"This book explores historical expressions of identity in Scotland, based on fieldwork in the Lowlands of Scotland carried out during 1996-2000, mostly in the County of Ayrshire. Particular chapters consider Wales and Northern Ireland in comparison to Scotland. The book continuously weaves together historical narrative with anthropological reflections and analyses, examining the issue of identities through the perspectives of both disciplines. Local histories and senses of identity are linked with national trends and events, including the inauguration in 1999 of a devolved Scottish Parliament. Chapters on the Picts and on the Covenanters of the seventeenth century show how historical memories of diverse kinds feed into contemporary identities. Minorities and Memories makes a creative contribution to the development of historical anthropology as well as to studies of senses of identity in general and within Scotland itself."--BOOK JACKET.