Abstract
Growing reflexivity within folklore studies has established an understanding of tradition as a keyword of Western modernity, and of folklore studies as part of the modernisation processes. The article explores this field by examining how processes that produced a modern idea of history also gave birth to the notion of tradition. The contention is that as twin products of a uniquely modern temporality, history and tradition are mutually constitutive concepts. A temporalised notion of History as an overall process, and as a “collective singular”, had its parallel in the understanding of Tradition as a separate but related mode of temporality with its own processes of change and transformation. The discussion is based on British and Nordic examples.
Keywords
tradition, nineteenth century, temporality, folkloristics, history
How to Cite
Eriksen, A., (2016) “ENTANGLED GENEALOGIES”, Ethnologia Europaea 46(2), 89-110. doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/ee.1189
Publisher Notes
- This article was previously published by Museum Tusculanum Press.