Representing the Disputed Past of Northern Scotland: <em>The Highland Clearances in Museums</em>

Abstract

The past and its representation have been the focus of much recent work in the area of cultural studies, history, sociology and anthropology; interdisciplinary approaches have also enhanced our knowledge of the social function of memory. In particular, the importance of the past and process of remembrance in identity construction, individual and collective, has been repeatedly highlighted. Since the appearance of Halbwachs’s seminal work on collective memory, the concept has been alternatively employed as self-explanatory, with caution, or rejected; it has been redefined and fine-tuned to suit different perspectives. Collective memory will be used here to signify the past as it is represented in those “sites” whose object it is, in Western societies, to fulfill that particular task. Monuments, history books, commemorations, galleries and museums are among such sites. All partake in the production of history and never stand in pure innocence but are subject to powerful forces of a political, social or economic nature as well as conventions linked with professional practices or scientific methods. Museums of history in particular are quintessential sites of memory. They project a vision of a shared past through the history they produce and the narrative they construct. This inevitably implies selection and interpretation: the production of historical texts and the projection of a communal identity offered to the gaze of others—outside visitors—and reflected back to the surrounding community. The study of their social