Cultivating Tradition, Designing Culture

[Feywer]

I have a deep curiosity on cultural identity and familial traditions, folk-lore and belief. Clan identity and personal approaches to the world and how we see ourselves in relation to any broader group of people. Everyone wants to belong. Be it a sub-cultural identity like goth, punk or metal; religious vocation or pure workplace hustle and bustle. Often times, families have deep cultural values - like a family motto, a style of dress, culinary dishes, music and superstition - that provide a framework to how they as a unit see themselves as a cohesive whole. However, sometimes this does not satisfy some people, either through no personal resonance or a shift in values to something else.

Margot Adler said that it is no coincidence that half the covens in America today are "welsh traditionalist-this", "celtic-reconstructuralist-that" and "norse-something-or-other". She posits that when many of our ancestors migrated to America they wanted to Americanize as fast as possible, so in order to facilitate that, they would often throw away or shrug off their older traditions and values to accept a more American value-system. So a lot of us are searching around in the ashes for what she calls the "juice", the "good stuff" of our ancestry and cultures to regain a sense of deep connection and richness that many of us feel like we don't have.

Prevailing culture is often homogeneous, bland, and very cookie-cutter. Having a deepened sense of identity provides a fulfillment and sense of belonging that can help us make sense of things in a larger culture which seems void of any such deep significance.

I am very much in genealogical research and possess most of my families history, dating back quite a few centuries. While we come from varied parts of the world to immigrate to America and take a part in that prosperity that many hundreds of families did (and still do), I find that we are no exception to the example where we, too, threw away our "good stuff" to experience this new world and embrace an Americanized framework of living. In lieu of this, I am exploring designing brand new traditions and sets of culturally rich approaches to identity. I do not see a reason why someone is not able to "make up" a tradition or perhaps introduce a new culinary dish that represents their sense of identity in a family, which will be passed down the line. We too, can play our part in enriching the deep and colourful expression of culture through our lives and make our mark in ancestry through it.

What do you think about your family traditions? Do they resonate with you, or not? Do they provide a sense of comfort and value in the way you see the world?
What are your thoughts about making new traditions, cultural styles of dress, and the self-fashioning of familial identity? Have you introduced anything new into your own family? If so, I'd love to hear about it!

 

[saber]

For me, culture is pretty divorced from my biological family. Some of what I'm about to talk about is a little different from your ideas of introducing traditions at the family level, but I think paying attention to culture at a community level is also a really ripe place to start new traditions, so I wanted to share my thoughts!

To directly answer your questions, a lot of my family traditions growing up no longer resonate with me because many stemmed from a religion I no longer practice nor want particularly much to do with anymore. I still eat similar food that I did when I was a child sometimes, but there's a lot of things I've tried to distance myself from. I try to be indifferent to it now, but that can honestly be difficult when I have close relatives that try to rope me back into being part of that religion.

To expand on that answer, the religious beliefs that I've forged on my own through my own experiences have brought me into community with other people that share traditions, rituals, and experiences with me in a different way, but they're not part of my biological family. I'm definitely close enough with some people like this that I consider them like family, though, so maybe there's something to be said for that.

There are several other subcultures that I'm a part of that have had influence over the dishes I cook at home, the kinds of clothes that I wear, and the kinds of things I like to do on a Sunday afternoon. To me, that subculture and shared sense of community is more unique and more part of me than the religious upbringing I had, because I chose it. This isn't just something that was passed down to me because I happened to be born, it's something that I picked up because I loved it and wanted to be a part of it.

Here's a silly little example of a cultural shift among the people close to me (since you asked about introducing new). I had a small revelation a few years back, and as a result of that I stopped eating pork. Now I have a few other people close to me also adopting this pork taboo because it appealed to them. We existed in the same overall culture, but now we have this shared taboo that sets us apart a little and gives us a bit of a distinct identity.

So yeah, I definitely like your ideas of creating new traditions and incorporating them into your life (and doing this intentionally!), but I think the way that this has happened to me has been pretty different than "I learned it from my family / incorporated it into my family."