AMERICAN TRADITIONS IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE.
Jack David Eller. Inventing American Tradition. From the Mayflower to Cinco de Mayo. Lviv: Vydavnytstvo Anetty Antonenko, Kyiv: Nika-Tsentr. 2024. 328 р.
DOI 10.17721/2521-1706.2024.18.12
Andrei Martynov,
Dr. habil. (History), Professor
Institute of History of Ukraine, NASU, Kyiv, Ukraine
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9802-5980
Abstract. American anthropologist and sociologist Jack David Eller covered in detail the process of origin and development of American traditions. In the introduction, the author considered the theoretical issues of the emergence and evolution of traditions as a socio-historical phenomenon. In the next fifteen chapters, American political traditions, American secular traditions, American lifestyle traditions, and American traditional heroes are considered. In the conclusions, the question of the futurology of traditions is considered. American society in the early stages of history consisted mainly of European immigrants, was never traditional, and almost immediately became modern. But as with any society, traditions are an important source of identity for the United States. For most of American history, there has been a tradition of breaking tradition. In fact, tradition is what the future creates from the past. Mechanisms of tradition creation are defined as absorption or syncretism, addition, improvement, withdrawal or reduction, split or separation. Traditions form a certain image of the world. Cultural globalization is seen as imported American culture. Traditions are inextricably linked with myths. Myths and traditions try to reconcile us with ourselves and our existence. Tradition, unlike ideology, can be tested by social practice. There has been a transition from a society based on the production of things to a society based on the production of information. The Internet has dissolved into life, and life has dissolved into the Internet. Tradition creates us. We create a tradition.
Key words: American culture, American lifestyle, myths, political traditions, festive traditions, traditional heroes.
Submitted: 15.06.2024
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