How exclusive can traditions afford to be, folk? Do I have a claim to Canadian traditions from the other side of my country thousands of miles away? How about regions of various British isles from which most of my grand-, great-grand, or multi-great-grandparents came?

If traditions did not spread to new populations how would they survive? Do traditions only "live" dried and preserved in scholarly records? Hah! Some traditions mutated and migrated to the blogosphere where they breed like rabbits in GarageBand mash-ups and YouTube clips while some people argue about who may perform new songs about old battles.

An original tradition sounds to me as improbable as a pure race.