David MacRitchie

David MacRitchie (16 April 1851 – 14 January 1925) was a Scottish folklorist and antiquarian. He also published Ancient and Modern Britons, a book considered pseudo-history by modern scholars but which is extensively quoted by proponents of Afrocentrism.

Background

David MacRitchie was the younger son of William Dawson MacRitchie and Elizabeth Elder MacRitchie. He was born in Edinburgh and attended the Edinburgh Southern Academy, the Edinburgh Institute and the University of Edinburgh. He did not gain a degree but qualified as a Chartered Accountant. His father had been a surgeon in the East India Company.

Career as folklorist

In 1888 MacRitchie founded the Gypsy Lore Society to study the history and lore of Gypsies. He was also a member of several folklore societies. In 1914 he joined the Council of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, serving as vice-president from 1917 – 1920. He was noted for his interest in archaeology, being appointed as a trustee for Lord Abercromby's endowment for an Archaeology department at the University of Edinburgh. He was also a member of the Scottish Arts Club and Vice-president of the Philosophical Institution.

In 1922 until his death he served as the treasurer of the Scottish Anthropological and Folklore Society.

Folklore

Fairies as Picts

See also: Fairies

David MacRitchie was an outspoken proponent of the euhemeristic origin of fairies, goblins, brownies and other beings and creatures of British folklore. He argued they were rooted in a real diminutive or pygmy-statured indigenous population that lived during the late Stone Age across the British Isles, especially Scotland:

"Postulations based on the premise that fairies constitute a folk memory of former races, conquered peoples who were pushed out beyond the periphery of settled areas, have fuelled the imagination of many scholars on this subject. Of particular significance was a theory advanced by David MacRitchie that fairies were an actual race of small or 'little' people, the original Pict[ish] peoples of Scotland."

MacRitchie developed what became known as the "Pygmy-Pict theory" in his The Testimony of Tradition (1890) and Fians, Fairies and Picts (1893) regarding fairies to have been folk memories of the aboriginal Picts who in his view were of very small size, pointing to findings of short doors (3 – 4 ft in height) of chambers, underground dwellings, long barrows, as well as quoting old literature such as Adam of Bremen's Historia Norwegiæ which describe the Picts of Orkney as "only a little exceeding pygmies in stature". The folklorist John Francis Campbell, who MacRitchie cited, had also written in his Popular Tales of the West Highlands (1860–62):

"I believe there once was a small race of people in these islands, who are remembered as fairies [...] the fairy was probably a Pict."

File:Ainu from The Testimony of Tradition (1890).jpg

Illustration of a short-statured Ainu from David MacRitchie's The Testimony of Tradition (1890). MacRitchie believed the native inhabitants of Britain looked similar.

Different ideas in the late 19th century surfaced concerning the racial origin of the dwarf-sized Pict aborigines of Britain and these theories ranged from proposing that they were real African Pygmies, or Lapps. MacRitchie argued in his Testimony of Tradition, under a chapter subheading entitled "A Hairy Race" that they were somewhat Lappish, but were distinctive, discussing their Australoid or Ainu features, concluding: "one seems to see the type of a race that was even more like the Ainu than the Lapp, or the Eskimo, although closely connected in various ways with all of these" . Turning to Norse mythology Walter Scott had earlier pioneered the "Lapp−dwarf parallel", writing "there seems reason to conclude that these duergar [dwarfs] were originally nothing else than the diminutive natives of the Lappish, Lettish and Finnish nations". Sven Nilsson's The primitive inhabitants of Scandinavia (1868) also identified the dwarves of Norse and Germanic myths with Lapps. In The Northern Trolls (1898) and The Aborigines of Shetland and Orkney (1924) MacRitchie further attempted to rationalize the finfolk, selkies and mermaids of Orkney, Faroese and Scottish folklore:

"Macritchie agreed that the idea of fairy brides originated in folk memories of actual and forceful women. He was most interested in the seal maidens or selkies of Scotland and the Shetland Islands. MacRitchie argued that these figures were probably Finnish or Lappish females, who because of their sealskin clothing and kayaks, had been misidentified as selkies or as mermaids. Captured by Shetlanders and coastal Scots and intermarried with them, making excellent housekeeper and mothers, these women had given rise to numerous regional tales of fairy brides."

Reception

Fairy euhemerism once appealed to many folklorists who used it to justify colonialism and a racial hierarchy of "lower" and "higher" races:

That fairies and their lore resulted from the clash of cultures or races - had been earlier and more explicitly stated by others, including Alfred C. Haddon, George Laurence Gomme, and John Stuart Stuart-Glennie. It became a particularly useful concept in an era of imperial expansion [...] The racial composition of the fairies, their inferior or superior status, and their place in British history became major issues, especially to those who took the historical-realist or euhemerist position. The euhemerists believed that fairies were derived from an early group of invaders of the British Isles or from the British aborigines themselves".

MacRitchie's "Pygmy-Pict theory" was notably criticized by T. Rice Holmes who wrote: "The fact remains that no evidence has been produced that a race of pre-Neolithic or even prehistoric pygmies existed in this country." Skeptical folklorists such as Wentz also noted that the various beings MacRitchie considered to be diminutive, are sometimes described as giants. MacRitchie acknowledged this criticism, but provided a solution:

In regarding the Fians as a race of dwarfs, I do not overlook the fact that they are also spoken of as 'giants'. But to assume them to have been of gigantic stature is both totally at variance with the bulk of the evidence regarding them, and at variance with the fact that the word "giant" has very frequently been used to denote a savage, or a cave−dweller."

Ancient authors such as Macrobius shared MacRitchie's beliefs that the "giants" of mythology were not always giants in size, but huge in impiety, or their primitiveness.

Ancient and Modern Britons

In his Ancient and Modern Britons (1884), MacRitchie claims the indigenous peoples of Britain from time immemorial were Australoid: "The color of the skin is some shade of chocolate brown; the eyes are very dark brown or black. The hair is usually raven-black, fine and silky in texture". These black aborigines included the Britons during the Iron Age. People with white skin supposedly only appeared when the Belgae (accompanied by Germanics) migrated into south-east Britain, c. 100 BCE, so that: "In the time of Caesar, and certainly that of Tacitus, there existed two distinct types of population: the one of tall stature, with fair skin, yellow hair, and blue eyes; the other of short stature, with dark skin (as dark as an Ethiopian's)". These light skinned fair-haired peoples MacRitchie described as Xanthochroi ("fair whites"), borrowing the term from Thomas Huxley (1870). According to MacRitchie the black aborigines began to dwindle in number by the beginning of the Middle Ages (6th-7th century), having been mostly killed and displaced by the white colonists:

...the two great types appear as enemies; which was their natural attitude. And a great number of the legendary instances preserve the memory of this mutual enmity. The black 'giants' of the Welsh, and other tales, are 'hateful' and horrid. The Welsh Black Oppressor, and the Black Knight of Lancashire are fierce tyrants, and cruel foes of all white people. At a later date, when the whites were gaining ascendancy, and the blacks cut up into straggling bands, or lurking, like the Black Morrow of Galloway, in solitary dens and forest-shades, out of which they issued by night, intent on murder and rapine - even at this stage of their history, the blacks were the dreaded enemies of the whites.

A small number of black aborigines managed to apparently survive in caves and woods up to the Early Modern Period (an example being Black Morrow, a late 15th century bandit).

Mating between the white and black races, had produced Melanochroi, "dark[er] whites" (peoples with olive and tawny skin).

MacRitchie proposed Gypsies of his era were not of foreign origin, but were in fact the last remnant of the black native population who had retained their more primitive way of life. These Gypsies however were not pure-blood aborigines, who no longer existed: "The tawniest Gypsy... probably but a half-blood, and most of them are something like quadroons".

Misquotes, mistranslations and quoting out of context

Ancient and Modern Britons misquotes, mistranslates and quotes out of context several sources to suggest the ancient Britons were dark skinned:

• In his Natural History (xxii. 2), the Roman author Pliny wrote the Britons "stain all the body, and at certain religious ceremonies march along naked, with a colour resembling that of Ethiopians." MacRitchie falsely quotes this as saying the Britons were "as black as an Ethiopian". Pliny however is describing a dye as having stained their body as dark as the Ethiopians, not their natural skin hue; elsewhere in the same work (ii. 80), Pliny describes native peoples of the north (including Britain) as having white skin and blonde hair.

• Tacitus in his Agricola (xi) wrote Silurum colorati vultus and MacRitchie translates colorati as black or brown, to describe the Silures as a "dark population". However the Latin dictionary Lewis and Short, translates colorati as to "give colour", or to "tinge". The full passage which MacRitchie does not quote, shows the context is a sunburnt or tanned olive complexion pointing to Hispania and Iberia (et posita contra Hispania, Iberos veteres trajeeisse). While not pale - this is a much lighter skin hue than what he had in mind.

• Claudian, is mistranslated by MacRitchie as "He subdued the nimble blackamoors, not wrongly named 'the painted people' (Picts)". From this mistranslation of Ille leves Mauros, nec falso nomine Pictos Edomuit, MacRitchie equates the Mauri people or Moors, from maurus (meaning dark skinned) with the Picts: "the British Picts, like those of other lands, stand out again as dark skinned men". The correct translation is very different: "He conquered the fleet Moors and the well-named Picts" referring to the Gildonic revolt in North Africa and Stilicho's Pictish War under the rule of Emperor Honorius; Claudian did not think the Mauri and the Picts were the same, or describe the latter as dark skinned.

• Gildas in his De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae describes the Picts and Scoti as tetri greges, meaning a "hideous swarm (herd)". MacRitchie mistranslates tetri (horrid, hideous, repulsive) as black, to argue erroneously Gildas is describing the Picts and Scoti as "the black herds of Scots and Picts, referring to their dark skin complexion.

• An 11th century Gaelic poem ("A eolcha Albain uile") describes Duncan I of Scotland as having a yellow-red countenance, which MacRitchie considers to be tawny skin, i.e. as evidence of mixture with the black natives. The following line in the same verse (27) of the poem actually shows the countenance of Duncan is symbolic: "Of the race of Ere, high, clear in gold", but MacRitchie does not quote this line, thus distorting the context.

• MacRitchie quotes The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia (page 73) by John Mactaggart about Black Morrow (also known as Black Murray): "Tradition has him as a Blackimore", but omits a sentence where Mactaggart states: "So goes tradition — but my opinion, if it be worth any thing, is, that he was no Blackimore". According to Mactaggart, Black Morrow was not a Moor and the 'Black' in his name derived from his bad deeds since he was an outlaw: "a bloody man, gloomy with foul crimes, Black prefaced it, as did Black Douglas, and that of others; so he became Black Murray". MacRitchie instead claims the 'Black' in Black Morrow derives from his dark complexion which is unsubstantiated.

Afrocentrism

MacRitchie's eccentric theory the ancient Britons were black people has never been taken serious by modern scholarship, but has elicited the interest of contemporary Afrocentrist authors, despite him writing the dark skinned British natives were not woolly haired (like most Sub-Saharan Africans), but had hair-texture of a wavy-silky texture like Australian Aborigines. MacRitchie did not also think the dark skinned natives of Britain were from Africa, instead looking towards south-east Asia.

Paradoxically, while Afrocentrists support MacRitchie's theories, he was a white supremacist. Ancient and Modern Britons portrays the black British natives as savages, cannibals, and during the Middle Ages, as outlaws, rapists and thieves. The white skinned fair-haired invaders (who arrived just before Caesar's invasions of Britain) in contrast are depicted as the civilizers who were justified in exterminating the blacks because they were an inferior barbaric race. MacRitchie's main reasoning for placing black people in pre-Roman Britain was to eliminate white people as ever having had ancestors who were primitive (i.e. the Romans described the Britons as naked or poorly-clothed, tattooed and of poor hygiene): "The Ancient Britons were my ancestors, and the tattooed-races of today are dark complexioned men: how could my ancestors be anything but white men too?" asks MacRitchie in the introduction of his book.

Works

File:MacRITCHIE(1886) The Gypsies of India.jpg

Accounts of the Gypsies of India (1886)

Books by MacRitchie include:

• Ancient and Modern Britons, a Retrospect, 1884 (2 volumes)
• Accounts of the Gypsies of India, 1886
• The Testimony of Tradition, 1890
• The Ainos, 1892
• The Underground Life, 1892
• Fians, Fairies and Picts, 1893
• Scottish Gypsies under the Stewarts 1894
• Pygmies in Northern Scotland, 1892
• Some Hebridean Antiquities, 1895
• Diary of a Tour through Great Britain, (editor) 1897
• The Northern Trolls, 1898
• Memories of the Picts, 1900
• Underground Dwellings, 1900
• Fairy Mounds, 1900
• Shelta, the Caird's Language, 1901
• Hints of Evolution in Tradition, 1902
• The Arctic Voyage of 1653, 1909
• Celtic Civilisation, No date
• Druids and Mound Dwellers, 1910
• Les Pygmies chez les Anciens Egyptiens et les Hebreux (with S.T.H. Horowitz), 1912
• Les kayaks dans le nord de l'Europe, 1912
• Great and Little Britain, 1915
• The Celtic Numerals of Strathclyde, 1915
• The Duns of the North, 1917
• The Savages of Gaelic Tradition, 1920
• The Aborigines of Shetland and Orkney, 1924

Papers:

• A New Solution of the Fairy Problem. (1909). The Celtic Review. 6(22): 160-176.
• "The House of the Dwarfs". (1913). The Celtic Review. 8(32): 289-295.

Sources

• Allen, Grant. (1881). "Who Were the Fairies". Cornhill Magazine. 43: 335-348.
• Evans-Wentz, W. Y. (1911). The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries. "Anthropological Examination of the Evidence" [Chapter]. H. Frowde.
• Macculloch, C. J. A. (1932). "Were Fairies an Earlier Race of Men?". Folklore. 43(4): 362-375.
• Silver, C. (1986). "On the Origin of Fairies: Victorians, Romantics, and Folk Belief". Browning Institute Studies. 14: 141-156.
• Silver, C. (1987). "East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Victorians and Fairy Brides". Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature. 6(2): 283-298.
• Silver, C. (1998). Strange and Secret Peoples: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness. Oxford University Press.
• Hendersen, L., Cowan, E. J. (2001). Scottish Fairy Belief: A History. Tuckwell Press.
• Grydehøj, A. (2013). "Ethnicity and the origins of local identity in Shetland, UK-Part I: Picts, Vikings, Fairies, Finns, and Aryans". J. Mar. Is. Cult. 2(1): 39-48.
• Grydehøj, A. (2013). "Ethnicity and the origins of local identity in Shetland, UK-Part II: Picts, Vikings, Fairies, Finns, and Aryans". J. Mar. Is. Cult. 2(2), 107-114.

External links

• Works by David MacRitchie at Project Gutenberg