Proceedings at the Meetings of the Archaeological InstituteAnnual Meeting, 1856, Held at Edinburgh

Focusing upon the restructuring over many years of a mid nineteenth-century ‘blackhouse’ in the crofting township of Callanish, on the Outer Hebridean Isle of Lewis in northwestern Scotland, this paper explores the manner in which a number of interests repeatedly rewove the fabric of the building over time as a means of expressing often competing views of society and community. In an attempt to make sense of and legitimize the present and project a desired future, various groups literally built strategic, contradictory and conditional pasts, infusing the material fabric of everyday life with a political dynamic. The paper concludes with observations on the implications for the practice of ‘cultural resource management’ as strategic negotiation of the politics of past and present.