Shepherd's Wanted: Wester Ross Pioneers to Patagonia, 1880-1930
Erected on the central reservation of a dual carriageway into the southernmost Chilean city of Punta Arenas the bronze sculpture of a shepherd gives testimony to the founding wealth of the region. The shepherd, his horse, two collie dogs and a small flock of sheep represent the importance of the sheep industry to that part of Spanish-speaking southern South America known as Patagonia – encompassing both Chile and Argentina. Most of the shepherds were immigrants and many of them were Scots. Scotland has a long history of emigration for military, mercantile and settlement purposes. Emigration from Scotland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was triggered by a combination of factors including opportunities overseas and reduced opportunities at home. Some Scots did not travel far, moving within Scotland and to other countries within the United Kingdom. The majority chose destinations from the British Colonies and Dominions together with the English-speaking United States of America and it is these destinations which dominate the historiography. Emigration to Patagonia was not a response to regional and community crises such as famine as in earlier decades. However, the communities of Ross-shire, the study area for this research, were under structural stress with increasing rents and poor harvests which, although not leading to mass famine as previously, caused hardships and encouraged an inclination to emigrate. These factors were supplemented by land use reorganisation in the western parishes as estates were turned from sheep walks to deer forests resulting in surplus pastoral workers. This emigration was not a movement en masse in response to external prompts such as government initiatives or formal emigration schemes. It was a complicated balance between opportunities at home and overseas, a calculated and measured step, generally taken by individuals and families after research and reflection. Important amongst the prerequisites for emigration was the possession of a personality type with a mind to migrate and from a region with a history of emigration.1 Triggers for emigration included a lack of employment opportunities at home at the same time as availability of employment overseas, but generally to destinations within the English-speaking world. Academic research and public awareness within Britain of the European settlement of Patagonia focusses on the Welsh community in the Chubut Valley of northern Patagonia. The Welsh settled from 1865 as a community, with the aim of retaining their language and customs in the face of real or perceived persecution at home. This thesis assesses the movement of Scots in the later time period from 1880 to 1930. The migration was dominated by men with a single occupation, that of the skilled shepherd, in response to new employment opportunities in southern South America and reduced prospects in Scotland. It is illustrated using case studies from among the men from Wester Ross in Highland Scotland who made the journey and analyses the causes and the consequences of Scottish emigration to the Spanish-speaking region of southern South America, and their place in the embryonic sheep farming economy. This research uses the term ‘diaspora’ throughout to describe the Scots migrants, and those of Scots descent, in Patagonia and elsewhere. The classical definition of a diaspora is the movement of people as a result of enforced eviction.2 Prior to the 1960s the term was almost exclusively used in a Jewish context. However, Martin Baumann notes that changing immigration laws and labour recruitment schemes prompted an increase in migration, especially from Asia, whose individuals settled in their host countries and established their own ethnic cultural and religious associations. To these and subsequent migrant groups, the term diaspora was increasingly used. It was then used retrospectively by historians researching emigrant groups in earlier periods. Initially used with reference to African studies, the term diaspora has been increasingly applied to many other national and/or cultural communities away from their country of origin. This study aligns with the definition proposed by Tanja Bueltmann et al which describes the Scottish diaspora as the result of a voluntary movement abroad by people who retained an emotional connection to their homeland and who may (or may not) participate in ethnic activities while developing a hybrid identity.
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