Or it can be an occupation, ritual, language, game, or belief practiced by an ethnic, regional, occupational, or family group. Such traditions are learned informally, not in a class or workshop, from mass media, or from a book. All segments of society have traditions and folklore. Apprentice Garland Frederick and master Errol Verret work on a cypress boat. These apprentices are continuing in the apprenticeship tradition, the way apprentices have learned throughout history.
Apprenticeships are one of the ways in which traditions are passed on within a culture.
It is an informal process where a master teaches an apprentice over a period of time. The apprentice slowly gains enough knowledge by observing and practicing at the side of the master until the apprentice not only learns skills, but the lore, the cultural knowledge about the tradition. For example, men may gather in a boatbuilder's workshop for companionship. One gradually takes more interest, spending more time, asking questions, assisting, and slowly mastering some of the skills. What one may consider idle chatter is actually the acquisition of the lore and history of the tradition.