By the Burn's Side: Or, An Attempt to Create a Mid-twentieth Century (Family) Legendary from Scottish Southern New Zealand

Abstract

(1) 'Memory Hold-The-Door'. -- John Buchan, 1940, in the book of the same name. (2) 'It is the basis of the desire of any group of human beings to have a place of their own, a place which gives them reality, presence, power of living, which feeds them body and soul.' -- Paul Tillich, Theory of Culture, 1959. (3) 'I urge my readers, my generation, to gain insights into life's conflicts, to interpret their community.' -- Jyrki Kiskinen, writing in 1996. These mottoes should alert us all to the too oft-forgotten or ignored fact that, as we age, certain early experiences not written down in those moments, can indeed be rebuilt out of memory into reflective and comforting narratives. My paper will both follow, or reflect on, the theory of personal memory and it will outline a specific pattern of culture which I have been able to re-create.