu people, of Western China...
race while a later white-skinned red-headed group invaded them, who he considered the Caledonians
Caledonians
The Caledonians , or Caledonian Confederacy, is a name given by historians to a group of indigenous peoples of what is now Scotland during the Iron Age and Roman eras. The Romans referred to their territory as Caledonia and initially included them as Britons, but later distinguished as the Picts...
.
Gypsy Origin of British
In his Ancient and Modern Britons, MacRitchie claimed that the Gypsies were not of foreign origin, but were in fact the more conservative element of the native British population who had retained their nomadic way of life while the majority adopted a settled lifestyle. He further claimed that the ancient BritonsBrython
The Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...
were a dark-skinned people, a claim which elicited the interest of Afrocentrist
Afrocentrism
Afrocentrism is cultural ideology mostly limited to the United States, dedicated to the history of Black people a response to global racist attitudes about African people and their historical contributions by revisiting this history with an African cultural and ideological center...
authors, but has no support amongst mainstream historians or scientists.
Works
Publications by MacRitchie include:- Ancient and Modern Britons, a Retrospect, 1884
- Accounts of the Gypsies of India, 1886
- The Testimony of Tradition, 1890
- The AinosAinu peopleThe , also called Aynu, Aino , and in historical texts Ezo , are indigenous people or groups in Japan and Russia. Historically they spoke the Ainu language and related varieties and lived in Hokkaidō, the Kuril Islands, and much of Sakhalin...
, 1892 - The Underground Life, 1892
- Fians, Fairies and Picts, 1893
- Scottish Gypsies under the Stewarts 1894
- Pygmies in Northern Scotland, 1892
- Some Hebridean Antiquities, 1895
- Diary of a Tour through Great Britain, (editor) 1897
- The Northern Trolls, 1898
- Memories of the Picts, 1900
- Underground Dwellings, 1900
- Fairy Mounds, 1900
- SheltaShelta languageShelta is a language spoken by travelling communities, particularly in Ireland, but also parts of Great Britain. It is widely known as the Cant, to its native speakers in Ireland as Gammon and to the linguistic community as Shelta...
, the Caird's Language, 1901 - Hints of Evolution in Tradition, 1902
- The Arctic Voyage of 1653, 1909
- Celtic Civilisation, No date
- Druids and Mound Dwellers, 1910
- Les Pygmies chez les Anciens Egyptiens et les Hebreux (with S.T.H. Horowitz), 1912
- Les kayaks dans le nord de l'Europe, 1912
- Great and Little Britain, 1915
- The Celtic Numerals of Strathclyde, 1915
- The Duns of the North, 1917
- The Savages of Gaelic Tradition, 1920
- The Aborigines of Shetland and Orkney, 1924
External links
- Works by David MacRitchie at Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...