<l...@origamiplace.com> wrote:
>I think it would be extremely helpful and important to define the term >"Traditional" in a way that is accepted worldwide. A personal note is that >the term traditional is a term I still do not have a clear understanding of >>its meaning and I am an active member of the OUSA community and have been >since 2006. The Yoshizawa-Randlett system diagraming system is worldwide and >terminology should be too. I was told it is not a legal >term, but people >seem to be using it for legal reasons. Yes, I agree, it would be very helpful! It would probably be even more helpful if people simply stopped using the term, but that is clearly unlikely to happen. A tradition, I think, is something that people do by custom. So, for instance, if it was common in a society to usually fold a particular paperfold on a particular day of the year it would be reasonable to call that a traditional paperfold, ie a paperfold that is used in a traditional context. In the same sense Turkey could be called a traditional food because we eat it at Christmas (here in the UK) or at Thanksgiving (across the pond). What I think, however, people mean by calling paperfolds traditional in origami is 1, I don't know who first designed it or 2, I think it is old rather than modern or both which is a different kettle of fish entirely. It would be much more helpful if people would simply say 'Designer unknown' and try to give some idea of the age or origin of the design. For instance ... 'Designer unknown: modern' or 'Designer unknown: Japanese pre-1900' Of course, this requires some historical knowledge ... but there is now a resource on my site, an ever growing resource, though not yet a comprehensive one, where you can look these sorts of things up. See http://www.origamiheaven.com/historyindex.htm. Dave
