The Unsettled Soul

A writing on the nature and functions of “tradition”

One of the most important and complex cultural phenomena of humanity is “traditions.” Every human being, from before birth until after death, is engaged with traditions and lives with them. But what are these traditions and what functions do they serve? What is the relationship between religion and tradition? Are they fixed or variable? Do they always have positive functions, or do they also develop dysfunctions? In this short writing, I will attempt to answer these questions in a general and cursory manner and shed light on some points of ambiguity in this matter.

1) When biologists, in their studies, compared the abilities of a human infant and an adult ape, they noticed an important difference between them. The human infant was more “imitative” than the ape and followed learned patterns more, while the ape, conversely, made greater use of its own innovative patterns. From a lay perspective, this hypothesis might not be acceptable, as the ape has always been famous for imitation, but this seemingly negative characteristic of humans is, in fact, one of the secrets of their advancement over apes.

The characteristic of imitation in humans has meant that they do not spend their lives solving repetitive problems, and when one person arrives at a suitable solution for a problem, others, instead of employing the faculty of innovation and solving the problem anew, use their faculty of imitation and benefit from the experiences of others—and this means the accumulation of “human experience”! The most important principle in the continuous progress of humanity throughout its life on Earth. Simply put, it can be said that when one person finds a suitable solution to a problem (such as how to crack a coconut or hunt animals, etc.), others, by imitating them, spend their time and energy solving other, more complex problems, and thus each generation stands on the shoulders of its predecessors, moves forward, and faces more complex issues.

2) One of the complex human subjects is social relations, the solution of which requires extensive trial and error by a large number of human beings. In fact, the stable form of a social life in a specific environment, with the specific conditions and exigencies of a society’s members, takes shape over many years, and subsequent generations learn this shape and form through the imitative method. In reality, each generation does not independently contemplate the modes of production and provision of food and water, the mode of reproduction, the nurturing of the next generation, the relationship with nature, etc., and does not seek solutions; rather, it follows its predecessors without hesitation, and these intergenerational imitations provide a set of ready-made answers for various problems, which is called “tradition.” Traditions allow a human society to endure, for the experiences of predecessors to be transmitted to posterity, and for the lives of generations to be placed in continuity with one another—a characteristic seen only in the human species, and nowhere else.

Traditions also have another important function: identity formation! Human societies, being plural, need to distinguish themselves from others. They need to create a sense of belonging and existential attachment for their members. Tradition, alongside race and language (which is itself an aspect of tradition and its carrier), creates identity for a society and distinguishes one society from others. Identity and the individual’s sense of belonging to the collective are the secret to the survival of any society, motivating individuals to defend their society. It is because of these important and vital functions of traditions that deviation from them is sometimes considered an unforgivable sin and an effort toward the decline and destruction of society.

Another important aspect of tradition is regulating the relationship of individuals with nature and the surrounding environment. Such a relationship is formed based on an ontological perspective that defines the place of the human being, nature, and God in the order of existence. In fact, tradition also provides ready-made answers to individuals’ important ontological questions, in order to regulate the behavior of society’s members with their environment within a comprehensive framework. It goes without saying that answering these questions is a religious matter, and the faith of the individual (as defined by mystics and philosophers) is based on answering these questions, and the process of coming to faith begins with asking such questions and searching for their answers. This is while “tradition,” although it is the vehicle for transmitting human reflections in the domain of ontology and conveys the message of the prophets to subsequent generations, defines faith, according to its own exigencies, as adherence to these ready-made answers and warns individuals against a “personal” confrontation with these questions and finding answers based on individual experience.

3) Traditions, contrary to common perception, are a fluid phenomenon. That is, traditions do not remain fixed forever and ever; with the passage of time, changing conditions and exigencies, or through contact with other societies and the exchange of experience, they slowly evolve and change, though usually not simply or without difficulty.

The emergence of novel issues or changes in conditions regarding old problems pushes the younger generation, which is less attached to tradition and more daring, toward new solutions. However, this is perceived by the older generation—which derives its entire identity from current traditions (and is usually conservative due to its age)—as a rebellion against the entirety of society and all its beliefs and structures, and they deem this "disobedience" deserving of suppression. But new conditions demand new solutions. These solutions gradually make their way until they themselves become new traditions, only for even newer solutions to arrive and overthrow them. In fact, the struggle between the old and new generations over adherence to or defiance of tradition is a struggle as old as history itself.

Contact with other societies is one of the ways in which traditions undergo change through cultural exchange between two communities. Trade and war were the most important methods by which societies influenced one another, but today, media is the most significant tool for cultural exchange between societies. Cultural exchange has always flowed throughout history but has rarely been unidirectional. Usually, a society at the peak of its civilizational flourishing has gained superiority over other societies experiencing a period of stagnation and has exerted greater influence upon them.

Although the resistance of tradition and older generations to rapid change preserves society from turmoil and disintegration, if their power increases under certain conditions, they become a serious obstacle to society's progress. Beyond following the solutions of the past, human society has a very serious and urgent need for the initiative of revision and reform in the ready-made solutions of tradition for development and progress, so that it can harmonize itself with new conditions and keep alive and dynamic its capacity for initiative and producing new answers in confronting novel problems.

Although tradition is a fluid phenomenon, the speed of its changes is not always the same. In conditions where society is far from turmoil and living conditions, natural resources, and external factors do not change much, the alteration of traditions is so slow that for several generations they appear as a fixed, unchangeable, and sacred matter, and change within it—which is the essence of human relations—is considered an unforgivable sin.

With the slowing of changes and the stabilization of conditions of stasis, society also loses the ability to reform answers and offer new solutions. In these conditions, the identity-bestowing aspect of tradition becomes much more prominent, meaning that individuals in society lose the ability to define themselves and their society independently of current traditions, and this means that traditions appear more unchangeable than ever.

In this situation, if a significant change occurs in society's living conditions or an important external factor affects the society's situation and confronts it with a crisis (such as Iran's encounter with European civilization in the mid-Qajar era), society faces a contradictory and paradoxical situation. On one hand, to protect itself, it clings to its identity (much of which it derives from tradition); on the other hand, to overcome the crisis and survive, it needs to harmonize itself with the new conditions and offer responses befitting the new situation. However, due to prolonged stasis, it has lost the necessary flexibility for innovation and reforming tradition while maintaining its continuity and has become rigid. In this situation, usually some people turn to sudden and rapid changes to resolve the crisis, while others stubbornly insist on preserving traditions. Rapid changes dissolve society's identity and cause disintegration and a deep generational rift, and with the pressure to preserve dysfunctional traditions, they suffocate the very breath of society under the relentless pressures of the crisis.

Tradition in religiosity and living faithfully also has a paradoxical situation. As was said, on the one hand, it is an obstacle to living faithfully in its mystical and philosophical sense and does not tolerate an individual approach to this matter, and on the other hand, it is itself the vehicle for transmitting religious teachings across generations. In transmitting religious teachings, tradition also makes them of its own kind and strips away their initial undulation and fervor (which was the driving force of these teachings against prior beliefs and the inspirer of the first believers) and thus merges with them. A fusion that also affects other non-religious traditions, giving them a religious and divine hue and drawing a protective covering around them against change. Hence, in many instances, certain ordinary traditions of society are considered divine, and by practically becoming part of religious teachings, they are detached from their temporal and spatial context and their problem-solving nature, and are considered sacred and superhuman. Consequently, violating and transgressing them is deemed a religious sin and creates a more powerful obstacle to changes.

4) Conclusion: Traditions are human and social phenomena and, like other phenomena of this kind, are subject to the relationships of humans with humans and humans with the environment. Tradition and its survival have had and continue to have important functions in human social life, including "transmitting experiences from past generations to the future," "identity formation," and "regulating and organizing the human relationship with existence," but the rigidity of tradition, due to two main factors—"lethargy resulting from the lack of change in the form of life over a long period" and "amalgamation with religion"—creates serious dysfunctions in the path of society's progress and evolution.

Society is always the arena of the struggle between the opposing forces of "change and progress" and "preservation, protection, and cohesion," and it is from the heart of these struggles that transformations emerge and propel human society forward; hence, it can be said that "change" is the most authentic human tradition.