Paper short abstract:

The Jacobite movement in Scotland created images of power and heritage that find life in contemporary imagination and action. Oppression, sedition and war are re-formed through artistic qualities of material culture. This paper explores the impact of this on imagination and lived experience.

Paper long abstract:

The Jacobite movement has long held the interest of anthropologists, archaeologists and historians, curators, and politicians. Theologians and genealogists find shared interests as do economists, archaeologists, musicians and the military. Contemporary family life often finds its' roots in 'the '45' or indeed prior to, and others exercise imagination and create icons throughout the Highlands. Websites abound on the Jacobite cause and the Edinburgh High Street is filled with tourist memorabilia. Novels are written, movies made and television programs produced. Respects are paid to those ancestors who lie at Culloden and imaginations inspired at the battle cairn marking the battle of Prestonpans. These interests could be said to have 'coalesced' in 2017 when the National Museum of Scotland hosted the largest exhibition of Jacobite material culture ever held and entitled Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobites. Images and symbols of 'sedition', of 'romance', of 'majesty', of 'despair', of 'loss', of 'bravery' are emblematic and are experienced through the imagination of the viewer, where multiple lines connecting past, present and future transect. Importantly, these images and symbols also have meaning in national and international politics and influence debate, ideals and practicalities of autonomy and cultural interrogation. Images and symbols also can underpin lived experience - again transecting multiple connections. This paper explores the impact of the artistic qualities of Jacobite material culture on imagination and lived experience from anthropological, philosophical and applied perspectives.