Quote Originally Posted by actualrealproperscot View Post
The clan system is dead, the clan system has ceased to exist for many, many years. Clan societies etc. nowdays are nothing more than a club for people with similar sounding last names. In scotland people pick out tartans by what colours and patterns they like. ANYONE can wear any clan tartan wether they are chinese, english or scottish.
At last someone speaking sense. I know there is a strong desire among some to feel that they somehow belong to a clan but the sad truth is that they don't exist in any meaningful form and haven't since the Highland Clearances when the then clan chieftans decided that raising sheep was a more lucrative occupation and kicked all their clan members off the land. This is hardly a good reason for anyone to feel allegiance to the descendants of those who perpetrated such disgraceful acts of betrayal against their own kinsmen but time and distance have obviously proven great healers. Clan tartans are little more than a useful way of categorising the different patterns, many devised by wealthy families grown rich on the hardship of others to wear at aristocratic balls, and a particular surname can be as useful a way of deciding which one to choose as any other.