Traditional values refer to those beliefs, moral codes, and mores that are
passed down from generation to generation within a culture, subculture
or community. Summary
Since the late 1970s in the United States, the term "traditional values"
has become synonymous with "family values" and imply a congruence with
mainstream Christianity. However "family values" is arguably a modern politicized
subset of traditional values, which is a larger concept, anthropologically
speaking. = Definition of "traditional values"=
In its own right "traditional values" simply means the values coming from
tradition rather than any specific philosopher, moralist, or writer. This
means the "traditional values" of non-Western societies may be wildly at
variance from any Christian Right notion of family values. Societies based on
traditional values often embrace animism and ancestor worship rather than any
Abrahamic religion. Confucianism also tends to place high value on the
maintenance of traditional culture and values. It is related to the concept of
traditional authority and folk culture. However, the term does apply to
Abrahamic cultures as well. It can mean the actual values that are claimed or
perceived to have remained relatively unchanged for centuries, for example the
values in the Apostles' Creed, the preservation of the Coptic language in
Coptic Christianity, the values in the Hadith, or certain rites in Orthodox
Judaism. In Christianity, maintaining tradition is perhaps most valued in the
Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and Oriental Orthodoxy,
although within Protestantism the Old Order Amish and some Anglo-Catholics
could be deemed to place a strong value on traditional values. Historical
research often shows that traditions and immutable values, in fact, change more
over time than most adherents recognize. The term can also refer to an intention
to preserve ancient or traditional customs and values against anything
deemed "innovation." In Abrahamic religion, Old Believers and
traditionalist Catholics can be deemed to be champions of "traditional values."
In Zoroastrianism, those who oppose conversion as being against the
religious tradition generally deem themselves to be a force for
"traditional values." Radical elements of Hindutva are also intent to keep any
Christian or other "foreign" religious values from entering their society,
although their more modern views on Hindu law might make their relation to
traditional values more complex than this implies. There are also Hopi
traditionalists who wish to keep Christianity and other "foreign"
religions from gaining a foothold amongst their people and who prefer that
Native American languages be used instead of English, Spanish, and so
forth. = Attempts=
Attempts at creating a kind of universalized "traditional values" has
proved generally difficult or even impossible. It is generally fair to say
that usually traditional values tend, by definition, toward conservatism and that
they often, but not always, accept some form of patriarchy as normative.
= Usage= The usage of "traditional values" can in
some cases imply that said values, in being traditional, are better than
values that are non-traditional; but without giving a defense of why they
might be better other than an appeal to tradition, which would be a fallacy of
logic. However, in other cases "traditional values" can simply imply a
matter of identity without seeking or addressing any notion of absolute values
of "good" or "bad". In this latter case, values are no more a matter for logical
defence than are aesthetic judgments or matters of preferred flavours; with the
presumption of a necessity for logical defence coming simply from a different
bias of value set. The term "traditional values" can though
be an intentional usage of rhetoric in order to get the listener/viewer of the
words to believe that a set of values is good because traditional is often
perceived in a positive sense by many. See also
Virtue Mores
Ethics Cultural relativism