Invented tradition

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"Ancient" Scottish clan tartans are an example of an invented tradition created in the 19th century. Ye principal clovris of ye clanne Stewart tartan (Vestiarium Scoticum).png
"Ancient" Scottish clan tartans are an example of an invented tradition created in the 19th century.

Invented traditions are cultural practices that are presented or perceived as traditional, arising from people starting in the distant past, but which are relatively recent and often consciously invented by historical actors. The concept was highlighted in the 1983 book The Invention of Tradition, edited by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger. [1] Hobsbawm's introduction argues that many "traditions" which "appear or claim to be old are often quite recent in origin and sometimes invented." [2] This "invention" is distinguished from "starting" or "initiating" a tradition that does not then claim to be old. The phenomenon is particularly clear in the modern development of the nation and of nationalism, creating a national identity promoting national unity, and legitimising certain institutions or cultural practices. [3]

Contents

Background

A set of practices, typically ritualistic or symbolic, aims to instill values and behavioral norms through repetition, such as saluting the flag before class. These practices attempt to create a bridge between an uncertain present and an idealized image of the past—an image often as much a creation as the tradition associated with it. Though these "invented traditions" appear to be genuine, rooted in historical images and symbols (whether real or imagined), they are actually of relatively recent origin and deliberately constructed. British historian Eric Hobsbawm, along with Terence Ranger, explored this phenomenon in their edited collection The Invention of Tradition (1983). Hobsbawm argues that invented traditions serve three main purposes: they foster social cohesion, legitimize institutions and authority structures, and solidify value systems and beliefs. [4]

Application of the term and paradox

The concept has been applied to cultural phenomena such as neo-Druidism in Britain, [5] neopaganism in general, [6] tartanry in Scotland, [7] the traditions of major religions, [8] [9] some Korean martial arts such as Taekwondo, [10] and some Japanese martial arts, such as judo. [11] It has influenced related concepts such as Benedict Anderson's imagined communities and the pizza effect. [12]

Indeed, the sharp distinction between "tradition" and "modernity" is often itself invented. The concept is "highly relevant to that comparatively recent historical innovation, the 'nation', with its associated phenomena: nationalism, the nation-state, national symbols, histories, and the rest." Hobsbawm and Ranger remark on the "curious but understandable paradox: modern nations and all their impedimenta generally claim to be the opposite of novel, namely rooted in remotest antiquity, and the opposite of constructed, namely human communities so 'natural' as to require no definition other than self-assertion." [13] The concept of authenticity is also often questionable.

Pseudo-folklore

Pseudo-folklore or fakelore is lore (or activities, documents, etc) falsely presented as if it were genuinely traditional. The term can refer to new stories or songs made up, or to folklore that is reworked and modified for modern tastes. The element of misrepresentation is central; artists who draw on traditional stories in their work are not producing fakelore unless they claim that their creations are real folklore. [14] Over the last decades the term has generally fallen out of favor in folklore studies because it places an emphasis on origin instead of practice to determine authenticity.

The term fakelore was coined in 1950 by American folklorist Richard M. Dorson [14] in his article "Folklore and Fake Lore" published in The American Mercury . Dorson's examples included the fictional cowboy Pecos Bill, who was presented as a folk hero of the American West but was actually invented by the writer Edward S. O'Reilly in 1923. Dorson also regarded Paul Bunyan as fakelore. Although Bunyan originated as a character in traditional tales told by loggers in the Great Lakes region of North America, William B. Laughead (1882–1958), an ad writer working for the Red River Lumber Company, invented many of the stories about him that are known today. According to Dorson, advertisers and popularizers turned Bunyan into a "pseudo folk hero of twentieth-century mass culture" who bore little resemblance to the original. [15]

Folklorismus also refers to the invention or adaptation of folklore. Unlike fakelore, however, folklorismus is not necessarily misleading; it includes any use of a tradition outside the cultural context in which it was created. The term was first used in the early 1960s by German scholars, who were primarily interested in the use of folklore by the tourism industry. However, professional art based on folklore, TV commercials with fairy tale characters, and even academic studies of folklore are all forms of folklorism. [16] [17]

Connection to folklore

The term fakelore is often used by those who seek to expose or debunk modern reworkings of folklore, including Dorson himself, who spoke of a "battle against fakelore". [18] Dorson complained that popularizers had sentimentalized folklore, stereotyping the people who created it as quaint and whimsical [14]  – whereas the real thing was often "repetitive, clumsy, meaningless and obscene". [19] He contrasted the genuine Paul Bunyan tales, which had been so full of technical logging terms that outsiders would find parts of them difficult to understand, with the commercialized versions, which sounded more like children's books. The original Paul Bunyan had been shrewd and sometimes ignoble; one story told how he cheated his men out of their pay. Mass culture provided a sanitized Bunyan with a "spirit of gargantuan whimsy [that] reflects no actual mood of lumberjacks". [15] Daniel G. Hoffman said that Bunyan, a folk hero, had been turned into a mouthpiece for capitalists: "This is an example of the way in which a traditional symbol has been used to manipulate the minds of people who had nothing to do with its creation." [20]

Others have argued that professionally created art and folklore are constantly influencing each other and that this mutual influence should be studied rather than condemned. [21] For example, Jon Olson, a professor of anthropology, reported that while growing up he heard Paul Bunyan stories that had originated as lumber company advertising. [22] Dorson had seen the effect of print sources on orally transmitted Paul Bunyan stories as a form of cross-contamination that "hopelessly muddied the lore". [15] For Olson, however, "the point is that I personally was exposed to Paul Bunyan in the genre of a living oral tradition, not of lumberjacks (of which there are precious few remaining), but of the present people of the area." [22] What was fakelore had become folklore again.

Responding to his opponents' argument that the writers have the same claim as the original folk storytellers, Dorson writes that the difference amounts to the difference between traditional culture and mass culture. [14]

Examples of fakelore

In addition to Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill, Dorson identified the American folk hero Joe Magarac as fakelore. [15] Magarac, a fictional steelworker, first appeared in 1931 in a Scribner's Magazine story by the writer Owen Francis. He was a literal man of steel who made rails from molten metal with his bare hands; he refused an opportunity to marry to devote himself to working 24 hours a day, worked so hard that the mill had to shut down, and finally, in despair at enforced idleness, melted himself down in the mill's furnace to improve the quality of the steel. Francis said he heard this story from Croatian immigrant steelworkers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; he reported that they told him the word magarac was a compliment, then laughed and talked to each other in their own language, which he did not speak. The word actually means "donkey" in Croatian, and is an insult. Since no trace of the existence of Joe Magarac stories prior to 1931 has been discovered, Francis's informants may have made the character up as a joke on him. In 1998, Gilley and Burnett reported "only tentative signs that the Magarac story has truly made a substantive transformation from 'fake-' into 'folklore'", but noted his importance as a local cultural icon. [23]

Other American folk heroes that have been called fakelore include Old Stormalong, Febold Feboldson, [15] Big Mose, Tony Beaver, Bowleg Bill, Whiskey Jack, Annie Christmas, Cordwood Pete, Antonine Barada, and Kemp Morgan. [24] Marshall Fishwick describes these largely literary figures as imitations of Paul Bunyan. [25] Additionally, scholar Michael I. Niman describes the Legend of the Rainbow Warriors – a belief that a "new tribe" will inherit the ways of the Native Americans and save the planet – as an example of fakelore. [26]

Criticism

One reviewer (Peter Burke) noted that the "'invention of tradition' is a splendidly subversive phrase", but it "hides serious ambiguities". Hobsbawm "contrasts invented traditions with what he calls 'the strength and adaptability of genuine traditions'. But where does his 'adaptability', or his colleague Ranger's 'flexibility' end, and invention begin? Given that all traditions change, is it possible or useful to attempt to discriminate the 'genuine' antiques from the fakes?" [27] Another also praised the high quality of the articles but had qualifications. "Such distinctions" (between invented and authentic traditions) "resolve themselves ultimately into one between the genuine and the spurious, a distinction that may be untenable because all traditions (like all symbolic phenomena) are humanly created ('spurious') rather than naturally given ('genuine')." [28] Pointing out that "invention entails assemblage, supplementation, and rearrangement of cultural practices so that in effect traditions can be preserved, invented, and reconstructed", Guy Beiner proposed that a more accurate term would be "reinvention of tradition", signifying "a creative process involving renewal, reinterpretation and revision". [29]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Folklore</span> Expressive culture shared by particular groups

Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as tales, myths, legends, proverbs, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also includes material culture, such as traditional building styles common to the group. Folklore also encompasses customary lore, taking actions for folk beliefs, and the forms and rituals of celebrations such as Christmas, weddings, folk dances, and initiation rites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Bunyan</span> Giant lumberjack in American folklore

Paul Bunyan is a giant lumberjack and folk hero in American and Canadian folklore. His tall tales revolve around his superhuman labors, and he is customarily accompanied by Babe the Blue Ox, his pet and working animal. The character originated in the oral tradition of North American loggers, and was later popularized by freelance writer William B. Laughead (1882–1958) in a 1916 promotional pamphlet for the Red River Lumber Company. He has been the subject of various literary compositions, musical pieces, commercial works, and theatrical productions. His likeness is displayed in a number of oversized statues across North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tradition</span> Long-existing custom or belief

A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes, but the idea has also been applied to social norms and behaviors such as greetings, etc. Traditions can persist and evolve for thousands of years— the word tradition itself derives from the Latin word tradere literally meaning to transmit, to hand over, to give for safekeeping. While it is reportedly assumed that traditions have an ancient history, many traditions have been invented on purpose, whether it be political or cultural, over short periods of time. Various academic disciplines also use the word in a variety of ways.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legend</span> Genre of storytelling that involves heroic humans

A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude. Legend, for its active and passive participants, may include miracles. Legends may be transformed over time to keep them fresh and vital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pecos Bill</span> Fictional cowboy

Pecos Bill is a fictional cowboy and folk hero in stories set during American westward expansion into the Southwest of Texas, New Mexico, Southern California, and Arizona. These narratives were invented as short stories in a book by Tex O'Reilly in the early 20th century and are an example of American "fakelore". Pecos Bill was a late addition to the larger-than-life characters, such as Paul Bunyan or John Henry.

American mythology is the body of traditional stories pertaining to America's most legendary stories and folktale, dating back to the late 1700s when the first colonists settled. "American mythology" may also refer to the modern study of these representations, and to the subject matter as represented in the literature and art of other cultures in any period.

Japanese folktales are an important cultural aspect of Japan. In commonplace usage, they signify a certain set of well-known classic tales, with a vague distinction of whether they fit the rigorous definition of "folktale" or not among various types of folklore. The admixed impostors are literate written pieces, dating back to the Muromachi period or even earlier times in the Middle Ages. These would not normally qualify for the English description "folktales".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Folklore studies</span> Branch of anthropology

Folklore studies is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currency in the 1950s to distinguish the academic study of traditional culture from the folklore artifacts themselves. It became established as a field across both Europe and North America, coordinating with Volkskunde (German), folkeminner (Norwegian), and folkminnen (Swedish), among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Harold Brunvand</span> American folklorist (born 1933)

Jan Harold Brunvand is an American retired folklorist, researcher, writer, public speaker, and professor emeritus of English at the University of Utah.

Irish folklore refers to the folktales, balladry, music, dance and mythology of Ireland. It is the study and appreciation of how people lived.

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Joe Magarac is a pseudo-legendary American folk hero. He is presented to readers as having been the protagonist of tales of oral folklore told by steelworkers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which later spread throughout the industrial areas of the Midwestern United States, sometimes referred to as the Rust Belt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Dorson</span> American folklorist (1916–1981)

Richard Mercer Dorson was an American folklorist, professor, and director of the Folklore Institute at Indiana University. Dorson has been called the "father of American folklore" and "the dominant force in the study of folklore".

Folk poetry is poetry that is part of a society's folklore, usually part of their oral tradition. When sung, folk poetry becomes a folk song.

Febold Feboldson is an American folk hero who was a Swedish American plainsman and cloudbuster from Nebraska. His exploits were originally published in 1923 in the Gothenburg Independent newspaper and the character is now largely considered a part of fakelore as opposed to a genuine folk hero.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian folklore</span>

Canadian folklore is the traditional material that Canadians pass down from generation to generation, either as oral literature or "by custom or practice". It includes songs, legends, jokes, rhymes, proverbs, weather lore, superstitions, and practices such as traditional food-making and craft-making. The largest bodies of folklore in Canada belong to the aboriginal and French-Canadian cultures. English-Canadian folklore and the folklore of recent immigrant groups have added to the country's folk.

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Folklorism or folklorismus is a concept of folklore transmission developed by Hans Moser and, separately, Viktor Gusev. It can be defined neutrally, for example "The innovative and often commercial use of folk materials such as costumes, folk songs, folktales, proverbs, and so forth, outside their traditional contexts", or more pejoratively, for example as "spurious and misleading 'fake-lore' that exists in a 'second life' outside its 'source-community,' is materialistic and popular, and is manifest in an 'objectified form'."

Ellen Stekert is an American academic, folklorist and musician. Stekert is a Professor Emerita of English at the University of Minnesota and a former president of the American Folklore Society.

References

  1. ↑ Hobsbawm, Eric; Ranger, Terence, eds. (1983). The Invention of Tradition . Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0521246453.
  2. ↑ Hobsbawm & Ranger (1983), p. 1.
  3. ↑ The articles in the volume include Hugh Trevor-Roper's "The invention of tradition: the Highland tradition of Scotland," Prys Morgan's "From a death to a view: the hunt for the Welsh past in the romantic period," David Cannadine's "The context, performance, and meaning of ritual: the British monarchy and the 'invention of tradition', c. 1820-1977," Bernard S. Cohen's "Representing authority in Victorian India," Terence Ranger's "The invention of tradition in colonial Africa," and Eric Hobsbawm's "Mass-producing traditions: Europe, 1870-1914."
  4. ↑ Buchanan, Ian (2018). A dictionary of critical theory (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780191836305.
  5. ↑ Hutton, Ronald (3 November 2008). "Modern Pagan Festivals: A Study in the Nature of Tradition". Folklore. 119 (3). Taylor Francis: 251–273. doi: 10.1080/00155870802352178 . S2CID   145003549.
  6. ↑ Kalinay, Justin (1 January 2013). "Myth, Ritual, and Symbol and the Theory of "Invented Tradition" As Applied to the Worship of Dionysos/Dionysus Across Space and Time". Senior Independent Study Theses.
  7. ↑ Sievers, Marco (2007–2010). The Highland Myth as an Invented Tradition of 18th and 19th Century and Its Significance for the Image of Scotland. GRIN Verlag. ISBN   978-3-638-81651-9.
  8. ↑ Masuzawa, Tomoko (2005). The Invention of World Religions. Chicago University of Chicago Press. ISBN   978-0-226-50989-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  9. ↑ Nur Masalha (2007). The Bible and Zionism: Invented Traditions, Archaeology and Post-Colonialism in Palestine-Israel. London; New York: Zed Books. LCCN   2006-31826. ISBN   978-1-84277-761-9.
  10. ↑ Moenig, Udo; Kim, Minho (2016). "The Invention of Taekwondo Tradition, 1945–1972: When Mythology becomes 'History'". Acta Koreana. 19 (2): 131–164. doi: 10.18399/acta.2016.19.2.006 . ISSN   2733-5348. S2CID   193690675.
  11. ↑ Inoue Shun, "The Invention of the Martial Arts: Kanō Jigorō and Kōdōkan Judo", pp. 163-173 in Stephen Vlastos (ed.). Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
  12. ↑ Anderson, Benedict. "The origins of national consciousness". Nationalism: Critical Concepts in Political Science 1 (2000): 316, p. 37.
  13. ↑ Hobsbawm & Terence Ranger (1983), p. 13-14.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Dorson, Richard M. (1977). American Folklore . Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p.  4. ISBN   0-226-15859-4.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 Dorson (1977), 214–226.
  16. ↑ Newall, Venetia J. (1987). "The Adaptation of Folklore and Tradition (Folklorismus)". Folklore. 98 (2): 131–151. doi:10.1080/0015587x.1987.9716408. JSTOR   1259975.
  17. ↑ Kendirbaeva, Gulnar (1994). "Folklore and Folklorism in Kazakhstan". Asian Folklore Studies. 53 (1): 97–123. doi:10.2307/1178561. JSTOR   1178561.
  18. ↑ Dorson, Richard M. (1973). "Is Folklore a Discipline?". Folklore. 84 (3): 177–205. doi:10.1080/0015587x.1973.9716514. JSTOR   1259723.
  19. ↑ Dorson, Richard M. (1963). "Current Folklore Theories". Current Anthropology. 4 (1): 101. doi:10.1086/200339. JSTOR   2739820. S2CID   143464386.
  20. ↑ Ball, John; George Herzog; Thelma James; Louis C. Jones; Melville J. Herskovits; Wm. Hugh Jansen; Richard M. Dorson; Alvin W. Wolfe; Daniel G. Hoffman (1959). "Discussion from the Floor". Journal of American Folklore. 72 (285): 233–241. doi:10.2307/538134. JSTOR   538134.
  21. ↑ Olson, Jon (1976). "Film Reviews". Western Folklore. 35 (3): 233–237. doi:10.2307/1498351. JSTOR   1498351. According to Newall, 133, the German folklorist Hermann Bausinger expressed a similar view.
  22. 1 2 Olson, 235.
  23. ↑ Gilley, Jennifer; Stephen Burnett (November 1998). "Deconstructing and Reconstructing Pittsburgh's Man of Steel: Reading Joe Magarac against the Context of the 20th-Century Steel Industry". The Journal of American Folklore. 111 (442): 392–408. doi:10.2307/541047. JSTOR   541047.
  24. ↑ American Folklore: An Encyclopedia, ed. Jan Harold Brunvand, Taylor & Francis, 1996, p. 1105
  25. ↑ Fishwick, Marshall W. (1959). "Sons of Paul: Folklore or Fakelore?". Western Folklore. 18 (4): 277–286. doi:10.2307/1497745. JSTOR   1497745.
  26. ↑ Niman, Michael I. 1997. People of the Rainbow: A Nomadic Utopia, pp. 131-148. University of Tennessee Press. ISBN   0-87049-988-2
  27. ↑ Burke, Peter (1986). "Review of The Invention of Tradition". The English Historical Review. 101 (398): 316–317. ISSN   0013-8266. JSTOR   571469.
  28. ↑ Handler, Richard (1984). "Review of The Invention of Tradition". American Anthropologist. 86 (4): 1025–1026. doi:10.1525/aa.1984.86.4.02a00380. ISSN   0002-7294. JSTOR   679222.
  29. ↑ Beiner, Guy (2007). Remembering the Year of the French Irish Folk History and Social Memory. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. p. 272. ISBN   978-0-299-21824-9.
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