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Traditions are important for many reasons: they create cultural continuity, help unify families and preserve rich historical legacies. But for all of the positive aspects found in traditions, they can also be used to pass down social practices that are harmful and no longer acceptable in our modern age.
2)T.S. Eliot said, “A tradition without intelligence is not worth having.” That may be true, but evidently there are many cultures across the globe that have not considered such a proposition. In 3)Mayan areas of 4)Guatemala, for example, there is an annual tradition to honor the dead that obliges the entire town to get 5)sloppily drunk for days 6)on end until November 1st —the 7)Day of the Dead. On this day, after days of excessive alcohol consumption, the townspeople will race their horses up and down the muddy road leading to the cemetery—all day long. It’s a dangerous exercise in drunken endu-rance. Even at the start of the race, most of the riders are barely conscious, so drunk that they are 8)slouching over their horses. The only object: be the last one still riding by nightfall. Naturally, there are always many injuries. Broken legs and split skulls are the 9)order of the day. In fact, almost every year someone dies during the race—and this is considered good luck.
Does that sound intelligent to you? Probably not, although highly entertaining, perhaps. Other indigenous traditions involve practices that are not in the least bit entertaining, and are in fact not only dangerous for their participants, but also discriminatory. Here in China, for example, the practice of “10)foot-binding” was culturally acceptable, in fact encouraged, up and until around 1911, when it was banned by the government. Foot-binding involves wrapping a young girl’s feet so tightly that the bones of the toes actually break and fold under, thus restricting the natural growth of the foot. The result would be the “11)golden lotus”, which was desirable for a variety of different social reasons during approximately 1,000 years of China’s history. Foot-binding was designed to make a woman alluring while limiting her mobility. A woman that struggles to walk is unlikely to venture out too often and lose her precious chastity, and the “golden lotus” became a symbol of female purity.
Family traditions reflect the societies that create them, and history has shown that societies have the capacity to engage in some rather bizarre, unpleasant and even dangerous traditions. But as the world modernizes it becomes clearer and clearer that some of the old ways are simply no longer acceptable. It is the responsibility of future generations to abandon irrational family traditions, while embracing those that pass on our most cherished values of equality and social progress.
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2)T.S. Eliot said, “A tradition without intelligence is not worth having.” That may be true, but evidently there are many cultures across the globe that have not considered such a proposition. In 3)Mayan areas of 4)Guatemala, for example, there is an annual tradition to honor the dead that obliges the entire town to get 5)sloppily drunk for days 6)on end until November 1st —the 7)Day of the Dead. On this day, after days of excessive alcohol consumption, the townspeople will race their horses up and down the muddy road leading to the cemetery—all day long. It’s a dangerous exercise in drunken endu-rance. Even at the start of the race, most of the riders are barely conscious, so drunk that they are 8)slouching over their horses. The only object: be the last one still riding by nightfall. Naturally, there are always many injuries. Broken legs and split skulls are the 9)order of the day. In fact, almost every year someone dies during the race—and this is considered good luck.
Does that sound intelligent to you? Probably not, although highly entertaining, perhaps. Other indigenous traditions involve practices that are not in the least bit entertaining, and are in fact not only dangerous for their participants, but also discriminatory. Here in China, for example, the practice of “10)foot-binding” was culturally acceptable, in fact encouraged, up and until around 1911, when it was banned by the government. Foot-binding involves wrapping a young girl’s feet so tightly that the bones of the toes actually break and fold under, thus restricting the natural growth of the foot. The result would be the “11)golden lotus”, which was desirable for a variety of different social reasons during approximately 1,000 years of China’s history. Foot-binding was designed to make a woman alluring while limiting her mobility. A woman that struggles to walk is unlikely to venture out too often and lose her precious chastity, and the “golden lotus” became a symbol of female purity.
Family traditions reflect the societies that create them, and history has shown that societies have the capacity to engage in some rather bizarre, unpleasant and even dangerous traditions. But as the world modernizes it becomes clearer and clearer that some of the old ways are simply no longer acceptable. It is the responsibility of future generations to abandon irrational family traditions, while embracing those that pass on our most cherished values of equality and social progress.
注：“本文中所涉及到的图表、注解、公式等内容请以PDF格式阅读原文。”