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<div>With reference to Koen de Ceuster and Frank Hoffman's recent
EMails:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Now that Terrence Ranger has departed this life, I increasingly
find it appropriate to delete the very words 'invented tradition' from
my vocabulary. Within H&R's definition, connections to a past,
whether reinterpreted or not, is a necessary given. This presents us
with a number of problems, not least of which concerns the nature of
'tradition'. Tradition, we must surely accept, evolves and develops,
rather than being frozen in the mists of time.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Again, who decides on the elements that constitute 'invention'?
In H&R's 1983 book, Ranger's discussion of Scottish kilts
illustrates this perfectly. If you fancy telling a Scottish National
Party member that his kilt is based on a pattern of material imported
from the Netherlands by Lancashire mill owners, and that clan tartans
were merely a marketing ploy by those same mill owners -- however true
this may be -- you deserve to end up with a bloodied nose: the SNP
member will clearly not share your opinion. Similarly, in my work on
Korean music, I once thought of SamulNori as an 'invented tradition',
but quickly realised that no Korean playing the music agreed.
SamulNori may have first been performed on stage in February 1978, and
the performance style may be geared to a contemporary setting, but it
is based on percussion band music stretching back many centuries.
The<i> roots</i> of the tradition are more important to Korean
SamulNori musicians than the changes created in and since 1978.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Incidentally, reacting to Frank's comment that nothing similar to
the H&R definition of 'invented traditions' comes to mind in
respect to Korean Confucianism, I would recommend some of the research
by Kim Kwangok (particularly: 'Socio-cultural Implications of the
Recent Invention of Tradition in Korea', published in<i> Papers of the
British Association for Korean Studies</i> 1: 7-27).</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Keith Howard</div>
<div><br></div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>... would it be<br>
a non-starter to begin our investigation into Korea's Confucian
tradition<br>
with the statement that it is an invented tradition?</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br>
"Invented tradition" in Eric Hobsbawm's sense (guess there
is no other understanding of this term) would mean a tradition that
was indeed INVENTED by a political or social group (e.g. a government,
colonial regime, a club, or a fraternity) with the obvious purpose to
manifest, reinstate and/or legitimate that group's power or claim to
power. Hobsbawm's May Day example shows how invented traditions like
May Day were actually reinvented each time a new regime learned to use
and abuse it for their own purposes. Now, if we would talk about
"Confucian tradition(s)" as invented tradition, then I'd
like to know how to define the difference between "tradition"
and "invented tradition"? Are you suggesting that all
traditions are invented traditions? i don't think this is what
Hobsbawm and Ranger mean to say, nor do I see how this could be the
case.<br>
<br>
Hobsbawm deals mostly with modern Europe, the 19th and 20th century --
invented traditions in the modernization process. If we look at
Confucian tradition(s) as invented tradition(s), then where do we
begin, historically? And what would be an example of an invented
Confucian tradition? I can give you countless examples from 19th and
20th century Europe .... but how about invented Confucian traditions
in Korea -- nothing comes to mind, unless, maybe, if we talk about the
application of what is considered Confucian values to, say, employees'
work and life in Korean conglomerates like Samsung, Daewoo, etc.
E.g., is the group morning exercise an invented Confucian tradition,
or is it just the translation of Confucian family values to an
industrialized Asian society? In other words, we do have to
consider that indeed there are Confucian traditions and value systems
that have formed Korea.<br>
<br>
Frank<br>
<br>
<br>
--<br>
______________________________________________________<br>
Frank Hoffmann<br>
http://KoreaWeb.ws * Fax: (415) 727-4792</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<x-sigsep><pre>--
</pre></x-sigsep>
<div>Dr Keith Howard<br>
Senior Lecturer in Music, SOAS,</div>
<div>Director, AHRB Research Centre for Cross-Cultural Music and
Dance<br>
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG<br>
Tel: 020 7898 4687; Mobile: 07815 812144; Fax: 020 7898 4519</div>
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