Tradition

This Course will be based on readings of foundational texts of Hasidic hagiography from the nineteenth century. We will investigate the sources of this literature, the authors and printers of these texts, their changing characteristics and reception. The course will focus on close readings In Praise of The Baal Shem tov.

This is a short research report that supplements the discussion in "Parallelism, Mode, Medium and Orders of Representation" (2014) and "A Preface to Parallelism". It outlines a perspective and analytical model that is an outcome of the seminar-workshop Parallelism in Verbal Art and Performance which those publications preceded.

Le développement de la situation politique en Serbie post-titiste et
postcommuniste, ainsi que le rôle actif joué pendant cette période par la pratique de
l’usage de la tradition, imposent le besoin de se consacrer sur le problème de rapport de
la transition politique et de l’usage de la tradition. L’auteur considère que le "retour de
la tradition" en Serbie peut s’interpréter comme l’effet simultané d’au moins trois
courants dans le rapport des différents acteurs envers la tradition: a) du traditionalisme
populaire spontané qui est le résultat de l’attachement émotionnel envers les éléments
de la culture traditionnelle qui symbolisent la continuité de l’identité nationale; éléments
qui dans les dernières cinquante années n’ont pas été abandonnés, mais cachés et
refoulés dans la sphère de la vie privée; b) du traditionalisme de résistance anticommuniste,
dans le cadre duquel la tradition nationale est utilisée comme symbole de
position politique et outil de lutte politique; et c) du traditionalisme officiel, dans le
cadre duquel on a recours à la tradition dans le but de légitimiser la position de l’élite
politique dont l’idéologie de base n’est plus partagée par les masses. Partant de l’analyse
de quatre cas (porteurs de croix en Donja Trepča près de Čačak, Pâques en Štrpce en
Kosovo et Metohija, Oro-danse des vieilles femmes et Epiphanie en Vračev Gaj en
Banat du Sud), l’auteur introduit la distinction entre deux vagues de renouvellement
et/ou usage des traditions nationales et locales en Serbie. Les rites de la "première vague
de renouvellement" (comme le rituel des porteurs de croix) deviennent, au moins dans
un nombre important de cas, des rites de catharsis émotionnelle et spirituelle. A travers
d’un rite secondaire, d’un rite en rite, les participants se libèrent (en la mettant sur scène
publiquement) de la peur, de l’humiliation et de la rage accumulées en eux pendant des
années de répression politique. Pour les participants plus âgés, le rite exécuté pour la
première fois après des années de répression représente donc en premier lieu un
psychodrame de purification et de renégociation publique et interpersonnelle des
émotions et des significations, aussi que des représentations de soi. En ce qui concerne
les rites de la "deuxième vague de renouvellement" (Pâques ou Epiphanie), en tant que formes expressives structurées de communication sociale, l’essence des changements se
limite à une redéfinition de leur signification dans la clef nationale/nationaliste. La
transition du communisme à un socialisme hybride pluripartite "à visage capitaliste"
semble être accompagnée dans les villages serbes par un passage du traditionalisme de
résistance (en tant que forme d’usage de la tradition avec des buts anti-communistes) à
un traditionalisme nationaliste (en tant que forme d’instrumentalisation de la tradition
dirigée vers les groupes ethniques et nationales différents). Donc, dans la "deuxième
vague", la situation se modifie, et les rites traditionnels commencent à être utilisés par
les puissants locaux et le clergé, en premier lieu pour l’affirmation de l’identité et de
l’intégrité nationales, et parallèlement à cela pour l’augmentation de leur pouvoir
personnel dans la communauté. Toutefois, entre la "première" et la "seconde" vague de
renouvellement de la tradition, il existe une ressemblance importante. Il s’agit de ce que
dans les deux cas, du moins en ce qui concerne les rites, une redéfinition de leur
signification traditionnelle se produit, dans un sens et un volume qui répondent au but
de ceux qui les utilisent. Autrement dit, on arrive à une nouvelle "lecture" du sens du rite
de la part des participants, et, en même temps, à la possibilité que cette nouvelle lecture,
par la répétition de l’exécution, soit adoptée comme la substantielle. Les portes sont
ainsi ouvertes au changement de la tradition.

Studio incentrato sulla definizione di tradizione all'interno delle arti marziali (in particolar modo del karate). Un documento che, a mio parere, può valere per molti altri settori della vita di tutti i giorni. Articolo originariamente pubblicato per il sito KarateSen.

ABSTRACT Ethno-astronomical researches started to be performed on the territory of the Republic of Macedonia in 1982 and since then they are constantly carried out. Information gathered directly from the elderly inhabitants of around 130 villages all over the country, enlighten the folk presentation of sky, division of the stars and constellations, but also provided a vast scope of myths, beliefs and rituals linked to the sky, stars, and constellations. More in-depth analyses of the gathered data lead to the reconstruction of the ancient stars map of the Macedonian people. Due to the fact that in the past people recognized only two seasons, most of the stars and constellations are presented on the so-called winter and summer sky. People were also familiar with the part of the sky around the Polaris and knew about the constellations that did not rise and set, but are special part of the folk sky map. The mentioned study provides a comparative analysis of the folk constellations known among the Macedonian people and folk constellations know among the others, mos tly neighbouring people living on the Macedonian Peninsula.

Within sociology there is great debate as to the position of tradition in contemporary global culture. Radical theorists argue that traditions either disappear or become detraditionalized and, in so doing, lose social significance and links with historical practice. Co-existence theorists however argue that detraditionalization need not result in the disappearance of tradition but instead traditional authorities can continue to maintain links with historical practice and exert influence in the world today. In this paper we aim to move beyond this either/or approach and examine both the corrosion and maintenance of two contrasting traditions in contemporary Scotland. In doing this the paper aims to identify the factors that influence the position of tradition in contemporary culture in Scotland and to further our understanding of tradition in a global world.

This essay explores the distinction between tradition and modernity in Africa by examining the evolution of conflict. The focus of the investigation is Sierra Leone, looking at two conflicts during and after the colonial era, the Hut Tax War (1898) and the Civil War (1991-2002). The fact that Sierra Leonean conflicts contained both traditional and modern elements is important both for academics studying African society, and for practitioners interested in alleviating conflict. For the former group, it shows that tradition and modernity are often more closely intertwined than we think, and that the form in which social facts appear may be very different from their origins—the crucial insight of ‘invented tradition’. The two are not irreversible static states, but rather dynamic processes comprised of disparate, potentially conflicting elements. For the latter group, it shows that African conflicts cannot be understood on the basis of Western conceptions of modernity alone. If we want to comprehend these wars in order to prevent them, we need to take into account not just traditional cultural differences, but also the divergent paths to modernity that African countries have followed since independence.

In this paper I argue that Luther's Scripture principle, which is often said to have become obsolete due to our understanding of the historical origins of the canon, has in fact become widely accepted across different denominations. This, I show, becomes apparent once we observe two factors that are often neglected: first, gauge sola scriptura against its historical rival, the Tridentine doctrine of an oral tradition as a second source of revelation; secondly, accept that the Scripture principle can be held in a historicist version that acknowledges the Bible as the foundation of historic Christianity. I initially argue the former point by an examination of Joseph Ratzinger's engagement with the so-called Geiselmann thesis. In a second part of the paper, I explain the significance of historicisation for our understanding of Scripture and tradition. I defend my endorsement of a historicised version of the Scripture principle against its critique by Karl Barth while agreeing with Barth's historical observation of an increasing rapprochement between Protestant and Catholic views of Scripture since the 19th century.

When the First Crusade ended with the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099, jubilant crusaders returned home to Europe bringing with them stories, sacred relics, and other memorabilia, including banners, jewelry, and weapons. In the ensuing decades, the memory of the crusaders' bravery and pious sacrifice was invoked widely among the noble families of western Christendom. Popes preaching future crusades would count on these very same families for financing, leadership, and for the willing warriors who would lay down their lives on the battlefield. Despite the great risks and financial hardships associated with crusading, descendants of those who suffered and died on crusade would continue to take the cross, in some cases over several generations. Indeed, as Nicholas L. Paul reveals in To Follow in Their Footsteps, crusading was very much a family affair.
Scholars of the crusades have long pointed to the importance of dynastic tradition and ties of kinship in the crusading movement but have failed to address more fundamental questions about the operation of these social processes. What is a "family tradition"? How are such traditions constructed and maintained, and by whom? How did crusading families confront the loss of their kin in distant lands? Making creative use of Latin dynastic narratives as well as vernacular literature, personal possessions and art objects, and architecture from across western Europe, Paul shows how traditions of crusading were established and reinforced in the collective memories of noble families throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Even rulers who never fulfilled crusading vows found their political lives dominated and, in some ways, directed by the memory of their crusading ancestors. Filled with unique insights and careful analysis, To Follow in Their Footsteps reveals the lasting impact of the crusades, beyond the expeditions themselves, on the formation of dynastic identity and the culture of the medieval European nobility.