Tradition, Modernity and Ways of Knowing Artwell Nhemachena (original) (raw)
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Wiley International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology (ed. by James Stanlaw), 2020
This entry will examine some of the key understandings of the relationship between tradition and modernity in the context of linguistic anthropological enquiries. Focus is placed on the conditions and tensions produced by tradition and modernity, and how these concepts as discursive constructs classify and stratify society, institutions, linguistic practices and speakers. Exemplifications from minority language contexts are imbedded, and the implications of using the traditional/modern dichotomy for the policy and practice surrounding minority languages and speakers will be discussed. Finally, the current shift to the project of late modernity as a response to rising forces of globalization and neoliberalism are addressed. Its implications for the shifting traditional and modern value allocations to language are detailed and its consequences for new avenues of research discussed. The concepts of modernity and tradition The first issue that needs addressing in any discussion of tradition and modernity in the context of linguistic anthropology is that of terminology. The way people use, experience and think about language, communities and ethnicity is framed by wider social, cultural, economic and political processes. Modernity and tradition are terms that seek to account for the changing realities, values, ideologies and discursive manifestations of languages and their speakers in social life. Although modernity and tradition can be treated as historical periods
NB Submitted for the Multiplication of modernity panel Beyond the dichotomy: Tradition in modernity
2013
The paradigm of ‘multiple modernities’ associated with the civilisational theory of S N Eisenstadt and Johann Arnason has emerged as one of the most ambitious attempts to go beyond Eurocentric conceptions of modernity. Underpinning its project to ‘multiply modernity’ is a distinctive take on the ‘cultural turn’ that characterised late twentieth century social theory; in contrast to the idea that modernity is a universal, culture-neutral formation, it argues that diverse traditions (including those which demarcate civilisations) have played a formative role in the emergence of multiple forms of modernity. However, this line of argument runs counter to some entrenched assumptions about the relationship between modernity and tradition. The idea that tradition is eroded in modernity was one of the most powerful legacies of classical social thought, and has been given a new lease of life in recent debates. In this paper, I contrast the multiple modernities understanding of the role of tr...
Tradition as Temporal Depth and Conscious Present
This paper is an attempt to understand the positive and creative aspects and meaning of tradition with the help of the deep insights of two twentieth century scholars, namely, T.S. Eliot and Edward Shils.The credit for bringing tradition - an antique smelling item-to the limelight of scholarly discussion and research goes mainly to Eliot and Shils. A sense of the sacred coupled with enlightened rationality is visible in their approach to tradition. This enabled them to uphold the truth and deconstruct and challenge the misconception and thus to provide a well tempered formulation of tradition to us. Thenceforth tradition began to diffuse and disseminate a fresh air of ‘biophilia’ and temporality free from the assaults of orthodoxy and antiquity.
Zeitschrift für philosophische Forschung, 2022
Tradition is a complex phenomenon of which we can find a multiplicity of conceptualizations in the philosophical, sociological, anthropological, and economic literature. In this paper, I offer a critical contribution and a constructive contribution to answering the question of how tradition should be conceptualized. In the critical part, I argue against attempts to construct a unified conception of tradition. In the constructive part, I discuss three taxonomies proposed in the literature and then develop an analytical grid of tradition as an alternative. The analytical grid is based on a sample of 28 accounts of tradition that can be found in the contemporary scholarly literature, and makes use of seven dimensions to distinguish among these conceptions.