ABSTRACT
To assess to what extent anything is traditional it is necessary to explore as fully as possible the history of the traditions. Without this lengthy and extremely useful exercise the tendency is to make unwarranted assumptions about their history, for example, that traits and institutions have been present for millennia or alternatively were only diffused in the last few decades. When nothing is written, issues of temporal continuity are more likely to be ignored, for in talking of Karamoja the past is frequently claimed in support of one view or another. These considerations apply doubly to religion, which can be seen as an accumulation of memories and institutions regarded as culturally significant. Where memory is found to differ from history, yet more may be learned from ways in which people perceive their past and its reconstruction for their identity.
