''Tighinn o'n Cridhe'' - 'coming from the centre': an ethnography of sensory metaphor on Scottish Gaelic communal aesthetics

This dissertation draws upon local aesthetic attitudes held by members of the elder
\ngeneration of first-language Scottish Gaelic speakers in Cape Breton Island, Canada
\ntowards various forms of communally-based cultural expression as conceived through
\nmetaphor. Through such engagement one begins to sense the central role of emplaced
\nidentity alongside embodied experience in describing these forms. In many ways, to
\nthe ethnographic fieldworker, this is uncharted territory. Here fieldwork functions
\nwithin emic models of the cèilidh (visit) through collective social engagement in
\nseanchas, an intracultural form of metalinguistic and metacultural discourse. Such a
\nmethodological approach facilitates in unveiling an intersubjective understanding of
\npast, present and future acts, the forging of collective identity in the social world and
\nfinding meaning in cultural expression.
\n
\nIn the context of this dissertation, what began as a seanchas-based exploration
\ninto local ethnoaesthetic attitudes revealed a wealth of metaphor in various
\nabstractions arising out of our shared discourse. Such organically yet creatively
\nconceived metaphors function between that which is symbolic and habitual, capable
\nof crossing the boundaries of genre and breaking-down the partitions of that which is
\nat once deemed abstract and concrete. Through the conceptual metaphor theories of
\nGeorge Lakoff and Mark Johnson among others, this works employs a dynamic
\nsystem of interpretation that, when working in this ethnolinguistic context, makes full
\nuse of the available body of cultural and linguistic knowledge both synchronically and
\ndiachronically.
\n
\nThis ethnography of metaphor, therefore, follows a pathway arising out of a
\nsequential understanding of sensory experience in interpreting both identity and
\naesthetic thought as expressed by these Scottish Gaels. Beginning with individual
\norientation in time and space through cultural, social and emotional engagement with
\nboth the physical and cognitive landscape, the ethnography goes on to explore both a
\nsynaesthetic and kinaesthetic awareness of the various ways in which we conceive
\nexpressive sound in its flow. Within this conceptual metaphor framework a system is
\nunveiled in which the expression of communal tradition is seen as emanating from a
\nshared cridhe (heart/centre). Subsequently, the transmission of this knowledge is
\nconceptualised among encultured individuals as capable of being metaphorically
\neaten and, therefore, (re)internalised in the body. Such an understanding is
\nintrinsically linked to the mutual aesthetic appreciation of language and music
\nthrough their blas (taste). Ultimately, these metaphors are rooted in an integrated
\nsystem oriented towards the collective attainment of social wellbeing and a principal
\ndesire to sustain that which they serve to describe.

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