I think it's so interesting how similar everyday life is over the centuries. My mom and dad got married in 1956. So my mother was an actual 50s housewife. My dad was career military. I can tell you it was exactly the way Marian described it. When my father was deployed my mom ran everything and when he was home she would let him appear to be the head of the household but in reality she still was in charge. She controlled everything from the finances to the children's education. If it involved the family she had final say. My dad had a say and when it came to the outside world he would take the lead. Women have been keeping the home fires burning for millennia. So interesting!
Same here! My dad was an airline pilot and gone for 3 days, home for 1 day and then gone for another 3 days. When he was home it was his job to make sure the car was taken care of, as well as any painting or repairing of the house. He mowed the lawn. He loved to go fishing and was happy to take the family for weekend and vacation trips to do just that. But it was Mom who tended the flower and vegetable gardens. Both of them went the through the Great Depression and Drought of the 1930's as children. They learned very early in their lives how to get by on very little and make much out of less.
My parents were born in the ‘20s. Daddy always used to laugh when I asked if he was in charge. He said I’m king of this castle as long as your mother lets me. 47 years together. Miss them both terribly.
It is true, My mamá was in charged of the house and was the head of My family but she don't pretend to show that My father was the household SHE WAS THE BOSS as the good Spanish lady she was😂
In my country we say "the father is the head of the family, but the mother is the neck that moves it." Which is exactly what you are describing. Too bad feminism is taking that power away from women.
I have been there and I have met that lovely lassie. Her commitment was amazing and my kids were entertained by her description of how life was for a XVIII century family. Kudos to that museum and definitely worthy of a visit
What a treasure she is 😊. My only complaint is that I want more. Her voice is like a calming breeze, the genuine smile, the earnest care that flows from herself.... just.... it's just something that the world needs more of. Blessings to you and yours
True enough! Work with animals and the land long enough and you learn pretty well that any task left undone can have bad consequences later, even if it doesn't seem important in the moment.
It was generally a loving cooperation too between the men and women of the Highlands, as they both needed and wanted one another, a partnership without which they could never have survived such a beautiful, yet harsh environment.
@@franckorphanos2998 And the English/Americans/Canadians have done a good job on making us Native peoples forget ours as well. Those of us who hang on despite the forced assimilation policies and practices are treated with more than just a bit of disdain, often hostility, and told we're "living in the past." Yeah, well, mate that past was a hell of a lot better then what has been dumped on us as "the future."
@@nobody-special000 Why assimilate? If we like something another people does or has, we'll learn it and make it part of us. If not, then we'll decline. Some people just can't accept that other people have rich traditions that they hold dear and don't want to have other eays forced on them.
I'm a Lowland Scot. Very interesting to hear about my Highland counterparts from years gone by. I can spin, weave and knit. I bake bread also. Come the apocalypse I'll hopefully be able to barter.
The blood is strong. I'm a child of the Ulster Scots and grew up in the High Country of North Carolina. I was taught how to forge for wild greens and how to harvest barks and roots for teas and medicine. I don't think these skills are taught any longer and that's rather sad. Thanks for taking the time and hard work needed to present another great video.
Love the idea of that. My eyes are always on the ground. I have found a lot of $ that way. I truly believe my ancesters were hunter-gatherers! 😂😂😂 It's in my genes.
Would love to see more videos like this.. including what life was like for children.. from birth to puberty.. Also what weddings and funerals were like.. And what foods did they eat and how was it prepared.. As we are new to this channel.. have not yet explored all the videos.. Those we have seen are beautiful and make us nostalgic for our homeland.. which we have never been privileged to see.. Please thank Tom for this channel and for his incredible videos.. we love all that we have seen.. Thank you so much from William and Jen 💜💙🌻🌹
Wow, well done keeping up a traditional craft and we should all be wearing more wool. I’ve gone back to wearing woollen bush shirts and jumpers and away from artificial fleece. It feels both warm and refreshing, so much more breathable.
Spinning yarn and other tasks to do with making cloth & clothing is something every woman, and also older men and children, would do, often constantly, even when walking about. Fascinating to see images of women spinning as they walk somewhere, or minding their children or the cooking pot/fire. My understanding is also that everyone, regardless of gender, knit things like socks, as they were constantly needed! Loved the video!
😊❤ My mother told me how her mother, born in the 18hundreds, would walk from one town to the next on foot, while knitting socks. She was a farm girl, and had one sister and 7 brothers. She planted flax, spun and weaved linen herself. She had all those skills, from a long time ago. My mother's side of the family was from East Germany. Once upon a time called Prussia.
watched this while spinning wool from a fleece that i got from a local farmer - very fitting! i loved listening to your conversation ❤️ these skills are so important to keep alive.
This is a great presentation simply in the face of it. You just don’t see much on the subject of women’s roles and day to day life of Highlanders in general. I myself have a Strong Matrilineal line back to Clan Ferguson . Which seems to indicate Pictish. If true the role of women in that period is very very murky but seems to be an arrangement in which women exclusively owned property and largely controlled the political system . Which In turn allowed for the men to have a more military and herding life.
There are pretty much no verified instances anywhere or anytime of a human political system being predominantly controlled by women for any significant stretch of time. Given the Picts were almost certainly Indo-Europeans, matriarchy is especially unlikely. More likely, the political power gap on the basis of sex was likely relatively small, as tends to be the case for less affluent and thus less rigidly hierarchical societies.
@@nevisysbryd7450 big difference between matriarchal and matrilineal… you may want to look into that basically property/wealth transfer as opposed to political or governing power. It’s a subtle but important difference.
@@kristenvincent3622 I am aware. I was responding to the very last bit of the OP, not the matrilineal part. Matrilineal and matrilocal societies have absolutely existed.
@@kristenvincent3622 As for matrilineal, a DNA study only recently showed no strong matrilineal genetic inheritance traits in one sample area. People will shout about it only being in one area and yes more areas need covering and that is upcoming. That's the problem with people on the Pictish Identity bandwagon. A hefty amount of knowledge about the Picts has been debunked and discredited though these early attempts at writing Pictish history are embarrassingly still a popular source to draw from.
I love to use fresh food from my garden and foraging. And I preserve a lot of it, too. My grandmother was a busy example of an indusrious farm oriented woman. She grew food and raised livestock, sold food, and preserved it. Seventy years after meeting her I'm still doing that. Sometimes I put on TouTube while I'm planting and weeding. Fall beans and winter squash are going in today.
First time I clicked on this channel, was to potentially help give me some insight & research for a 17th c Scottish Highlands setting for part of a novel I'm working on -- now, I just enjoy the channel
I love this new video, Tom! The village you're featuring is absolutely stunning. Working in a place like that would be a dream come true! I'm now fascinated by the stories of the women who lived in the Highlands and the crucial role they played in Highland history and culture. You've really opened my eyes to a new aspect of Scottish heritage. Keep up the great work, and I can't wait for your next video!
Exciting. In Emma Wiley's book "The Visions of Isobel Gowdie," she discusses what a woman's life was like in 17th century Scotland, for context of the larger story, its very cool to actually see examples of it irl.
Thanks, Tom and Marian; this was a great and needed interview. I loved her line about surviving the apocalypse; I fear that may be among her truest statements in the years to come. Such a primitive lifestyle seems horrible, until it's literally your last resort.
Now that we know you play that beautiful flute like instrument.. we wondered if the lovely background music in your videos is of your own making? Also .. have you ever made a recording of your playing? We believe it would we marketable indeed.. we would surely want one.. Your music you make.. kit is achingly beautiful..💜💙
i am looking forward to my holiday to the highlands and the highland folk museum and prestonpans in september. I intend to wear my 1740's kit the entire week while i see all these sites. Cannot wait to learn from you all
They say that before mechanized yarn/thread spinning, women of every class except the very highest had to spin at all times when their hands were not needed for other tasks. Spinning was a skill that the youngest girls were taught, and they spent a large portion of every day doing it, including while walking. It took a lot of time to spin enough yarn to sell it or weave it into cloth.
Thank you very much, Marion! At 5:35, she mentions kale growing in "kale yards" and mentions rabbits. Is she saying "There were no rabbits back then?" It's a little hard for me to tell, and the subtitles I don't think tell it properly. Is she saying there were very few rabbits? Is she saying there were no rabbits in that area at that time? I am just so used to the critters in my area that it seems highly unlikely that no rabbits were around then. As a new gardener, I am learning the perils of garden pests like rabbits and deer, so I'm very curious about this.
there should be a collection of communities like this all over europe for people who want to live a simple life similar to how their ancestors did. a great way to keep tradtions and cultural heritage alive
One glaring difference between today and back in history: Marions clothing is nice and white and clean and no holes; this is not what clothes would have looked like in history; most of the time they were dirty and they were remade from other clothing that had already been worn by someone (most likely in the family before); it would have been the job of the women to make and remake clothing over and over and over again--when the scraps got too small, then they would save them in a bag and then remake them into a quilt blanket--with none of the scraps matching in color--but it would keep them sort of warm...these would have been saved and given as gifts for a birthday or at Christmas...it would have been a very big deal to receive a quilt...the women would also take wool off the shorn sheep and spin it into thread and then weave it into cloth, if they had these skills they were most fortunate indeed...dts/usa
I’ve been married for 15 year and I’m far Scotland but live in America. I’ve got 6 children and I live “old fashioned”. I manage everything from baking all our bread and cooking fae scratch, teaching the weans and managing the money. My husband brings the money in and takes care of the outside. I’m holistic and know how to use a’ the things about me
Wonderful video, Tom! For all you do for Scotland, I hope you become more recognized for the good work you do. Good point about urine. We purchase products and throw away a perfectly good free product from our bodies. Maybe an entrepreneur could market bottles of 100% Scottish pee.
A QUESTION to be put towards MARION perhaps for another time: What would silver weed have tasted like? 2nd question for Marion: (Re: Smell / use of urine) So while people would both wash (themselves / clothes) in the river bleach and 'clean' their clotges w/ urine only to turn around and carry the scent of urine on your clothes all over, again. Was there ever a time they did not smell of urine? I read in one book mentioning the monarchy of the time and they basically said that the monarchy hated it when they came to meet with them because they said that the people from The Highlands always smelled so bad !!
I have read that most of these areas that are now rocky grasslands were some hundreds of years ago forests. Is that accurate? Has anyone seriously suggested that there be a reforestation effort?
I retired from a suburb of Los Angeles, to a very rural property in SW Washington state. I garden, planted an orchard, keep chickens, Muscovy ducks, and goats. My Billygoat, every autumn, works on creating his very distinctive odour to attract the ladies by urinating on himself. As it ferments it becomes verra, verra, pungent. But it's part of my life. So when I can smell him from the front porch, I simply raise my mug, and day good morning! I forage, put up foodstuff by canning, drying, freezing, tincturing herbs. And do most of the repairs around my place. I'll be 71 next week, and am not without aches & pains; but I adore this life I have chosen. I am aware that many of my friends think I'm slightly cray-cray, but I'm slso Zombie Apocalypse ready.
I agree with the kids who say gran would survive the apocalypse 👍🏻😉 Compared to the wisdom and skills of people living back then most of us are absolutely doomed 😆
I cannot help but look at how much land and outdoors are available. From a cityperson's point of view, this is privilege. Its like how people lived off the land as hunter-gatherers, but required immense territory to do it in. If you can't understand the limitations placed on people that are out of their control, you got no business judging them.
Bonjour. Watching without understanding half of it (thanks to subtiles)... I was wondering how much different those sooooo interesting people were from those who lived in the foregone past, from neolithic onward. We learn "nos ancêtres les gaulois". Here she is.
I love how Tom's accent becomes a lot stronger when talking to her. I do the same with my accent when I speak with people with very broad Australian accents.
@colourful8778 as an Aussie I never thought myself as having a broad accent. I was raised by a Glaswegian father and Maori mother in Australia so our family accent is very mixed, like licorice all sorts as my Glaswegian Nanna would say. Lol
