prize5-4, Exercise 2: Invented tradition

Model answer (check the argument and the authors):

The idea: historians have argued that much of what is now thought of as ancient Highland dress and clan identity, including the standard kilt and clan tartans, took its modern form in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, shaped by the army, by makers of tartan cloth, by romantic writers and by royal enthusiasm, not simply handed down unchanged.

What it does not show: that the Tattoo is fake, or that pipe music and Highland regiments have no real history. The pipes and the regiments are real, and military music has a long record.

What it does show: that "ancient" or "timeless" are claims to be tested, and that the show combines real traditions with a designed picture of national identity. A careful description says which parts are old, which are modern, and which are disputed (check).