ABSTRACT
The enactment of tradition binds together social practices, their physical or social settings, and the identities of those who perform them to create local contexts of social action which are particularised and bounded, immediate and participatory – The essence of tradition is respect for the past, combined with the stable association of particular patterns of action with specific contexts, mobilising the resources of collective memory to underpin social identity and shared meanings – An interconnected body of tradition, localised in a physical place or social setting, constitutes the habitus of a group and helps constitute their home – Bundles of habitual practices can help mobile individuals or groups feel at home while on the move – Modernity involves a gradual, staggered, uneven erosion of tradition and its replacement by a combination of more individualised and unstable ‘lifeways’ and rationalised routines – However, localised and small group ‘traditions’ continue to precipitate through the crystalisation of habit in everyday life.
