Introduction: for tradition as an analytical category

Abstract

Archaeologists have been wary of tradition, employing the term in either an empty or an abusive sense. When they do use it they tend to align it to habitus, on the one hand, or to ritual, on the other. This paper makes the case for distinguishing tradition to describe agents' conscious engagement of current actions with past actions, and for the importance of understanding such engagement in order to understand agents and agency. It exemplifies the value of tradition by discussion of two ancient Greek statues of naked men.