[KS] 'Invented' 'Traditions'

[Keith Howard]

With reference to Koen de Ceuster and Frank Hoffman's recent EMails:

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.

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 roots of the tradition are more important to Korean 
SamulNori musicians than the changes created in and since 1978.

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 Papers of the British 
Association for Korean Studies 1: 7-27).

Keith Howard

>>... would it be
>>a non-starter to begin our investigation into Korea's Confucian tradition
>>with the statement that it is an invented tradition?
>
>"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.
>
>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.
>
>Frank
>
>
>--
>______________________________________________________
>Frank Hoffmann
>http://KoreaWeb.ws  *  Fax: (415) 727-4792


-- 
Dr Keith Howard
Senior Lecturer in Music, SOAS,
Director, AHRB Research Centre for Cross-Cultural Music and Dance
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG
Tel: 020 7898 4687; Mobile: 07815 812144; Fax: 020 7898 4519
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