ABSTRACT
On the western peripheries of feudal Europe, a somewhat different combination of organic and compactual arrangement emerged. In the British Isles, England and Wales went from an early compactual phase to an emphasis on organic development, while Scotland preserved a strong compactual basis throughout the medieval period. The Celtic influence is hard to pin down beyond the facts of later history where those western borderlands that retained a Celtic presence were predisposed to covenantal ideologies, institutions, and forms of behavior. The case of the British Isles helps us clarify the origins of the cultural predisposition toward covenant. All three elements that seem to be influential are present: migration to a new frontier, borderlands of cultural contact and interaction, and ethnic groups with an oath and pact anthropology. In the Middle Ages, however, the Celts in Ireland had neither an intensive frontier experience, nor did they confront a borderlands situation.
