What's in a word ? Listening to the BBC's genealogy program "Digging up your Roots," http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/genealogy - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007rv8d ..., a researcher spoke about her difficulties in tracing her family, as her mother had been a cave-dweller somewhere on the Argyll peninsula. Even "cave-dweller" brings images of dinosaurs !
Then, rapidly reading Russanros's hello message for which I never found the time to reply, viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11078 …, Kevin, in his reply, mentioned the "Rest and be Thankful." (for those of us who have never heard of the name, this is an extremely beautiful but dangerous road near Loch Long and Loch Awe. Dangerous, especially in winter !
http://www.arrocharheritage.com/Arrocha ... l_RABT.htm
http://www.armin-grewe.com/holiday/scot ... ankful.htm
Anyway, as a lad, I often took the MacBrayne's bus on that road and to pass the time, I remember searching for and counting the domed leather-dwellings of the tinkers.
To this day, there always seems to be a certain stigma concerning their lifestyle. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Travellers Then, the thought came to me…, cave-dwellers and many tinkers are simply people from choice or obligation who have been forced to distance themselves from society. (no gipsy link there) On the other hand…, Red Indians don't seem to have the same stigma. On the contrary !