Invented tradition

The kilt is the most famous example of the past constructions described in The Invention of Tradition . The garment, which has been understood as a " Celtic " traditional costume since the 19th century, cannot be traced in Scotland before the 17th century.

Invented tradition (more rarely the invention of tradition , constructed tradition or new tradition ) is a concept that is critical of ideology and was introduced in 1983 by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger with the collection of essays The Invention of Tradition . Invented, d. H. Traditions constructed in their respective present but projected back into a certain past are intended to serve as historical fiction to legitimize and consolidate certain norms and structures in the face of current pressure to change. The concept has contributed significantly to anchoring and disseminating methods of cultural studies in historical studies , and has become a topos for the construction of authority in various scientific disciplines .

concept

As defined by Hobsbawm in his introductory contribution to The Invention of Tradition , invented tradition means “a set of practices of a ritual or symbolic nature, usually governed by openly or tacitly accepted rules. It aims to consolidate certain behavioral values and modes of behavior through repetition, which in itself implies continuity with the past. In fact, wherever possible, attempts are made to establish continuity with a suitable epoch. […] However, the peculiarity of the invented tradition lies in the fact that the continuity with the historical past referred to is largely artificial. In short, it is a question of answers to novel environments, the shape of which relates to old environments or which create their own past by means of an almost compelling repetition. "

A distinction is made between three forms of invented tradition, each with a special function, whereby the first two are often subsumed under the first two:

fictional tradition that creates or symbolizes consensual and collective identity ;
invented tradition that forms or legitimizes hierarchical institutions and societies;
fictional tradition that introduces people to specific social groups .

The concept sees the purpose of the invented tradition in the fact that it gives structure to at least some parts of social life in the face of historical change , in that its essence is considered unchangeable and constant. The new perspective, in which traditions do not just extend into the present with decreasing radiance, but develop their actual effect in the present as back projections, has given the concept of tradition a high level of social science relevance. The concept examines the past more in terms of how it is used, not what influence it has. As a methodological approach, invented tradition has not remained limited to history and social science. Ethnological and prehistoric research have used the concept for their own investigations. For example, much later secondary burials in Neolithic burial mounds or their deliberate imitations are tried to be explained in this sense. However, invented tradition, even if it is likely to be omnipresent, is presumed to be a specific phenomenon of times of accelerated, comprehensive and profound change, i.e. comparatively pronounced since the beginning of modernity (from the 19th century).

Examples

According to Hobsbawm himself, a first trigger for the idea of an invented tradition was his experience of university life in Cambridge in the 1930s, with archaic buildings, clothing conventions and rituals:

“Everything was done to make us pillars of a tradition that went back to the 13th century, although some of its apparently oldest forms of expression, such as the so-called “ Festival of Lessons and Carols ” on Christmas Eve in the chapel of King's College, were actually only a few years were invented before my arrival. (Years later this was to stimulate a conference and a book on the subject of "The Invention of Tradition".) [...] The Cambridge past was of course just as little as the ceremonial past of public life in England with its fancy costumes a chronological sequence of time, but rather a synchronous hodgepodge of their surviving relics. The fame and continuity of seven centuries should inspire us, reinforce our sense of superiority, and warn us against the temptations of rash change. (In the thirties this intention blatantly failed to serve its purpose). "

- Eric Hobsbawm : Dangerous times

The 1983 Hobsbawms and Rangers Volume also covers the following examples:

The "Highland tradition in Scotland" ( Hugh Trevor-Roper ) and the national traditions in Wales ( Prys Morgan )
The new design of the ceremonial of the British monarchy and its media representation from the late 19th century ( David Cannadine )
New creation of tradition in colonial India ( Bernard S. Cohn ) and Africa ( Terence Ranger )

Criticism and current application

The concept is held to be problematic in that it works with a partially narrowing contrast between authentic, but merely invariable and more technically functioning customs and constructed tradition . In doing so, the question of how much material and ideal past actually flows into the present - albeit from an enlightening standpoint - is ignored. Another point of criticism is that modernity in particular is more characterized by claims of originality or constructed originality ( invention of innovation ) than by invented traditions; these are no less numerous and effective in the pre-modern era than they are today, which shows that the explanatory models of the concept are not yet fully developed.

It is noticeable that traditions are currently gaining importance again in the course of globalization. As a resource for the construction of ethnically or religiously circumscribed social groups, they appear to confirm the general concept of Hobsbawms and Rangers. For example, invented tradition is used as a term in connection with manifestations of political Islam.

In cultural studies, “tradition” is increasingly being replaced by “ memory ” as an antipole to history as the subject of a critical, positivist, historiography. However, Hobsbawm points out that especially historical works - in view of the use of (invented) tradition to legitimize action - should be examined much more closely than before for their effect in public space.

literature

Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger: The Invention of Tradition . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1992, ISBN 0521437733 .
Stefan Jordan (Ed.): Lexicon of History - Hundred Basic Concepts . Reclam, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-15-000503-5 , pp. 289-290.

supporting documents

↑ The Invention of Tradition , p. 1 f .: 'Invented tradition' is taken to mean a set of practices, normally governed by overtly or tacitly accepted rules and of a ritual or symbolic nature, which seek to inculcate certain values and norms of behavior by repetition, which automatically implies continuity with the past. In fact, where possible, they normally attempt to establish continuity with a suitable historic past. [...] However, insofar as there is such reference to a historic past, the peculiarity of 'invented' traditions is that the continuity with it is largely factitious. In short, they are responses to novel situations which take the form of reference to old situations, or which establish their own past by quasi-obligatory repetition.
↑ Cornelius J. Holtorf: Monumental Past - The Life-histories of Megalithic Monuments in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany) (June 10, 2006)
↑ Eric Hobsbawm, Dangerous Times. A life in the 20th century, translated by Udo Rennert, 2nd paperback edition Munich 2006, p. 128, original: Dangerous Times. A Twentieth-Century Life, London 2002 (New York 2007), p. 103. In Invention of Tradition, 1, Hobsbawm also refers to this observation.
^ Conference report Invention of Tradition - Invention of Innovation (June 10, 2006)
↑ Daniel Bax: The Patterns of Difference . the daily newspaper, January 12, 2004

[1] The Invention of Tradition , p. 1 f .: 'Invented tradition' is taken to mean a set of practices, normally governed by overtly or tacitly accepted rules and of a ritual or symbolic nature, which seek to inculcate certain values and norms of behavior by repetition, which automatically implies continuity with the past. In fact, where possible, they normally attempt to establish continuity with a suitable historic past. [...] However, insofar as there is such reference to a historic past, the peculiarity of 'invented' traditions is that the continuity with it is largely factitious. In short, they are responses to novel situations which take the form of reference to old situations, or which establish their own past by quasi-obligatory repetition.

[2] Cornelius J. Holtorf: Monumental Past - The Life-histories of Megalithic Monuments in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany) (June 10, 2006)

[3] Eric Hobsbawm, Dangerous Times. A life in the 20th century, translated by Udo Rennert, 2nd paperback edition Munich 2006, p. 128, original: Dangerous Times. A Twentieth-Century Life, London 2002 (New York 2007), p. 103. In Invention of Tradition, 1, Hobsbawm also refers to this observation.

[4] Conference report Invention of Tradition - Invention of Innovation (June 10, 2006)

[5] Daniel Bax: The Patterns of Difference . the daily newspaper, January 12, 2004