Tradition

Tradition, english term with root in latin traditio.
It implies something that is transferred and transmitted from one generation to another, and sometimes shared between many different classes in one distinct culture.

In modern use Tradition also implies those currents of thought, science, interpretative exegesis, jurisdiction and so forth which has received enough recognition and precedence to be carried further, from one original source or hermeneutical milieu to another.

A Tradition emerges as a consequence of one or another contest about authority over meaning and implied "truths". A traditional approach is one that recognizes and respects the integrity of the existing framework and context for an activity, a project of society, a developement.

Inasmuch as a Tradition serves as an amplification of a specific framework, one tradition should not be confused with another. They can be compared, and impressions from contesting traditions can be shared. If this sharing of impressions overshadows the concerns of the integrity for instance of a religion or a dicipline in science, there is great probability, some would say danger, that a new Tradition emerges out of this exchange. Traditions, like the Gnoses have the characteristic that their presence and influence are hardly noticed, before they appear to disappear - it is more a way things are ordered and given a context within a structure than a thing in itself.