'M' aghan cri, coir, gradhach' -'My heifer beloved, kind and loving': Human-cattle interactions in the Scottish Gàidhealtachd c.1750-1960.

牛在苏格兰盖尔族社区中的重要作用从它们在盖尔语文化表达中的无处不在以及诸如挤奶、放牧和季节性迁徙等良好的互动中得到了生动的证明。然而，这些关键的人与动物之间的相互作用在“改良”和“高地许可”研究中基本上被忽视了。这采用了一种自上而下的叙事，盖尔人的传统生活方式被巨大的商业羊场和社区流离失所所抹去。在突出盖尔人的声音时，我的研究将挑战这些主流范式，并通过使用人类-动物研究的想法来探索盖尔人和他们的牛之间的互动，从而为苏格兰历史的这一关键时期创造一个新的视角。

Cattle's vital role in Scottish Gaelic communities is vividly evidenced by their ubiquity in Gaelic cultural expression and well-established interactions such as milking, herding, and seasonal transhumance. However, these pivotal human-animal interactions are largely neglected in 'Improvement' and Highland Clearances scholarship. This adopts a top-down narrative, in which Gaels' 'traditional' way of life was obliterated by vast commercial sheep farms and community displacement. In foregrounding Gaelic voices, my research will challenge these mainstream paradigms and create a new perspective on this critical period of Scottish history by employing ideas from human-animal studies to explore interactions between Gaels and their cattle.