Invention of tradition project

The Assignment:Hosbawm defines ‘invented tradition’ as “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”. Your task is to research an ‘invented tradition’, as it relates to a particular nation or state. You will describe the tradition – the practices, location, participants, history, and purpose. Going beyond description, you will then analyze how this tradition functions in service of the state or nation.

Invention of TraditionIdea developed in edited book by Eric Hobsbawm and Terrence Ranger . (1983)Investigate claims that traditions are old and timehonoured when they have really been recently invented, for political purposes (i.e. it doesn't just refer to 'new' traditions)“Nations do not make states and nationalisms but the other way round"

Chapters in the book include:The Highland Tradition of Scotland - Trevor RoperThe Hunt for the Welsh Past in the Romantic Period - Prys MorganThe Context, Perofmance, and Meaning of Ritual (about the Monarchy) - David CannadineRepresenting Authority in Colonial India - Bernard CohnThe Invention of Tradition in Colonial Africa - Terence Rangeri.e. the authors see this happening in lots of places around the globe.

More recent studies that use this "invention of tradition" concept to guide their researchMirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan. Edited by Stephen VlastosIncludes essays on diverse 'traditions' such as martial arts, japanese-style labor management, and the cult of domesticityThe Bible and Zionism: Invented Traditions, Archaeology and Post-Colonialism in Israel - Palestine by Nur Mashala

In his 1990 book Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: programme, myth, reality , Hobsbawm identifies three stages in the development of nationalism A preliminary phase in which the idea of the nation is purely cultural and/or folkloric; A pioneering phase wherein political campaigners begin to try and raise awareness and mobilize the nation; And finally, the stage at which nationalist movements acquire mass support, an occurrence which can come to pass before or after the birth of the state. (page 12) The invention of tradition is mobilized by campaigners in the second phase