tradition

tradition, traditions A set of social practices which seek to celebrate and inculcate certain behavioural norms and values, implying continuity with a real or imagined past, and usually associated with widely accepted rituals or other forms of symbolic behaviour. Research has established that many traditions which are popularly perceived to be of long standing are in fact relatively recent inventions. Examples include the distinct Highland culture (of kilts, tartan, and bagpipes) of Scotland, a late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century creation; and the supposedly indigenous political and economic traditions of many African societies (which were in fact invented by colonial authorities in order to make the necessary connections between local and imperial political, social, and legal systems). Some fascinating case-studies along these lines are reported in Eric Hobsbawn and and Terence Ranger ( eds.) . The Invention of Tradition (1983)
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