Caterwauling and Demon Raising: The Ancient Rite of the Taghairm?
The taghairm refers to an ‘ancient’ Scottish rite of divination or prophecy used, presumably only resorted to in extremis, as a practice aimed at gaining knowledge or to foretell future events. Three methods of the taghairm are identified as follows: water-, hide- and cat-summons. Occasionally, the first two methods are found in combination but for the sake of clarity these will be classed separately before considering the last-mentioned method involving cat sacrifice. All three methods are mentioned by Martin Martin (c. 1668–1718), a native Hebridean from the Isle of Skye, whose A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland, circa 1695 (1703), provides some of the earliest ethnographical descriptions, and much else besides, of supernatural beliefs, customs, traditions, and ways of life then current in Gaelic Scotland. The purpose of this presentation is to explore the taghairm traditions in their cultural context and, more specifically, to analyse the most bizarre taghairm rite involving cat sacrifice, or feline immolation, rendered by William Mackay taghairm nan cat [summons of cats]. Before discussing the taghairm of cats in greater detail, the other two methods of the taghairm will be analysed and discussed in the light of various antiquarian notices, especially accounts given in both Irish and Welsh traditions as well as those identified in classical sources. In light of this discussion, I hope then to offer some tentative conclusions regarding the origins and cultural development of taghairm nan cat.
Bio
Andrew Wiseman is a cultural historian, specialising in the Scottish Highlands from the late medieval to the modern period, who has developed a keen interest in Scottish Gaelic intangible culture. He is currently editing a number of works and has authored around twenty chapters and articles as well as numerous blogs and mainstream publications. As editor of the forthcoming titles Your Work Will Remain: Diaries of Calum I. Maclean (1951–1954), From Lochaber, Badenoch, Morar, Arisaig, Moidart, Easter Ross and Sutherland and The Highlands and Selected Writings of Calum I. Maclean, a detailed and engaging account of Calum Maclean’s fieldwork diaries as well as his academic and mainstream publications will offer an opportunity to reassess the legacy of one of Scotland’s most important twentieth-century ethnologists and folklorists.
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Marguerite Johnson is a cultural historian of the ancient Mediterranean, specialising in sexuality and gender, particularly in the poetry of Sappho, Catullus, and Ovid, as well as magical traditions in Greece, Rome, and the Near East. She also researches Classical Reception Studies, with a regular focus on Australia. In addition to ancient world studies, Marguerite is interested in sexual histories in modernity as well as magic in the west more broadly, especially the practices and art of Australian witch, Rosaleen Norton. She is Honorary Professor of Classics and Ancient History at The University of Queensland, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. She lives in Mytilene on the Greek island of Lesvos.
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