Scottish Life and Society: A Compendium of Scottish Ethnology

Whilst working as Senior Assistant Editor of the Scottish National Dictionary, Professor Alexander Fenton came to appreciate the importance of the material objects that lay behind the words in the dictionary. He also recognised the value of systematically organising data from sources of all possible kinds. Following his later work at the National Museum of Antiquities, Professor Fenton set up what is now known as the Scottish Life Archive, which holds both documents and objects. His experience led him to gather these approaches together to inform the current state of knowledge on Scottish ethnology.

This project was initially conceived as an alphabetical lexicon. However, it soon became apparent that a thematic approach would be more useful for the reader, allowing them to access material on topics which interest them. This thematic approach also coordinates with a similar project over eight volumes carried out in Hungary by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest.

The structure of the series covers both rural and urban Scotland across a variety of spheres including the domestic, the communal, the individual, the working-life, and many others. The extent of ethnological knowledge gained from the early collections of material objects is reflected in the series. For example, the extensive holdings of museums and the scholarship on the material culture of rural Scotland means that farming and rural life are considered in a single volume - although it is true to say that aspects of these themes are treated in other volumes in the series. In a similar vein, the collections of the School of Scottish Studies of the University of Edinburgh and the work of collectors of narrative and song are considered in a volume dedicated to the theme of oral literature and performance culture. The impact on the life of the Scots of some of the main national institutions is examined in three self-contained volumes on education, religion, and the law (the latter yet to be published). A bibliography of Scottish ethnology also forms part of the series and is itself organised into themes.

The final volume to be written will, perhaps surprisingly, be the introductory volume. It is intended that as well as providing an indication of the scope and scale of Scottish ethnology as set-out in the series, this volume will engage with the theoretical underpinnings of the discipline.

Once complete, the series will amount to approximately three million words and some 1,500 illustrations. The volumes that have been published so far are being used for teaching in Scottish Universities. They are also available across a wide range of local libraries and bookshops, thereby reaching a general readership - which is one of the aims of the project.

The scope and objectives of the project can perhaps best be summarised by quoting from the launch event for Volume 11 at which Sir William Kerr Fraser outlined the aim of the Compendium of Scottish Ethnology as being to "feed back to the people of Scotland in analysed form some of the tremendous body of material that has been gathered from them, and at the same time to provide comparative information about Scotland for researchers in other countries".

• Volume 3: Scotland's Buildings
• Volume 6: Scotland's Domestic Life
• Volume 9: The Individual and Community Life
• Volume 10: Oral Literature and Performance Culture
• Volume 12: Religion
• Volume 14: Bibliography