..

:~, ~<::, .', -. ' >.. . , ."....." . ,

<iir:, Nothing appears moreancient, and linkedtoanimmemorial past, u " than the pageantry whi~h'su'rrounds British monarchy, in itspublic . ceremonial manifestations, Yd, as a chapterin this book establishes, in-;j'ts modem form \t18 the product of. the late nineteenth and

. twentieth centuries .• Traditions' which-appear or~laiin to be old are' ;;ite~ quite recent in origin and sometimes rnvent-;c[~A:ny~;;~f;111iiiar' . wfthtiieCofleges~oranclenrBrrtishulllverslties-will be able' tothink of': the· institution of such 'traditions' on a ,local scale, though ·~qm.e:_ j.fke,'_the annu'al Festival of Nine Lessons arid Carols, in the chapel of 'Ki,ng'sColiege, Cambridge on Christmas Eve ~may '!) - become generalizedthrough the modern mass medium ofI:,adjQ"This. ,-:/"'o~servation formed the starting-point of a conference organized by ':1': '~:, the historical journal Past &: Present, which in turn forms the ba~is,

,,"of'thepresentbook. , ~ - -,' 'I', -:, ,

,'- .::,; jThe term : il1v_e_l;11~,~.tr:1l-_giJjpn? is used in a broad, btl tnot imprecise ;'l~' s~l\se.lni1Ci_li'd~s bot4:Ji~~M,~qg.~' actuall?'JJJ:~eIlted, :oIls!t:r,~~t;ed and

.' 1:~"_~Q_gp~ally, instituted .and 'mg_~~:~ emerging ~':l a less easily traceable .. i~:, ~$~pE.€i· within a bri~r a.p~ dat~abk~~ri?d::-:a matte~ ~ra:rew years .;-"'~rbaps ~ andestablishing themselves with great rapidity. The royal '

. •• ~ ; ':< '5::?ri~tmas broadcast, in,Bri'iain(ins'titutedin<1 932ns~.<in:exam~le of HUGH TREVOR-ROPER (Lord Dacre of Glanton) was Master of'"'' the first; the appearance and development of the practices associated Peterhouse.Cambridge, from 1980 to 1987. He.waspreviously Regius r ',' ... "W! ti- the Cup Final in British Association. F ootball, of the second. Professor of History at the University of Oxford, from 1957-. . .:1t:is evident that.not-all of them are equally permanent, but it is their " appearance and establi~hmentrather than their chances of survival

which are .our primary concern. ,

"Invented traditio~' is taken to mean a set of practices, normally ·g9-verned by . overtly or tacitly. accepted rules and. of a, ritual OJ;

I -. symbolicnature, which-seek to inculcatecertain values and norms

i, of behaviour "by repetition, which automatically impliescontinuity "l withthe past. In fact.iwhere possible, .they normallyattempt.to 'I establish continuity with a suitable historic past. A striking example, l. isthe deliberate choice of a Gothic style for the nineteenth-century

", .J-

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.;.J., ;~.

v.

" ~ , ";-

I.

'Contributors

.. , DAv'ro'cANNADINE is Professor of History at Columbia University.

, His books include Lords and Landlords,' The Aristocracy and the Towns, 1774-1967 (1980) and The Decline and Fall of the: British

1ristocracy (1990). '

BERNARD .S .CO'HN is Professor of Anthropology at the-University of Chicago. Be is the author of many.articles on the interactions of . history, and anthropology and on the study ,of Indian, society.

., . .,' .. .;

ERIC H OBSBA y.'MjS Emeritus Professor ofEconomic andSociaI History at Birkbeck College, University of London, and a founder-

, member of the journal Past & Present. Among his many publications is Ntuions and Nationalism since 1780: Programme,Myth, Reality (1990).

P R YS M 0 ~ GAN is Reader in Historyat University College, Swansea; He haspublished extensively in Welsh and has contributed chapters to.' !llauy books.on Welsh history. '

TE RENe E RAN GE n is Rhodes Professor of Race Relations at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of St Antony's College. He is the author of TheHistorical Study of African Religion (1972) and Dance and Society in Eastern Africa (1:975).

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::tl'_To Introduction: -Inuenting

:\; - 'Traditions _ ' -

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ERIC HOBSBA WM

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Introduction: Inventing Traditions

ERIC HOBSBA WM

rebuilding of the British parliament, and the equally deliberate is what judges do; 'tradition' (inthis instance invented tradition) is

decision after World War II to rebuild the parliamentary chamber the wig, robe and other formal paraphernalia and ritualized practices

on exactly the same basic plan as before. The historic past into which surrounding their ~ubstantial action, The decline of"ciistom' inevi-

the new tradition is inserted need not be lengthy, stretching back into tably changes the' tradition' with which it is habitually intertwined,

the assumed mists of time. Revolutions an~_I2~~o,gp~§_~i:!~J,12Q:yt;})l~I!_ ts ' A second, less important, distinction that must be made is between

which break ,w~,h the past, bydiflllifiOii', have their own relevant past, 'tradition' in our sense and convention or routine, which has no

though it may be cut off at a certain date, such as 1789. However, -significant ritual or symbolic function as such, though it may acquire

insofar as there is such' reference to a historic past, the peculiarity"; it'incidentally, It is evident that any socialpractice that needs to be

of 'invented' traditions is that the continuity with it is largely '-carried out r~R~ate4ly~,~,HI tend, ~2L~QI1'y~_I)j;_Q~~l!:g.Q.~~ffi_Cie'ncY;~to

facti tious, In short; they are responses to novel si tuations which take 'I developa set _9f such conventions and routines, which maybe de facto the form ofref~rence to old-sftuattons";or'\vhichestablish their own I or de jure fon:O:aIize(j"fo~"ihe~p~;~';es-onriiparting the practice to

))'~'si b~ .~~. ~si-~b.lig~t~,~Y-~.~~t~ti~~,' Iffs,the"C;';;.irasi'between the 'r! new practitioners. This applies to unprecedented practices (such as

constant change and mr.t.2:vatlon· of the modern world and the the work of an aircraft pilot) as much as to long-familiar ones,

att~p..p~:'~2ty:r£, '1:~ •. !~~-!t_ some parts of social life within it as S,llcieties since the industrial revolution have naturally been obliged

'~~~:~~f~~Pi~f,~t~t6Ai~~-~~~t~~~~~~;~~~~~W~~~'l~~2,~!~~~E~~~~':~so ···l ~~~~::n~~~:ir~~~e~tJ~et:~~pp~~7o~~t:no;s~~:s~~~~~sc~:~er~~~~~~

""Traditi'on', "io" this "seI{se"'i:riusCbe~·dis·tingiii~hed clearly from - b'esCw.hen turned into habit, automatic procedure or eventeflex

'custom' which dominates so-called "traditional' societies. The' action, they require invariance, which may get in the way of the other

object and characteristic of'traditions', including invented ones is ,j)" ;;:eC'essary,requirementoJpractice, tp.ecaQ?£ily.tudeILtw.ith unfores~~l]. ji.iYarla;;~e_,· 'Th~Pa~t:-;;arormvetL'te((~to""whlC:h1Jiey~refei"iii{p9~ses I or inhabitual contingencies. This-IS-' a well-known -";;;atness of '. !!x~(n~o~al1y fi.~gl~li~dtpX?-ctices, such as repetition. ", Custom" , I, ~ routini~ation' 'o~ ~~~I~~uc'ratization, " parti;;;larly'''ar''Uie'~siibaJ tern

in traoi tion-a_rS'c)cieties has the double function' of motor and fly-wheel, : !eveiswheie"inv'ariant perforrrianc:e-Is"generaIly considered the most

It does not preclude innovation and change up to a point, though ',~ffl.~jent, ",.

evidently the requirement that it mustappearcompatible oreven· Such netwotb of convention and routine are not 'invented identical with 'precedent imposes ~u6siantraJ l'hriitations on it. What traditions' since their functions, and therefore their justifications, are it does is to give any desired changejor resistance to innovation) the!; technical rather than ideological (in Marxian terms they belong to' .. s~cti?'~.9f precedent, social 70~ynujJy' an~ natural law as eXp'!-:~$s&d ,\ 'base' . rather than 'superstructure '). They are designed to facilitate ,It',r:.histoFY, Students I ofdPeasa,nthm~bvements knfowth~t'i v,illage's cl~im '! rebadidly dedfinable' prahctica,l operati,oml', .andd are I readillYI m?di~ed hor

o some common an or ng t . y custom rom time immemorial" _ aan one to meet c anging practica nee s, a ways a owmg ror tee

often expresses not a historical fact, but the balance of forces in the .,' inertia which any practice acquires with time and the emotional constant struggle of village againstlords or against other villages, ( resistance to any innovation by people who have become attached

Students of the British labour movement know that' the custom of .to it. The same applies to the recognized' rules' of games or other

the trade' or of the shop may represent not ancient tradition, but patterns of social interaction, where these exist, or to any other

whatever right the workers have established in practice, however pragmatically based norms. Where these exist in combination with

recently, and which they now attempt to extend or defend by giving ,1 'tradition', the difference is readily observable, Wearing hard hats it the sanction of perpetui ty. 'Custom' cannot afford to be iil variant, fj." when riding makes practical sense, like wearing crash helmets for because even in 'traditional' societies life is not SQ, Customary or motor-cyclists or steel helmets for soldiers; wearing a particular type common law still shows this combination,£'J flexibility in substance i ,of hard hat in combination with hunting pink makes an entirely and formaI adherence to precedent. The difference between' tradition' I different kind of sense, If this were not so, it would be as easy to and' custom' in' our sense is indeed well illustrated heres" Custom' change the' t.raditional' costume of fox-hunters as it is to substitute

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I, 4 BRIC HQBSBJ\WM i, Introduction: Inventing Traditions 5

a differently shaped helmet in armies - rather conservative institu- sufficiently adaptable and flexible, or are otherwise eliminated: in

tions - ifitcan be shown to provide more effective protection. Indeed, short -wtleiifuere-ate-sufficiently large and rapid charige-s' on -tlie

it may be suggested that' traditions' and pragmatic conventions o~. demand or the supply 'side. Such ct-UiiigeShave-6een partlcula'fiy

routines are inversely related, -, Tradition' shows weakness when, as 's[gIilficiUt1fi the pasf26Cfyears, and it is therefore reasonable to expect

among liberal Jews, dietary prohibitions are justified pragmatically, these instant formalizations of new traditions to cluster during this

as by arguing that the .ancient Hebrews banned pork on grounds of period. This implies, incidentally, - against both nineteenth-century

hygiene. Conversely, objects or practices are liberated for full liberalism andin6're recent "modernizaticn ' theory that such formal-

'symbolic and ritual use when no longer fettered by practical use, The lzations-are not confined to"'so"~alled 'traditional' societies, but also

spui:s of Cavalry officers' dress uniforms are more important for nave their place, in one form or another, in "modern" o'nes. Broadly

'tradition' when there are no horses, the umbrellas of Guards officers speaking this is so, but one must beware of making the further

in civilian dress lose their significance when not carried tightly furled assumptions, firstly that older [onus. of community and authority

(that is, useless), the wigs of lawyers could hardly acquire their' structure, and consequently'thetraditions associated witl]. them, we,re

modern significance until other people stopped wearing wigs. I. unadi"ptable and became rapidly unviahle;and·secondlY that' new'

Inventing traditions, itis assumed here, is essentially a process of.'_""'liaditions simply ;es'U1ted from theinabilityto use or adapt old ones.

form:aii~aifon~ ~~~r_ritualization, characterized by reference "to-the 'Aqaptation 'took-place- for old uses-in new conditions and

"past, ifonlyby'imposing repetition. The actual process of creating bytiSiIig-oI4mogelsfornewpurposes:Oldinstitutionswithestablished

.., such ritual and symbolic complexes has not been adequately studied functions, references to the past and ritual idioms and practices might

by historians. Much of it is stillrather obscure, It is.presumably most nee-d .to adapt in this way: the Catholic Church faced with new

clearly exemplified where a 'tradition' is -delibe~atcly invented and political and ideological challenges and major changes in the com-

constructed by a single initiator, as for the Boy Scouts by Baden- '-1 position of the faithful (such as the notable feminization both of lay Powell, Perhaps it is almost as ~asily .traced in the c.ase of officiaUY;f- piety and of clerical personnelj.- professional armies faced with instituted and planned ceremomals, since they are likely to be well ' 'conscription; ancien! institu tions such as !.1_l:"Y:9~0.~~,ll. now operating in documented, as in the, case of the construction of Nazi symbolism -:, a changed context and sometimes with changedJ.functions in new and the Nuremberg party rallies. ~~.i; probably most dimS::tI.l.t __ !9_:~~?_e contexts. So were institutions ~,?-j2y'jll,g. nominal ·contin.~ty, but in

where such traditions are partly invented, partlyevolved In pnvate - fact turning intosomeihi-ng-very very different.such ,-!-S universities.

groups {where the process is less likely to be bureaucratically TnilS:-Ba:hilSbri2his"'analysed the sudden decline, after 1848, of the

recorded), or informally over a period of time as, say, in parliament traditional practice of mass student exodus from German universities

and the legal'profession, The difficulty is not only one of sources but (for reasons of conflict or demonstration) in terms of the changed

.i. also of techniques , though there are available both esoteric .disciplines academic character of universities, the rising age of the student

specializing in symbolism and ritual,such as heraldry and the study population, its embourgeoisement which diminished town/gown

of liturgy, as well as Wax burgian historic disciplines for the study of· tensions and student riotousness, the new insti tution of free mo bili ty

such subjects" Unfortunately neither are usually familiar to historians -between universities, the consequent change in student associations

of the industrial era. and other factors." In all such cases novelty is no less novel for being

There is probably no time and place with which historians are able to dress up easily as antiquity.

concerned which has not seen the 'invention' of tradition in this sense, However, we should expect it to occur more frequently when

a rapid transformation of societyweakens . or destroys the social patterns for which' old' traditions had beendesigned, producing new ones to which they were not applicable, or when such old traditions .~ and their institutional carriers and promulgators no longer prove

I See for instance G. Tihon, "Les religieuses en Belgique du XVII Ie au XXe siecle:

Approche Statistique ', Belgisch Tijdschrift v. Nieuwste Geschiedenis] Revue Beige d'Histoire Contemporaine, vii (1976), pp_ I-54,

, Karsten Bahnsen, Akademische; Ausziige aus deutschen Universiuits und Hochschulorten (Saarbriicken, 1973).

, Seventeen such exoduses are recorded in the eighteenth century, fifty in 1800---48, but only six from 1848 to 1973.

More interesting, from om point of view, is the use of ancient an alloy of religious and patriotic elements emerges from these new

materials to construct invented traditions of <l..!1,oye}Jype for quite J forms of choral, shooting and gymnastic activity." "

novelpurposes. A large store of suchmaterials is accumulated in the II ' How far new traditions can thus use old materials, how far they pasr ofanysociety, and an elaborate language of symbolic practice' may be forced to invent riew languages or devices, or extend the old ano.-commu-nlcation is always available. Sometimes new traditionsj \SymbOliCvocabulary beyond its established limits, cannot be discussed

could be readily grafted on old ones, sometimes they could be devised here. It is clear that plenty of political institutions, ideological

by borrowing from the well-supplied warehouses of official ritual, f!1_Qye_menJs and-groups - not.least in nationalism .; were so unprece-

syn16Qlism and moral exhortation - religion and princely pomp, 'dented that ever} historic continuity had to be invented, for example

'folklo~e and freemasonrytitself anearlier invented tradition of greatby""creating an ancient past beyond effective hist~rical continuity, symbolic force). Thus the development of Swiss nationalism, ~idier by' semi-fictiOli'(B~oadicea, Vercingetorix, Arminius the concomitant with the formation of the modern federal state in the '1 Cheruscan) o'r byforgefY'{O'£s';n, the Czech medieval manuscripts), nineteenth centnry, has been brilliantly studied by Rudolf Braun," lItis also clear that entirely new symbols and devices came into

who has the advantage of training in a discipline (' V olkskunde ') existence as part of riat.i'9riar~0~emen:ts, apdi·stat~.s,. such as 'the

which lends itself to such studies, and in a country where its .nationalanthem (of which' the British in 1740 seems to be the

modernization has not been set back by association with Nazi abuses. earliest), the national flag (still largely a variation on the French

Existing customary traditional practices - folksong, physical con- revolutionary tricolour, evolved 1790-4), q~ the personification of

tests, marksmanship - weremodified, ritualized-and institutionalized . ~"", 'the nation' in symbol or image, either official, as with Marianne and. for the new national purposes: Traditional folksongs were supple-lOc'riilailla;' or unofficial, as -in the cartoon stereotypes 'of John Bull,

mented by new songs in the same idiom, often composed by schooJ-;1 the lean Yankee Uncle Sam and the 'German Michel', .

masters, transferred to a choral repertoire whose content was .'! Nor should we overlook the break in continuity which is sometimes

.patriotic-progressive (' Nation, Nation, wie voll klingt der Ton '),.[ clear even in traditional topoi of genuine antiquity. If we follow though it also embodied ritually -powerful elements from religious '1'· Lloyd," English Christmas folk carols ceased to be created in the hymnology. (The formation of such new song-repertoires, especially i seventeenth century, to be replaced by hymn-book carols of the for schools, is well worth stud:r) The statutes of the Federal Song ,V Watts-Wesley kind, though a demotic modification of these in Festival- are we not reminded of the eisteddfodau? - declare its ' hirgflYTural religions like Primitive 'Methodism may be observed. object to be 'the development and improvement of the people's ., Yet carols were the first kind of folksong to be revived by middle-class singing, the awakening of more elevated sentiments for God, Freedom collectors to take their place,' in novel surroundings of church, guild and Country, union and fraternization of the friends of Art and the' and women's institute' and thence to spread in a new urban popular Fatherland'. (The word' improvement' introduces the characteristic, I setting' by street-corner singers or by hoarse boys chanting on note of nineteenth-century progress.) . , : J ,doorsteps in the ancient hope 0 f reward'. 111 this sense' God rest ye

A powerful ritual complex. formed round these occasions: festival J' merry, Gentlemen' is not old but new. Such a break is visible even pavilions, structures for the display .of flags, temples for offerings, in movements deliberately describing themselves as 'traditionalist', processions, bell-ringing, tableaux, gun-salutes, government delega-:' and appealing to groups which were, by common consent, regarded tions in honour of the festival, dinners, toasts and oratory. Old", .as the repositories of historic continuity and tradition, such as materials were again adapted for this:' .peasants.? Indeed, the very appearance of movements for the defence

The echoes of baroque forms of celebration, display and pomp are unmistakable ·in this new festival architecture, And as, in the baroque celebration, state and church merge on a higher plane, SOl

4 Rudolf Braun, Sozialer und kultureller Wandel in einem. liindlichen Industriegebiet I

un 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, ch. 6 (Erlenbach-Zurich, 1965).

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ERIC HOBSBAWM

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Introduction: Inventing Traditions

7

• Rudolf Braun, op. cit., pp. 336-7,

• A. L. Lloyd, Folk Song ill England (London, 1969 ed.), pp. 134-8.

, This is to be distinguished from the revival of tradition for purposes which actually demonstrated its decline. 'The farmers' revival (around 1900) of their old regional dress, folk dances and similar rituals for festive occasions was neither , a bourgeois lIor a traditionalistic feature. On the surface it could be viewed as

l

or revival of traditions, 'traditionalist' or otherwise, indicates such how; National Socialists exploited such occasions with liturgical

a break. Such movements, common among intellectuals since the sophistication and zeal and a conscious manipulation of symbols:~

Romantics, can never develop or even preserve a living past (except The liberal era in Britain at besttolerated such practices, insofar as

conceivably by setting up human 'natural sanctuaries for isolated neither ideology nor economic efficiency were at issue, sometimes as

corners of archaic life), but must become' invented tradition'. On a reluctant concession to the irrationalism of the lower orders. Its

the other hand the strength and adaptability of genuine traditions attitude to the sociable and ritual activities of Friendly Societies was

is not to be confused 'With-tne(inventlon'oftradition'.' Where the old a combination Of hostility (' unnecessary expenses' such as' payments

: ~;':YS are'"ilive, , traditionsneed'-l:ie'neith~;-~~vi~~d~ nor Invented., for anniversaries, processions, bands, regalia' were legally forbidden)

"Yetit may be suggested that where'they are invented, it is often and toleration of events such as annual feasts on the grounds that

not because. old ways are no -longer available or viable, but because 'the importance of this attraction, especially as 'respects the country

they are deliberately not used or adapted. Thus, in consciously population, cannot be denied' .10 But a rigorous individualist ration-

setting itself against tradition and for radical innovation, the alism dominated not only as an economic calculus but as a social

nineteenth-century liberal ideology of social change systematically ideal. Chapter 7 will investigate what happened in the period when

failed to provide for the social and authority-ties taken for granted ':." 'its limitations became increasingly recognized. .

in earlier societies, and created voids which might have to be filled by These introductory notes may be concluded with some general

, invented practices. The success of nineteenth-century Tory factory . '., observations about the invented traditions of the period since the

masters in Lancashire (as distinct from Liberal ones) in using such old industrial revolution.

ties to advantage shows that they were still there to be used - even They seemto belong to three overlapping types: a) those estab-:

in the unprecedented environment of the industrial ~own.8 The lishing.or symbolizing social cohesion or the membership of groups,

long-term inadaptability of pre-industrial ways to a society revolu-" realor artificial communities, b) those establishing or legitimizing' tionized beyond a certain point is not to be denied, but is not to be institutions, status or relations of authority, and c) those whose main confused with the problems arising out of the rejection of old ways ';.' purpose was socialization, the inculcation of beliefs, value systems

inthe short term by those who regarded them as obstacles to progress '. and conventions of behaviour. While traditions of types b) and c) ,

or, even worse, as its militant adversaries. . . were certainly devised (as in those symbolizing submission to

This did not prevent innovators from generating their own '" 'authority in British India), it may be tentatively suggested that type inventedtraditions - the practices of freemasonry are a c,as~ i,n point. ,II, a) was prevalent, the other functions being regarded as implicit in Ne-vertheless, a general hostility to irrationalism, superstition and,' or flowing from a sense of identification with a 'community' and/or customary practices reminiscent of the dark past, if-not actually ", the institutions representing, expressing or symbolizing it such as a

descended from it, made impassioned believers in the verities of the " 'nation'.

Enlightenment, such 'as liberals, socialists, and communists, unre-i,' One difficulty was thatsuch larger social entities were plainly not

ceptive to traditions old or novel. Socialists, as we shall see below, .; . Gemeinschaften or even systems of accepted ranks. Social mobility, foundthemselvesacquiringanannuaIM_ay.I?,<Lywithoutquiteknowing . the facts-of class conflict and the prevalent ideology made traditions

'. - b combining community and marked inequality in formal hierarchies

a nostalgic longing for the old-time culture which was so rapidly disappearing, ut

in reality it was a demonstration of class identity by which prosperous fa~mers -~. (as in armies) difficult to apply universally. This did not much affect

could distance themselves horizontally relative to the townspeople and vertically : traditions of type c) since general socialization inculcated the same

from the cottars craftsmen and labourers.' Palle Ove Christiansen, 'Peasant I db' f h

Adaptation to B~urgeois Culture? Class Formation and Cultural Redefinitilon . •.. values in every ci tizen, member of the nation an su ject 0 t e crown, in the Danish Countrvside', Ethnologic Scandinavica (1978), p. 128. See a so-

G. Lewis, 'The Peasantry, Rural Change and Conservative Agrarianism: Lower • Helmut Hartwig, 'Plaketten zum 1. Mai 1934-39', Aesthetik und Kommunik-

Austria at the Tum of the Century', Past & Present, no. 81 (1978), pp. 119-43. I ation, vii, no, 26 (1976), pp. 56-9,

• Patrick Joyce, 'The Factory Politics of Lancashire in the Later Nineteenth -, 10 P. H, J_ H. Gosden, The Friendly Societies in England, 1815-1875 (Manchester,

Century', Historical Journal, xviii (1965), pp.525--:-53. I 1961), pp. 123, 119, '.

ERIC HOBSBAWM

Introduc tion: Inventing Traditions

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Introduction.' Inventing Traditions

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ERIC HOBSBA WM

and the functionally specific socializations of different social groups or 'Americanism' was notably ill-defined, though usually specified

(such as public school pupils as distinct from others) did not usually in commentaries associated with ritual occasions, the practices

get in each others' way. On the other hand, insofar as invented symbolizing it were virtually compulsory - as in standing up for the

traditions reintroduced, as it were, status into aWOBo of con traEr, t" singing of the national anthem. in Britain, the flag ritual in American ~i'ioratId-inr-eri~~-=-ifito a_.~~~~r1eg~q~h.~~_uld 110t d..Q .' schools. The crucial element seems to have been the invention of

~~_,--1Ji_§Y1;:Q.uJ~ smuggled~al symbolic assent to emotionally and symbolically charged signs of club membership

'l soci~~ or~_Q.!U¥hic!L~e ~to une~Las by the restyMg rather than the statutes and objects of the club. Their significance lay

oftne British coronation cerernony.P (See below pp. 282-3.) More 'precisely in their undefined universality: .',

commonly they might foster the corporate sense of superiority of The National Flag, the National Anthem and the National

elites - particularly when these had to be recruited from those who Emblem are the three symbols through which an independent

did not already possess it by birth or ascription - rather than by! country proclaims its identity and sovereignty, and as such they

inculcating a sense of obedience in inferiors. Some were encouraged 'I:~'.:' command instantaneous respect and loyalty. In themselves they

to feel more equal than others, This might be done by assimilating .. reflect the entire background, thought and culture of a nation.v

elites to pre-bourgeois ruling groups or authorities, whether in the In this sense, as an observer noted in 1880, 'soldiers and policemen

militarist/bureaucratic form characteristic of Germany (as with the " wear badges for us now', though he failed to predict their revival as duelling student corps), or the non-militarized 'moralized gentry'~. adjuncts to individual citizens in the era of mass movements which model of the British public schools. Alternatively, perhaps, the esprit r was about to begin.P

de corps, self-confidence and leadership of elites could be developed ,t,' The second observation is that it seems clear that, in spite of much by more esoteric' traditions' marking the cohesiveness of a senior I~' invention, new traditions have not filled more than a small partof official mandarinate (as in France or among whites in the colonies). the space left by the secular decline of both old tradition and custom;

Granted that' communitarian ' invented traditions were the baSiC" -, as might indeed be expected in societies in which the past becomes

type, their nature remains to be studied. Anthropology may help to, increasingly less relevant as a model or precedent for most forms of

elucidate the differences, if any, between invented and old traditional ,! ' human behaviour. In the private lives of most people, and in the' practices. Here w~ m(l~)nerelynote that while rites of passagearel' self-contained lives of small sub-cultural groups, even the invented normally marked in the traditions of particular groups (initiation;;lf' traditions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries occupied or promotion, retirement, death), this was not usually the case in'thos~,~l}J, ,occupy a much smaller place than old traditions do in, say, old designed for all-embracing pseudo-communities (nations, countries), ,"t1>'· agrarian societies.P 'What is done' structures the days, seasons and presumably because v= underlined t~eir eternal a~d unChanging. \~I" life-cycles of twentieth-century western meo and women very much character - at least since the community's foundation. However,' less than it did their ancestors', and very much less, than ' the external boo th new political regimes and innovatory movements might seek to 'j' ,_compulsions, of the economy, technology, bureaucratic 'state find their own equivalents for the. traditional rites of passage ····organization, political decision and other forces which neither rely associated with religion (civil marriage, funerals).\' on nor develop 'tradition' in our sense.

One marked difference between old and invented practices may be 'l However, this generalization does not apply in the field of what

o bserved, The former were specific and strongly binding social,t· might be called the public life of the citizen (incl uding to s9TQe extent

practices, the latter tended to be quite unspecific and vague as to the ' . ,.. <'

nature of the values, rights and obligations of the group membership , Ii Official Indian government commentary, quoted in R. Firth, Symbols, Public and

Private (London, 1973), p. 341. .

they inculcate: 'patriotism', 'loyalty', 'duty', 'playing the game', is Frederick Marshall, Curiosities ofCeremonials, Tilles, Decorations and Forms of

'the school spirit' and the like. But if the content of British patriotism International Vanities (London, 1880), p- 20.

I< Not to mention the transformation of long-lasting rituals and signs of uniformity and cohesion into rapidly changing fashions - in costume, language,- -social

, practice etc? as in the youth cultures of industrialized countries. '

11 J. E. C. Bodley, The Coronation of Edward the VIIlh: A Chapter of European and Imperia/History (London, 1903), pp. 201, 204,

ER'IC HOBSBA WM

, public forms of socialization, such as schools, as distinct from private' ones-such as the mass media). There is no real sign of weakening in - theneo-traditional practices associated either with bodies, of men in the public service (anned forces, the law, perhaps even public servants) or in practices associated with the citizens' membership of states. Indeed rnost of the occasions when people become conscious of citizenship as such remain associated with symbols and semi-ri tual practices (for instance, elections), most ofwhicb are historically novel and largely invented: flags, images, ceremonies and music. Insofar as the invented traditions 'of the era since the industrial and French revolutions have filled a permanent gap- at all events up to the . present -,it would seem to be in this field.

Why, it may be asked finally, should historians devote their attention to such phenomena? The question is in one sense unnecessary, since a growing number of them plainly do, as the 'contents of this volume and the references cited in it bear wi tness, So it is better rephrased: What benefit can historians derive from the 'study of the invention of tradition?

I: 'Firstalld foremost, it may be suggested that they are important '" symptoms and therefore indicators of problems which might not

'I • '

f otherwise be recognized, and developments which are otherwise'

\ difficultto identify and to date. They are evidence. The transformation

of German nationalism from its old liberal to its new imperialistexpansionist pattern is more exactly illuminated by the rapid replacement of the old black-red-geld colours by the new black-white-red ones( especially by the 18908) among the German gymnasticmovement, than by official statements of authorities or spokesmen for organiz- ~ ations, The history of the British football cup finals tells us something l about the development of an urban working-class culture which' I more conventional data and sources do not. By the same token, the ,I study of'invented traditions cannot be separated from the wider study ,oftne history ofsociety, nor can it expect to advance much beyond the mere discovery of such practices unless it is integrated into a wider

study. '

Second, it throws a considerable .Iight on the human relation to gl~ P~1:it. and therefore on the historian's own subject and craft. For all invented traditions.sofar as possible, use history as a Iegitirnator of action and cement of group cohesion. Frequently it becomes the actual symbol of struggle, as in the battles over the monuments to Walther von der Vogelweide and Dante in South Tyrol in 1889' and

Introduc tion: Inventing Traditions ' 13

.1896.15 Even revolutionary movements backed their innovations by reference to a' people's past' (Saxons versus Normans, 'nos ancetres les Gaulois' against the Franks, Spartacus), to traditions of revolution (' A uch das deutsche V olk hat seine revolutionare Tradition' as

, Engels claimed in the first words of his Peasant War in Germany)16 and to its own-heroes and martyrs. James Connolly'S Labour inIrish History exemplifies this union of themes excellently. The element of' invention 'is particularly clear here, since the history whic~ becamei part of the- fund of knowledge or the ideology of nation, state orl movement is ,not what has act!!~~_.pre,seIxecLin.-p.QpulaJ ~emory,..£!!1 wba t ba s b.e._~n selected,wri Hen, pictured, ..Q_QQularized 1 and mS9tutionalized by. those whose functi0!.l.l!..is to dOLQ.,_Oral lUstonans hive frequently observed how in the actual memories of the old the General Strike of 1926 plays a more modest and less dramatic part than interviewers anticipated.F The formation of such ' an image of the French Revolu tion in and by the Third Republic has

. been analysed. IS Yet al1 historians, whatever else their objectives, are engaged in this process" inasmuch as they contribute, consciously or {, not, to the creation, dismantling and restructuring of images of the past which belong not only to the world of specialist investigation' but to the public sphere of man as a political being. They might as well be aware of this dimension of their activities.

In this connection, one specific interest of' invented traditions ' for, at all events, modern and contemporary historians ought to be singled out. They are highly relevant to that comparatively recent historical innovation, the 'nation', with its associated phenomena: , nationalism, the nation-state, national symbols, histories and therest.

All these rest on exercises in social engineering which are often deliberate and always' innovative, if only because historical novelty implies innovation. Israeli and Palestinian nationalism or nations

" John W. Cole and Eric Wolf, The Hidden Frontier: Ecology and Ethnicity in (Tn , Alpine Valley (N.Y. and London, 1974), p . .55.

W For the popularity of books on this and other militant historical subjects in German workers' libraries, see H.-J. Steinberg, Sozialismus und deutsche 'Sozialdemokratie. Zur Ideologic der Partei vor dem ersten Weltkrieg (Hanover, 19i17), pp, 131-3,

" There are perfectly sound reasons why participants at the bottom do not usually see historic events they live through as top people or historians do. Onemight call this (after the hero of Stendhal's chartreuse de Parmer the 'Fabrice syndrome'.

" E.g. Alice Gerard, La Revolutlon Francaise: Mythes et Interpretations, 1789-1970 , (Paris, 1970).

14 ERIC Ho'BS.B.A.WM'

. must-be novel.whatever the'bistoriC continuities. of Jews or 'Middle .

Eastern Muslims, sincethevery.concept of territorial-states of.the .. currentlystandard typein their region was. barely thought of a century _. .ago, andchardly- became.a 'serious prospect before the .end 'of World WarI>Sta:ndard national languages, to be learned in-schoolsand written.ilet.alone spoken>: by more than asmallish eli te, are largely constructsofvaryingjbut.often brief, age. N aFrench historian 'of Eleniish rlanguage-cbserved, quite correctly,' the. Flemish taught in' Belgium,today' isnot the.language Which the mothers and grand-

e mothers.of.Flanders: spoke' to, their children: in short, it is only ,. metaphorically but not.li terally 'a 'mother-tongue'. We should not.

be, misled 'bya curious, but understandable, paradox .modern nations and alltheirimpedimen 14 generally claim to be the opposi te of novel, namely: rooted; itrthe .remotest antiquity, 'and the 'opposite <of constructed, namelyhuman communities so 'natural" as to require no definition other than self-assertion .. Whatever the historic or other continuitieS embeddrd in the modern concept of' France' -, and 'the French' .; and ,which ' nobody 'would· seek to' deny - these v~r'y .•.. concepts-themselvesmust. include a constructed or 'invented' com- .: . ponent.And just because so much of what su bjectively makes up:th,~ .

. '. modern /n.ation 'consists of such constructs and isassociated 'with .

, appropriate and, in general; fairly recent symbols or suitably ~il9f~4' . discourse-tsueh as "national histoty').c the-national: phenolrieripn cannot be .adequately investigated without careful.attentionto.the

~iny~ntiQn oftradition" .. : . " .,' " .

"::Final1y,,the study ofthe.jnvention of tradition is interdisciplinary': -' .It.is afield.of-studywhichbrings together historians; sociatanth~o~,::,

····:pologi:;ts and a variety of other workers: in .the human"sden~s,an:d: , camiocadequately-be. pursued' without such collaboration.,:The . .present book brings together, in th.e main, contributions by historians.' .Iris to be hoped that others will also find ituseful, ' .

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