Tradition in the Twenty-First Century: Locating the Role of the Past in the Present

1. Thinking through Tradition

DOI: 10.7330/9780874218992.c01 1 Thinking through Tradition Elliott Oring The word tradition is itself traditional in folklore studies. John Aubrey used it in his Miscellanies in 1696. In 1777 John Brand identified tradition—indeed, oral tradition—as central in the preservation of the rites and opinions of the common people (Dorson 1968a, 1:8). W. J. Thoms referred to “local traditions” in his 1846 letter to the Athenaeum where he proposed his neologism “folklore” (Dorson 1968a, 1:53), and E. Sydney Hartland, in the last years of that century, characterized folklore as the “science of tradition” (Dorson 1968a, 2:231). Tradition has remained central to most definitions of folklore ever since (Brunvand 1998, 3). Indeed, it is considered one of a few “keywords” in folklore studies (in addition to the terms art, text, group, performance, genre, context, and identity [Feintuch 2003]). But what is the status of tradition in folklore studies? What role does it play and what achievements can the field attribute to its deployment? In his essay “The Seven Strands of Tradition,” Dan Ben-Amos (1984) identified a variety of ways that folklorists have used tradition: as lore, canon, process, mass, culture, langue, and performance. Lore refers to past knowledge of a society that has inadvertently survived but is in danger of dying out (104). Canon refers to that body of literary and artistic culture that has gained acceptance in a particular social group (106). Process refers to the dynamics of cultural transmission over time (117). Mass refers to what is transmitted by tradition; it is not the result of superorganic process but rather is changed by those who transmit it (118). Culture suggests that tradition is synonymous with the anthropological conception of thought and behavior in social life (120–21). Langue refers to the concepts, categories, and rules that engender culture. As in Ferdinand de Saussure’s linguistics, it refers to Thinking through Tradition 23 the abstract system that underlies and generates speech and behavior (121). Performance refers to enactment, and although enactment is always in the present, tradition always exists in the minds and memories of people as a potential (122–23). These differences in the uses of the term tradition are not always crystal clear, but Ben-Amos was trying to sort out the usages of the term by folklorists from different periods and publications. His was an attempt to construct a descriptive history of the term. He found that folklorists did not use tradition consistently, nor did they examine their usages critically. Curiously, Ben-Amos concludes that none of the uses of the term tradition are more adequate or proper than any other. Tradition, he states, is a metaphor that guides folklorists in dealing with “an inchoate world of experiences and ideas” (Ben-Amos 1984, 124). Simon J. Bronner, writing a decade and a half later, was perhaps less forgiving. He characterizes the use of tradition in folklore as reflecting “multiple meanings” and betraying a “conceptual softness” (Bronner 1998, 10). Can a “science of tradition” be based on a concept that is so scattered, inchoate, and soft? Ben-Amos’s seeming unconcern with the ways folklorists deployed the term tradition probably stemmed from the fact that he had no personal investment in the concept. He had eliminated tradition from his definition of folklore more than a decade before. For him, folklore was “artistic communication in small groups” (Ben-Amos 1972, 14). Tradition played no part. Ben-Amos nevertheless claimed that folklorists think with the term tradition even if they did not think much about it. Do folklorists think with tradition? Is tradition an analytical concept that helps folklorists to perceive, explore, and explain the world? These are some of the questions addressed below. Tradition as Process and Product The word tradition comes from the Latin roots trans + dare—literally, “to give across”—that is, to hand over, deliver, or transfer.1 Thus, tradition involves the notion of transferring or transmitting and has been applied 1 The meanings of surrender or betrayal that exist both in Latin and English (Oxford English Dictionary, 1989, 2nd. ed., s.v. “tradition”) should be noted as well. In English, the related term traduce not only means “to transfer” but also to “speak falsely,” “misrepresent ,” “betray,” and “bring into disgrace” (Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., s.v. “traduce”). Thinking through Tradition 24 to the act of handing over or handing down as well as to those objects that are handed over or handed down. Consequently, tradition refers to...