Rural Society in the Age of Reason

1: Introduction. Subject. Approach. Structure. 2: Rural Settlement Studies: A Critical History. Rural Settlement Studies as Ethnology. Rural Settlement Studies as Folk Life. Rural Settlement Studies as Historical Archaeology. Archaeology, Documents, and the Writing of Social History. An Active Archaeology of Improvement. 3: Capitalism and Society. Archaeology and Capitalism: The Georgian Order. Beyond the Georgian Order: Society and the Individual. The Constitution of Society and Social Change. Ideology, Material Culture, and Routine Practice. Capitalism, Capitalist Society, and Archaeology. 4: The Changing Material and Routine Environment. The Pre-Improvement Material Environment. Settlement. Landscape. Domestic Space. The Material Environment of Improvement. Settlement. Landscape. Domestic Space. Changing Routine Practice with Improvement. 5: Improvement and Enlightenment. Improvement and the Scottish Enlightenment. Enlightenment Historiography: The Stages of Society. Human Nature, the Commercial Age, and Human Independence. Exemplars for Improvement: Lowland Scotland and England. Settlement. Landscape. Domestic Space. Routine Practice. A Partial Understanding of Improvement. 6: Improvement and the Landowner. Clanship as a Socio-Political System. Duthcas and Oighreachd in Kintyre. Kintyre and the Lordship of the Isles. Forefeiture and Unrest: Kintyre and the Decline of the Lordship of the Isles. Clan Campbell and Clan Donald from the Late Sixteenth Century. Kintyre in the Seventeenth Century: Campbell Territorial Expansion and Resulting Civil Unrest. The Legacy of Unrest: Improvement and the Civilizing of Kintyre. Summary. Improvement in Kilfinan and the Emergent Middle Class. The Landholding History of Kilfinan. Urban Society and the Emergent Middle Class. Improvement and the Establishmentand Maintenance of Middle Class Status. Improvement as a Strategy in Resolving Social Contradiction. 7: Improvement and the Farming Population. Narratives of Response to