The concept of tradition, where does it come from? Was it created by those who study traditions or by those whose traditions are studied by scientists? In both cases, specific criteria for traditionality are applied, whether they are explicitly stated or not. And while individuals or groups that follow traditional practices are not obligated to enumerate the criteria that lead them to characterize their actions as traditional, the same cannot be said for those who study traditions scientifically. In academic analysis, traditions must be explained and not used as explanations for repetitions, reproductions, or symbolic connections in social practices, values, history, and politics of cultural heritage.

This book takes an in-depth look at "tradition" and "folk culture" in order to conceptualize these terms within the framework of scientific discourse on modernity and modernism. The first part of the book is dedicated to the discussion of the concepts of "modern" and "traditional" as contemporary notions, as well as the study of folk culture from a modern perspective. It emphasizes that non-modernity cannot be represented without the mediation of modernity, which makes representations of non-modernity scientifically modern. The second part of the book extensively refers to the Finnish nation-state and the use of folk tradition by the nation-state, both for the reasonable production of Finnish modernity and for the construction of otherness in Finland. The ideas formulated here can find correspondence in many other regions of the world, as well as in Greece.