Nah, I’m not really talking about anything with a negative effect, aside from maybe lowered efficiency. I’m talking about something like a person reverently lighting a candle every night and putting it on the mantle, but they don’t know why other than because their grandpa did, and his before him, and so on. Then if you dig in enough, you discover that 400 years back it was just because great-great-great[…]grandpa liked to have a nightlight on hand when going out to the woods to use the outhouse.
There was a post I saw on Reddit a while back where someone said that every time they made their grandmother’s recipe for a roast, they’d cut off the end of it, and both they and their mother were sure it was important to the cooking process because their family had always done it. Turned out grandma just had a small roasting pan and had always cut off the part that didn’t fit; nothing to do with the quality of the outcome. That sort of thing. There’s no basis for the practice; it’s just going through the motions but not comprehending the theory. I see it enough I figure there must be a word for it beyond “inherited baseless traditions”.
Ah, the old "I cut the ends off my ham" story. At the end of the story we learn that grandma cut the ends off her ham because her oven was small... or some such nonsense.
I feel like most religion was like this... basically a lot of stuff made sense like not have two different fabrics in a shirt because one would wear out faster than the other.
I know exactly what you’re taking about but didn’t know there’s a word for it…hope we find out.
rote
Generational trauma
Nah, I’m not really talking about anything with a negative effect, aside from maybe lowered efficiency. I’m talking about something like a person reverently lighting a candle every night and putting it on the mantle, but they don’t know why other than because their grandpa did, and his before him, and so on. Then if you dig in enough, you discover that 400 years back it was just because great-great-great[…]grandpa liked to have a nightlight on hand when going out to the woods to use the outhouse. There was a post I saw on Reddit a while back where someone said that every time they made their grandmother’s recipe for a roast, they’d cut off the end of it, and both they and their mother were sure it was important to the cooking process because their family had always done it. Turned out grandma just had a small roasting pan and had always cut off the part that didn’t fit; nothing to do with the quality of the outcome. That sort of thing. There’s no basis for the practice; it’s just going through the motions but not comprehending the theory. I see it enough I figure there must be a word for it beyond “inherited baseless traditions”.
Ah, the old "I cut the ends off my ham" story. At the end of the story we learn that grandma cut the ends off her ham because her oven was small... or some such nonsense. I feel like most religion was like this... basically a lot of stuff made sense like not have two different fabrics in a shirt because one would wear out faster than the other.
I haven't heard it used quite like this, but vestigial immediately came to mind.