A History of Handknitting pretty much debunks the tradition of Aran
sweaters as a means of identifying dead bodies.
Aran knitting as we know it today--white yarn, highly-textured cables on
plainer backgrounds, etc--most likely originates, according to A History
of Handknitting, with Irish immigrants who went to America, lived on
some islands near Boston, and were taught cabling by a 'foreign
immigrant woman'. The immigrants returned to Ireland in 1908, and began
experimenting with the new patterns. Even so, this type of knitting was
not well established by 1936 when a book called The Islands of Ireland,
with photos, shows no Aran sweaters, only ordinary ganseys; and many of
these were apparently purchased ready-made, not knit by family members
in traditional patterns--knitting is not listed as an important
handicraft of Aran at that time.
Not until the mid 50s are Arans as we know them documented, and then the
book states that it was Gladys Thompson's book, Patterns for Guernseys
and Jerseys, that "gave the definitive impetus to Aran knitting outside
the island".
Scotts tartans are not an equivalent situation. Early tartans were not
tied to particular clans, but loosely associated with the weavers of a
general area instead. Clan tartans didn't evolve until the suppression
of the clan culture after the Battle of Culloden in 1746. Although some
military tartans were known before then, it wasn't until the 1800s that
clan tartans became formalized. Registration of clan tartans started in
1815, and many clan chiefs didn't know what their official tartans were
at that point.
This information from various websites--I don't pretend to be an expert
on tartans, though I've long been interested in them :)
Holly
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