Another question about clans--adopted children

[neloon]

I too have seen this written and indeed spoken about from time to time, but I have always considered it as a prime example of, " tourist board clap-trap".

Completely agree with Jock and paulhenry.
I really think that most Scots are not seriously bothered about about who wears which tartan - yes, it's quite nice to have a "reason" but "entitlement" is not that important. So, in the case of adoption, choices can be quite relaxed.
Alan

[MacMillans son]

I have a cousin who is adopted. He is as much a part of our family as any of the rest of us.

There is your answer! If at some point he wants to reattach to his biological family that would be entirely up to him, but I, IN NO WAY, would imply that it was an option that you are providing him any more than you would with a biological relative of yours. He is your family, and therefore your clan, unless he chooses to abandon you. " Yes son we are of Clan MacOnion, but if you want to go muddle around a bit and find another clan who you want to be a part of go right ahead" Would not be a conversation I would have with him.

[Dani Mac]

I have a grandson who is not a grandson by blood. I recently started kilting, and I am making him a kilt out of my family's tartan. He is my grandson, plain and simple. He is part of the family. As my mother has said, there's biological family and there's logical family. My opinion is that your cousin has a right to wear the family tartan, if he chooses.

[piperdbh]

We don't know how old the cousin is, but if it's a child who knows he was adopted, then if/when he asks about his "birth tartan", the family might explain it by saying he can wear either (or both) tartans, emphasizing that the family chose him to become a part of them. Or, as Brook said, just don't make an issue of it, and when he's old enough to find out on his own, if he cares, then that will be his decision.

[ThistleDown]

You have good answers from paulhenry and Jock, Bren. I think you were asking an entitlement question: does your adopted cousin have a "right" to the tartan of the family into which he was adopted. The simple answer is "yes", but it is important to separate the three forms of adoption being discussed here and recognise the difference between their use historically and their use today. Legal adoption doesn't change a biological past but sets the legal tone for the future; fostering was a form of gendering friendship or at least understanding between potentially adversarial families; changing one's surname to that of a landlord could be another means of engratiating, but was also a means by which the landlord could encourage what we call community today. In the first and the third there was acceptance into a clan; in the second the fostered child remained of his parental clan.

[CameronCat]

Asked:

"I have a cousin who is adopted.... Would it be considered inappropriate for him to wear our tartan?"

Answered:

"He is as much a part of our family as any of the rest of us."

[Dale Seago]

Where on earth do you get this idea from,it's complete nonsense, whilst there are instances of finer cloth being used for wealthier people or perhaps an unusual colour for a special person, the idea that you can classify tartans or wearer of tartan in this way is just another one of the many romanticisms and are simply without credibility and shouldn't be broadcast as fact

That whole color-scheme thing rang a bell and I was pretty sure it had to do with ancient Irish society from before the Gaelic colonization of Scotland; so I did a little looking around, and:

We are told in our legendary history that exact regulations for the wearing of colours by the different ranks of people were made by King Tigerumas (Teernmas) and by his successor, many centuries before the Christian era - a slave was to be dressed in clothes of one colour; a peasant or farmer in two; and so on up to a king and queen and an ollave of any sort: all of whom were privileged to wear six.

At the present day green is universally regarded as the national colour; but this is a very modern innovation, and as a matter of fact the ancient Irish had no national colour.
(http://www.alia.ie/tirnanog/sochis/xviiib.html)

[ThistleDown]

Yes, that's one of those sites, Dale. Tir na Nog is about mythology and legend.

[Paul Henry]

That whole color-scheme thing rang a bell and I was pretty sure it had to do with ancient Irish society from before the Gaelic colonization of Scotland; so I did a little looking around, and:

I know all about this, and I'm afraid that it is also rather fanciful, the stuff of myths and legends, and although there might be a few grains of truth somewhere within the stories , but not enough to be very creditable.

[Downunder Kilt]

I too have seen this written and indeed spoken about from time to time, but I have always considered it as a prime example of, " tourist board clap-trap".

Thanks for the happy memory you just gave me Jock. My dear departed father used to use the phase "clap-trap" whenever something was said that was out of kilter.