Many honored traditions were invented recently for commercial reasons
Evidence
Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger coined the term “invented tradition” to explain the common practice of using history “as a legitimator of action and cement of group cohesion.” Today each Scottish clan has a tartan, a practice that originated in the late eighteenth century when commercial weavers named each of their different patterns after a Highland clan or town; descendants of those clans then began to use them as unique markers of ancestry and identity despite no historical relationship. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 649
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Revival versions can displace the original in cultural memory — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 679; Older conventions get chosen because they lower social risk — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 646; Cultural identities are often invented traditions rather than inherited ones (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Cultural identities are often invented traditions rather than inherited ones
#expands(0.95) - Invented traditions use claims of continuity with the past to inculcate norms.
#expands(0.85) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 810 - Cultural invention historically arose from small creative enclaves insulated from commerce
#contradicts(0.80) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 851 - World fairs staged indigenous people in folkloric displays as indigenous
#exemplifies(0.80) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 989 - Popular commercial forms must preserve elements of authentic vernacular to succeed
#qualifies(0.75)