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Case analysis of cultural appropriation
Three examples of cultural appropriation
Native american and european culture
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For the social dimension of the PESTEL Journal, I chose a CBC news article dealing with the problem of cultural appropriation, more specifically in regards to Native Americans.
Cultural appropriation can be defined as “using something of someone else’s without permission”. There have been many recent additions to the issue of modern civilization taking another culture or religion items and reclaiming the original meaning of it, such as portraying them as a fashion statement. The article emphasises on Native American cultural items being used in an unfavorable way that misrepresents the original meaning. Many designers and professionals have been using traditional garments that is viewed as insensitive by the Native American community.
In
As people, like myself, who aren’t oppressed for their skin color, culture, or religion, it’s hard to sometimes understand what it feels like to have someone appropriate their livelihood, more specifically, someone who is appropriating someone else’s culture. I imagine it, on a much smaller scale, to be like doing a group project, but one is doing all the work and the others take all the credit. The result would be one not receiving any of the rewards. People would call them “creative” and “hard-working”, when in reality, they just showed up and didn’t contribute anything at all. Amy Stretten’s “Appropriating Native American Imagery Honors No One” provides a multitude of resources that go along with her main point of why appropriating the Native
Native Americans have had a long history of resistance to the social and cultural assimilation into white culture. By employing various creative strategies, Native Americans have attempted to cope with the changes stemming from the European colonial movement into the Americas. There are fundamental differences in world views and cultural and social orders between Indians and Europeans, which contributed to conservatism in Native American cultures. In this paper, two aspects of such cultural and institutional differences of Native American societies will be examined: holistic Native American beliefs versus dualistic world views and harmony versus domination. These two aspects are important in terms of explaining changes (or lack thereof) in Native American societies because they suggest that the Native American world view is more cyclical and its components are interlinked, while Western societies have a clear demarcation between cultural elements, such as religion, kinship, and morality. However, there are certain limitations to the theoretical frameworks that explain conservatism in Indian cultures because these theories are oriented around the Western world view and were developed based on the Western terms; therefore, indigenous population was not taken into account when these theories were developed.
Pages one to sixty- nine in Indian From The Inside: Native American Philosophy and Cultural Renewal by Dennis McPherson and J. Douglas Rabb, provides the beginning of an in-depth analysis of Native American cultural philosophy. It also states the ways in which western perspective has played a role in our understanding of Native American culture and similarities between Western culture and Native American culture. The section of reading can be divided into three lenses. The first section focus is on the theoretical understanding of self in respect to the space around us. The second section provides a historical background into the relationship between Native Americans and British colonial power. The last section focus is on the affiliation of otherworldliness that exist between
Have you ever taken offense when you saw someone dressed in traditional garments from your culture? In America, this happens quite often. Some people may not recognize it and some refuse to acknowledge that it even exists. Cultural appropriation is a situation in which a dominant culture steals aspects of a minority culture’s, such as hair, clothing styles, and music.
Imagine living in a world where your culture is not primarily dominant, and other individuals do not identify as the equal to you. Existing with a diverse set of populations, America has become a melting pot of various cultures; each one existing uniquely in its own respect; no two cultures are similar. Culture distinguishes one societal group from another through beliefs, behaviors, language, traditions, art, food, and religion, and politics. Patterns of behavior and thinking have been shaped through culture by the continually, altering process of learning, creativity, and thinking, which differs among females and males. The purpose of culture is so profound that it creates every aspect of who and what individuals are, producing an identity for oneself. Thus, the cultural environment an individual matures in is very crucial to their identity.
This also brings up the questions of: Can cultural appropriation be defined and can it be avoided? With the new fads of Chinese character tattoo's, Hindu god t-shirts, and the selling of such things as Native sweat lodge kits and ceremonies, does this not show that North Americans can appreciate other cultures and that western culture has become a product of a multicultural society.1 Through examples of film and art, sports, and religion, I will answer the following questions and specifically how cultural appropriation has affected North American First Nation peoples. There is much confusion when it comes to the meaning of cultural appropriation. The literal meaning begins with Culture-Anthropological: the sum total of the attainments and learned behaviour patterns of any specific period, race or people; Appropriation's meaning is to take for one's own use.[2] Most people today then know cultural appropriation then as "to take someone else's culture to use for your own purpose".2 I believe that the argument is not that appropriation is "stealing", as some people claim, but that it does matter how a person goes about putting to use the knowledge
Cultural appropriation should be understood that it is not the same as cultural appreciation and why it is so wrong. Taking someone else's culture and turning it to fashion or a trend is not just disrespectful but downright offensive. Cultural appropriation is defined as the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own. But then does that not mean we can not learn about other cultures other than our own? Sure we can, it is just how we decide to understand one's culture by the tradition and history.
The fashion industry is a global community which employs millions of individuals and has a half-trillion dollar revenue in the United States alone. For many years, as a result of the exposure of the fashion industry, several ethical issues within the industry have become apparent. The fashion industry has crimes of its own, and cultural appropriation has become one of the more significant misconducts of the business. Although cultural appropriation has always existed in the fashion industry, it has never been this extensive. In recent years, many fashion designers have taken inspiration from other cultures as a source of innovation to for new clothing trends. One of the most common cultural appropriations present in the fashion industry is
An object of oppression, a tool used for marginalization and the demonstration of exploitation; the term cultural appropriation has plagued many cultural groups for many generations. Culture appropriation occurs when one uses or borrows components from another culture. It can be both destructive and beneficial; it really just depends on the target group being affected. The agent group merely borrows the essence of the target group, than reproduces it in their own manner. Primarily, taking the credit, miss using cultural traditions, characteristics, items or practices. Culture appropriation is a social justice issue for many cultures, in particular groups identifying as non-white western society members. This paper will focus on the issue of
Festival and creative outfit styles have long decorated the pages of magazines, and more recently social media, and will continue to do so in the near future. And thus so will the styles that have been appropriated featured in these images. Cultural appropriation is a widespread issue affecting the numerous members of numerous cultures and religions. One definition of cultural appropriation is where cultural outsiders use or borrow artistic styles that are not original to them (Matthes). Though often times the “borrowing” that the members of a different culture does is, in fact, more closely related to stealing and often times the culture stolen from is not given credit when it is needed. Majority of the time the cultural appropriation is done by a large, dominant culture to a smaller, marginalized culture or group that is not well represented or has faced prejudice in the past. Cultural appropriation is a major issue in American fashion and beauty trends
People who culturally appropriate don't understand the background and history of what they are trying to extract from that culture. In today’s society, we have no difficulty appropriating a variety of cultures, nonetheless when we are asked to actually learn and understand these aspects of various cultures, we are reluctant. Privileged people take parts of another culture, and “use it for fashion or performance purposes, leaving behind the true meaning of the characteristic and thus disrespecting the culture from which it was born” (Florio). Many people think that taking an attribute from other cultures, is “appreciating” the culture, but it is not, it is disrespectful and offensive. The line between appropriation and appreciation is often crossed and many don't know where the line
There is no excuse for cultural appropriation, it has just become a norm to our society and most people try to ignore it. The idea of cultural appropriation can cause powerful emotional reactions, such as outrage, shock, sadness or even guilt. It is wrong to embrace a cultural trend that has been stigmatized when it was embraced by people of color, but once it becomes a white trend no one has a problem with it. Women of color across the globe were taught by western standards which deemed most of their cultural practices ugly, unprofessional, messy and criminal like. Between March and April of 1992, Canadians witnessed controversy on the pages of ‘The Globe and Mail,’ the problem was cultural appropriation. “Articles, editorials, and letters to the editor considered the propriety of depicting a culture other than one’s own, telling ‘someone else’s story’, and whether it was possible to ‘steal the culture of another’” (Coombe 2015). This argument was extremely intense because of all the emotion behind it. When a dominate group copies certain traditions from a society, it distorts the original meaning making it less valuable. The individuals that adopt these ideas don't normally understand the background/significance, therefore using it in a misleading and oppressive manner. Cultural appropriation is robbing minority groups
It is killing the rationale of culture’s core. For example, Native American headdresses are being worn on the runway or used as costumes for Halloween (Fragoso, 2016). This is absolutely obscene. Typically, a headdress is worn by respected elders or males in a tribe. The headdress is a symbol of hard work, honor, and admiration, not to be worn as new co-opted fashion trend. All significance of the headdress is lost simply because someone did not take a moment to do some research. A misused headdress incident can be compared to dressing in military uniform to receive benefits and high regard (Fragoso, 2016). No one would make this blatant mistake and go unnoticed, so the mimicry of a Native American honor should not be overlooked
In present scenario the most important thing in fashion is the idea of global fashion market. The present study will be helpful for the fashion industry in this context because ongoing craze that doesn't show signs of stopping is ethnic tribal fashion. Reflected fashion world has adopted by the beaded, feathery and kaleidoscopic designs of tribal culture which have integrated into every imaginable contemporary wear, from accessories to evening gowns. Fashion editorials are allocating a significant portion of their work to intensely ethnic looks and the style has become an integral part of clothing culture. With the help of immense exposure, archaically designed clothing can easily be incorporated into any look. It has transformed from being an artsy form of self-expression to an accepted part of the fashion ideal. The ancient tribal jewellery complements the modern jewellery beautifully (Pani and Sharma, 2012). The colourful designs are expressive. Garments are not the only items given tribal makeover even bold, extravagant jewellery adorned with feathers and beading, handbags and purses in wild, uncommon colours and exotic prints also getting tribal treatment for example Aztec
Cultural appropriation is the use of intellectual property to profit from and to pass it off as another person’s property. In situations where the cultural property is appropriated, slippages can occur where the cultural protocols and use for the object are skewed, thus modifying significant aspects of the culture’s expression (Anderson &