Getting Down to the Bare Bones: Scapulimancy and Second Sight in Scottish Gaelic Tradition
Scapulimancy (Slinneineachd in Scottish Gaelic) is a form of augury or divination involving the examination or interpretation of the scapula usually, though not exclusively, of the shoulder-blade or speal bone of a sheep, and sometimes that of a cow or a pig. Such a practice was believed to be able to foretell important events in the owner’s life, including deaths, battles, commotions, and other significant occurrences. Disasters such as the Massacre of Glencoe (1692) and the Battle of Culloden (1746) were said to have been prognosticated using scapulimancy.
The earliest ethnographic records of scapulimancy, from a Scottish context, dates to the seventeenth-century and the latest to the nineteenth-century. To judge from these accounts, as well as those supplemented from oral sources, such a practice crosses ethnic and cultural boundaries. Indeed, such a divinatory method is found throughout many parts of the world and is well documented, for instance, in East Asian cultures.
The purpose of this presentation is to critically examine the various early modern sources and to assess why and by whom such a practice was resorted to and why at times scapulimancy is sometimes taken to be or sometimes confused with second sight. Also offered in the presentation are some thoughts on the actual origins of such a divinatory practice either to foretell future events (precognition) or those at a distance in space and time (detection).
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.
Image: James Hamilton, ‘Massacre of Glencoe,’ 1883–86. Glasgow Museums.
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Divining the Past, Present, and Future: Oracles, Series 1 – Four Lectures
Join us for Series 1 as we journey into the histories and mysteries of divination. Delivered by leading scholars in the field, ‘Divining the Past, Present, and Future’ includes talks on specific types of divination, from Mambila spider divination to Medieval necromancy.
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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.
Image: John Collier, ‘Priestess of Delphi’ (1891), Art Gallery of South Australia
