Detraditionalization and Retraditionalization

Traditions and Their Role in Society

To discuss the process of de-or retraditionalization, one has to clarify the meaning of traditions. The concept originates from the Latin word tradere, meaning “to hand over, deliver, entrust.” In general, it refers to the beliefs, practices, and customs passed from generation to generation. They are embedded in practices of everyday life, such as celebrating birthdays or significant anniversaries. They are also linked to religious practices celebrating important dates (often linked to significant events in a religion's history), and the special occasions of a religious tradition can transcend national cultures, as one can see in the holidays of almost all religious traditions. Almost all of the great religious traditions contain traditional elements in their theology. For Judaism, it is a body of laws and doctrines received from Moses and handed down from generation to generation. For Christianity, it is a body of teachings delivered by Christ and the apostles. For Muslims, it is the Hadith—the teachings attributed to the prophet Muhammad. For Hindus, it is the teachings about ethics (dharma) found in ancient texts and in the examples of legendary figures. For Buddhists, it is the dhamma of moral teachings in the Buddhist textual tradition. In Chinese religion, it is the Analects of Confucius and other ancient codes of moral behavior and social responsibility.

Originally, all religious and nonreligious traditions were transmitted orally. This involved the possibility of changing—or even distorting—some elements, as one can observe by studying, say, African traditional narratives. But even traditions transmitted in written form are subject to different interpretations—as one can see, for instance, in the various understandings and explanations of sacred religious texts. Various Christian theologies differ in their understanding of the tenets of Christianity. Orthodox and Reform Judaism do not interpret [Page 296]the Talmud in the same way. Sunnī, Shi'ite, and Wahhabi varieties of Islam also adhere to different traditions.

However, traditions are important elements of identity of an ethnic or national community. Maurice Halbwachs, a French philosopher and sociologist, linked traditions to the collective memory of a group or community. However, collective memory can be manipulated. A good example would be the rewriting of history by authoritarian or totalitarian regimes by reinterpreting important events in a nation's history or culture or interpreting historical events from the viewpoint of a community or nation (cf. the controversy concerning the interpretations of the Armenian massacre or the conquests of the Ottoman Empire).

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