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concept of food traditions, encompassing the notion of regionalism and localism, holds a

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central place in the construction of identity .

Tradition is a key concept to these discussions. Tradition, as Raymond Williams

suggests in his seminal work Keywords, is a particularly problematic concept because of its

varied uses (Williams 1983, p. 319). Addressing the mutable term, Nezar AlSayyad (2004)

asks whether we are experiencing the end of tradition. He critiques several scholars who

argue that an objective tradition is in danger in the face of contemporary globalisation

(reminiscent of the four-pillar discourses of chapter two) (AlSayyad 2004, p. 11). To which

he responds: ‘if tradition is merely the dialectical fabrication of modernity then its objective

reality is seriously in peril’ (AlSayyad 2004, p. 11). He asks rhetorically, ‘[d]oes not the end

of tradition as an object of inquiry suggest the end of tradition as an objective reality?’ (2004,

p. 11). If there is an end to an objective tradition, then our research priorities should focus on

the multiple functions and meanings of tradition. In this chapter I consider the varied

discursive, social and political functions, and the multiple realities of tradition. Previously I

argued that traditional knowledge has been defined in opposition to a universal and scientific

knowledge, which assumes an ahistorical and universal position. I expand this discussion to

point to the driving force of modernity, or at least conceptions of modernity in relation to the

past, for the multiple uses and mobilisation of tradition. In this sense tradition is inextricably

linked to modernity. As Jane Jacobs suggests, ‘[t]radition is something that is brought into

being by modernity’s own imaginary’ (2004, p. 31). The modern idea of tradition was formed

through Europe’s imperial expansion working conjointly with disciplines such as

anthropology (Jacobs 2004, p. 31).

In relation to my case study, tradition is a malleable term with diverse modes of use

and functions. I argue that to declare a practice or object traditional is to police and establish

its ‘borders of permissibility’ (Schochet 2004, p. 296), thereby determining who and what is

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