Celticism and Racism Toward Celtic Peoples

The term Celticism has sveral definitions. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition defines Celticism as: NOUN: 1. A Celtic custom. 2. A Celtic idiom. 3. A fondness for Celtic culture.

But the term Celticism is also a different definition by Dr. Dorothy Verkerk, Gary Geisler, and Karin Breiwitz of the Celtic Art & Culture project, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Celticism is defined by this instituion as:

"Study of the Celtic peoples with a bias toward classifying them as either "heroic savage" or "illiterate barbarian".

This BBC Celtic site for Welsh children highlights several negative elements regarding the Celts: headhunting, human sacrifice and that history was written by the Romans (focusing on "Celtic illiteracy").

Today, many organized institutions are attempting to disregard the Celts as a global influence. Organizations such as the BBC question whether the Celts (ancestors to the Brittish people under common traditions and language) ever existed as a single group in Britian. The premise of this misguided idea is that Britian was full of nomadic people who never actually settled in Britian. Ironically, the BBC and others such as the American based Public Broadcasting Systems (PBS) tell us that Celtic tribes settled in Britian, united under Queen Boudica of the Iceni, were united against the Roman invaders to Britian. It appears that, contrary to the BBC's Dr. Simon James, these people were united under a common language, religion and political structure that rejected Roman oppression.

The truth about Celtic literacy is that, despite what every other source (Celtic and non-Celtic) will tell you, the ancient Celts were literate. The written language called Ogham (pronounced OH-yam) and was held, as was common in the ancient world, by the highest in the social classes. In the case of the Celtic tribes, the highest social classes were the Celtic spiritual leaders, the druids. When the "civilized" Romans invaded and plundered England, Wales and Scotland they killed off the entire ogham educated Druid class, which held all knowledge of this written language for the islands that were dependant on these spiritual leaders.

The ogham alphabet is often called "beth luis nion". This means "alphabet"; it comes from the names of the first, second, and fifth letters. The letters consist of one to five perpendicular or angled strokes, meeting or crossing a center line. The form of the letters allows them to be carved easily on objects of wood or stone, with the edge forming the center line.

Learn more about Ogham...