ABSTRACT
Given the distinctions in the way Scottish heritage is enacted across both geographic and social space, the variety of forms of roots tourism, the different anxieties and desires which motivate an interest in genealogy, and the contingencies of each individual family history, it is evident that these homecoming journeys can have no singular meaning. It is also evident, however, that in bringing meaning to these disparate acts, much of this potential for polysemy is lost. Meaning, after all, is not implicit in actions and events, an essence awaiting discovery, but rather emerges in relation to other existing discourses and practices. As Jerome Bruner argues, the ‘symbolic systems’ that individuals use in constructing meaning are systems that are ‘already in place, already “there”, deeply entrenched in culture and language’ (1990: 11).
