Reproduction of Practices outside the Tradition (the Case of Rural Timing Practices Based on the Sun Observation)

Abstract

The paper raises the question of intergenerational reproduction of practices outside the tradition’s mechanism (transmission of experience from human to human), taking the case of rural timing practices based on the observation of the sun. The study draws principally on the fieldwork data collected in the Middle Ural region in 2015–16. The role of things in tradition’s mechanism was studied to argue about the non-traditionality of timing practices grounded in the observation of light and shadows in the space of the house and courtyard. I employ the affordance theory (J. Gibson, H. Heft, and others) to conceptualize the non-traditional ways of using things. Within the framework of this theory, I propose a two-tier analytical model describing the conditions of existence and perception of affordances which make possible the “invention” of above-mentioned practices by different people independently of each other (outside the tradition).