Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-r5zm4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-29T08:45:41.097Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Pattern Recognition: Governmental Regulation of Tartan and Commodification of Culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2015

Megan Rae Blakely
Megan Rae Blakely*
Affiliation:
CREATe Centre, University of Glasgow. Email: m.blakely.1@research.gla.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

It is notoriously difficult to design and attach suitable legal rights to intangible cultural heritage (ICH), due to its nature as an evolving, living heritage. This article investigates the effects of government intervention relating to Scottish tartan in order to trace the relationship between formal proprietary rights, commodification, and cultural branding. The article proceeds in three steps: from (1) the historical context of the Jacobite rebellion and the subsequent Victorian assignment of the tartan to clans; to (2) the formation and function of the subsequent self-regulating community tartan registers; and (3) the 2009 governmental intervention with the establishment of a governmental tartan register, subsuming the community groups’ role in self-regulating tartan. While past ICH protection efforts have focused primarily on developing countries, the example of tartan raises wider concerns about the social and economic impact of the subtle erosion or, conversely, the ossification of living heritages. Finally, some alternatives are considered within the IP regime, such as sui generis protection, while highlighting the challenges of reconciling the domestic regulation of diverse ICH.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Cultural Property , Volume 22 , Issue 4 , November 2015 , pp. 487 - 504
Copyright
Copyright © International Cultural Property Society 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Botes, L., and van Rensburg, D.. 2000. “Community Participation in Development: Nine Plagues and Twelve Commandments.” Community Development Journal 35, no. 1: 41–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Comaroff, John L., and Comaroff, Jean. 2009. Ethnicity, Inc. Chicago: University Press of Chicago.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coombe, R. 2005. “Legal Claims to Culture in and Against the Market.” Law, Culture and the Humanities 1, no. 1: 35–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deacon, H., Dondolo, L., Mrubata, M., and Prosalendis, S.. 2003. The Subtle Power of Intangible Cultural Heritage: Legal and Financial Instruments for Safeguarding Intangible Heritage. Cape Town: HSRC Publishers.Google Scholar
Dutfield, G., and Suthersanen, U.. 2008. Global International Property Law. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Grant, C. 2012. “Analogies and Links between Cultural and Biological Diversity.” Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development 2, no. 2: 153–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herbert, S. 2008. “Glasgow Commonwealth Games Bill: Parliamentary Consideration Prior to Stage 3.” Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) Briefing 08/24 (29 April),http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Research%20briefings%20and%20fact%20sheets/SB08-24.pdf (accessed 14 October 2015).Google Scholar
Howell, D. 2013. “The Intangible Cultural Heritage of Wales: A Need for Safeguarding?” International Journal of Intangible Heritage 8: 104–16.Google Scholar
Josling, T. 2006. “The War on Terrior: Geographical Indications as a Transatlantic Trade Conflict.” Journal of Agricultural Economy 57, no. 3: 337–63.Google Scholar
Kurin, R. 2004. “Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in the 2003 UNESCO Convention: A Critical Appraisal.” Museum International 56, no. 1–2: 66–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lixinski, L. 2013. Intangible Cultural Heritage in International Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCleery, Alison, et al. 2008. “Scoping and Mapping Intangible Cultural Heritage in Scotland Final Report.” Edinburgh: Edinburgh Napier University and Museums Galleries Scotland, http://www.museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk/research-and-resources/resources/publications/publication/71/scoping-and-mapping-intangible-cultural-heritage-in-scotland-final-report (accessed 14 October 2015).Google Scholar
Nair, R. L., and Kumar, R.. 2005. Geographical Indications: A Search for Identity. New Delhi: LexisNexis Butterworths.Google Scholar
Paterson, R., and Karjala, D.. 2003. “Looking Beyond Intellectual Property in Resolving Protection of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Indigenous Peoples.” Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law 11, no. 2: 633–70.Google Scholar
Prott, L., and O’Keefe, P.. 1992. “‘Cultural Heritage’ or ‘Cultural Property’?” International Journal of Cultural Property 1, no. 2: 307–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scafidi, S. 2001. Intellectual Property and Cultural Products, 81 B.U. L. REV. 793.Google Scholar
Throsby, D. 2011. “Cultural Capital.” In A Handbook of Cultural Economics, 2nd ed., edited by Towse, R., 142–46. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.Google Scholar
Thual, D., et al. 2009. Study on the Protection of Geographical Indications for Products other than Wines, Spirits, Agricultural Products or Foodstuffs. Commissioned by the Directorate General for Trade of the European Commission, http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2011/may/tradoc_147926.pdf (accessed 5 August 2015)Google Scholar
Trevor-Roper, H. 1983. “The Invention of Tradition: The Highland Tradition of Scotland.” In The Invention of Tradition, edited by Hobsbawn, E. and Ranger, T., 15–42. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
UNESCO. 2008. “Links between Biological and Cultural Diversity: Report of the International Workshop (26–28 September 2007).” Paris: UNESCO.Google Scholar
United Nations Environment Programme. 1999. Rio Declaration on Environment and Development UNCED 1992, http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=78&ArticleID=1163&l=en (accessed 5 August 2015).Google Scholar
Urquhart, B. 1994. Identifying Tartans: The New Compact Study Guide and Identifier. London: Apple.Google Scholar