The Invention of Tradition

شدني العنوان ولم يشدني مضمون الكتاب الذي أشبه ما يكون بكتاب تاريخ السلطة في الملكة المتحدة.

لفتت انتباهي هذه الجملة التي نقلها المؤلف من أحد المؤلفين :

كانت عظمة باريس وسان بيترسبورغ رمزا للاستبداد ، وإلا كيف يمكن جمع قوة وأموال كافية لإكمال تلك المنظومات العملاقة ؟ كانت لندن أقل عظمة لكن شعبها لم يكن واقعا تحت ذل الاستبداد.

The Highland Tradition of Scotland read for a class - mindblowing! I have been fed lies! :)

A handful of pieces by Hobsbawm and his fellow travelers that read like well-written academic papers should: thought-provoking, and nearly free of any kind of grim jargon. What we get is a set of incisive analyses of how English traditions were invented, and how "local" traditions were invented to expand the imperial project and the ambitions of local petty lords in Scotland, Wales, India, and British Africa. The book finishes with an essay by Hobsbawm expanded the purview to the invention of tradition in America and continental Europe, hammering home the point that invented tradition is an almost universal tool to legitimate power

And hey, now I live in a tropical quasi-democratic state where invented tradition is still crassly used by the ruling class to enthrall a population held down by an appalling disparity of wealth. I would read a section of the book, have to stop moving on the subway as the national anthem played (really, guys?!) and think "welp, some shit never changes."

هوبزباوم في المقدمة التي كان من المفترض أن تكون الخاتمة أتى بزبدة أفكار الكتاب والبحوث المكتوبة فيه، بالنسبة له فالمؤرخين يؤسسون لتقاليد وأعراف ويجعلونها جزء من تاريخ الثقافة البشرية بحيث تشتغل هذه التقاليد على تشكيل السلوك الجمعي وتنميطه وفرض معيارية جماعية وتاريخية تدفع أفراد المجتمع المعني لخوض صراعات دائمة للدفاع عنها.
هوبزباوم يربط وبشدة بين تحولات المجتمع السريعة وضعف أو تفكك الأنماط الاجتماعية التي صممت التقاليد القديمة من أجلها، ويفرق بين تطور العادات في الوضع العادي للمجتمع، واختراع العادات، فلو كانت التقاليد القديمة حية لم يكن هناك حاجة لإحياء أو اختراع تقاليد جديدة.
أفكار هوبزباوم مكتوبة ومطبقة على الأمثلة الموجودة في الكتاب لتتحدث عن التقاليد التي تم اختراعها بسبب تفكك المجتمع التقليدي الأوروبي بسبب الثورة الصناعية والرأسمالية، لكن هل يمكن استخدام نفس الأفكار لدراسة تحولات مجتمعات أخرى كما فعلها الباحثون، داخل الكتاب عند دراسة الهند وقبائل أفريقيا؟
على صعيد آخر تحدث نُعيمان عثمان في كتابه الثمين القبلية معتمداً على أفكار هوبزباوم للتعليق على بعض النقاط المتعلقة بمسألة القبلية، دون تبرير، مع أن الحداثة في الدول العربية مختلفة تماما عن الحداثة السلسة في أوروبا، والتي نتج عنها تغيّر في العادات، واختراع لتقاليد عربية جديدة سببها الحداثة المفاجئة، لا السلسة نتيجة اختلاف الظروف بين المنطقتين.
مجتمعنا السعودي يتعرض لتغيرات سريعة جداً، وتحولات كبيرة في العادات والتقاليد والأنماط في العشر سنوات الأخيرة، لا تحظى بإهتمام أو دراسة علمية دقيقة وجادة، ربما حتى توثيقها وتدوينها لم يتم بعد إلا بغرض الإثارة ربما!!
بلدنا تشتكي إلى الله هذا الإهمال البحثي، والتجاهل من الباحثين والمؤلفين السعوديين.

I find this to be a fascinating subject. The traditions that we follow offer clues as to which tribe we want to join or those to which we already belong; they also indicate which authorities we follow.

As pointed out in the excellent introduction, tradition is a different matter than customs. Tradition is what has become unvaried or fixed, while customs “serve the double function of motor and fly-wheel.” Customs have more to do with the delicate give and take of civil society, although can become tradition and often do. For example, the author points out that much of what judges do is included under customs, but what they wear is tradition.

This collection covers some great examples of invented traditions from different colonial systems, the British monarchy and the European industrial age after 1870 to the start of World War 1, with the last as my personal favorite piece in the book. As used here, it includes those constructed to assert authority or dominance, and those that simply emerged over a brief period of time. With those definitions, one can easily see how knowing how to untangle which is which (and devised by whom) is vital before adopting or defending them. For example, it seems that recently the singing of the national anthem has become a place of protest at sporting events. While writing about the issue, many reporters began to examine this tradition and found it only became the custom around WW2, with the song itself protested by citizens from its adoption as our anthem in 1931. Even Jackie Robinson wrote of his inability to stand and sing the song in his 1972 autobiography. No matter how one feels about the protesting, one can see how it has been hardened into tradition that is now so dearly held by some that the flouting of it is seen as an unpatriotic act.

So upon investigation, it may turn out that some of these dearly held traditions started from pure myth or even from the cooptation of another culture. But knowing which invented traditions are problematic in their origins may be difficult to uncover and in many cases, may not really matter. After all, all traditions are manufactured by people with their meanings changing with the times. This may be the main problem with this book; the editors or the authors just do not make a strong enough case that invented traditions are different in any meaningful manner to the users than "organic" traditions. This lack is apparent in the different essays covered which evade covering any customs or traditions NOT invented by an authority, either governmental or capitalistic in nature.

I certainly agree (as I have said elsewhere in this review) that simply understanding the origins of tradition is vital; that may be the true heart of this book.
For example, it seems important to know whether nationalist pride events are created and staged to support fascism; Hitler was such a master at staging and symbolism and intertwining the two together that it was difficult to separate Teutonic pride from Naziism before and after the war. It has been noted that Naziism was "the reductio ad absurdum of the German tradition of nationalism, militarism, worship of success, and force, as well as the exaltation of state." To me, it proves that the unexamined tradition can be the devil in the detail.

Modernite ve Modern Devlet kavramlarını daha iyi anlamak için doyurucu fakat yer yer sıkıcı bir kitap. İskoçya,Galler kısımlarında konu çok özel olduğu için çok sıkıyor. Kitap genel değil de daha çok özel örnekler üzerinden gidiyor. Bu da akıcılığı zorlaştırmış.

Fakat kitap şunu iyice anlamanızı sağlıyor : Modernleşme ve modern devlet, bin yıllardır korunmuş olan yerel kültür ve gelenekleri hiç olmadığı kadar kökten değiştirmiştir. Orta Çağ'ın emperyal imparatorluklarının hiçbirinin İngiliz İmparatorluğu kadar kültürel hayata etki edememesinin sebebi, geçmiş imparatorlukların yetersizliklerinden değil, modernizmin ve modern devetin hayatın her alanına girmek istemesi ve bunları düzenlemek istemesidir.

Un libro excepcional, pero si me tengo que quedar con un artículo (quitando los de Hobsbawn) es sin duda "El invento de la tradición en el África colonial".

Es muy interesante el enfoque del libro y sus objetivos que en ese entonces eran abiertamente novedoso y han sido fundamentales para después la historiografía. Del mismo modo deja claro la necesidad de entender de una forma no vulgar (es decir de nacimiento, apogeo y decadencia, o de "imposiciones" de forma unilateral) las dialécticas que existen en el seno de la sociedades.

Sin duda una grandisima obra

mega mi wyszlo te kolo teorii literatury xd