Tradition is about how elements are articulated, not about persistence of old forms

Evidence

Tradition is a vital element in culture; but it has little to do with the mere persistence of old forms. It has much more to do with the way elements have been linked together or articulated. These arrangements in a national-popular culture have no fixed or inscribed position, and certainly no meaning which is carried along, so to speak, in the stream of historical tradition, unchanged. Not only can the elements of “tradition” be rearranged, so that they articulate with different practices and positions, and take on a new meaning and relevance. It is also often the case that cultural struggle arises in its sharpest form just at the point where different, opposed traditions meet, intersect. They seek to detach a cultural form from its implantation in one tradition, and to give it a new cultural resonance or accent. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1017

Categorization

• DEFINE: Hall’s redefinition of ‘tradition’ — the central concept of the essay — as articulation rather than persistence, overturning the common sense of the term.
• XREF: Sets up the definition of ‘articulation’ that Hall develops fully elsewhere in these essays. — connects to: Traditions are mutable and contested rather than fixed and class-bound; Culture names the forms, not the content, of social relationships — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 882; Historical change alters how invariant productive elements combine, not the elements themselves. (+14 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1017

Broader Connections

• Meaning in culture emerges only through interaction with other elements #expands (0.85) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 72
• Cultural forms ossify and drift apart from the life that created them #complicates (0.82) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 837
• Historical change alters how invariant productive elements combine, not the elements themselves. #corroborates (0.80)
• Traditions are mutable and contested rather than fixed and class-bound #expands (0.60)
• Culture names the forms, not the content, of social relationships #corroborates (0.55) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 882
• Culture as constitutive of practice retains contingency and is never finally determined #expands (0.50)
• Culture is defined as lived meanings plus embodied traditions responding to conditions #complicates (0.45)