What is cultural appropriation?

Art is created based on contagion of influences, due to mixtures of feelings and also thanks to imitation. The problem comes in the distinction between this way of creating and the concept of copying, theft or plagiarism.

In this point, Copyright can be diluted in collective identities, giving way to traditions that have truly originated in power relations, in which the strong usually take advantage of the weak. This concept is what many have called “cultural misappropriation.”

Around this idea, a significant number of protests have developed. For example, the presence of tattoos with Polynesian tribal motifs became popular, a topic about which there has been some controversy. On the other hand, recently, the use of gypsy symbols by the singer Rosalía has been a source of criticism.

What is cultural appropriation?

As we have mentioned, cultural appropriation is the adoption of instruments, images, symbols that come from a culture that is not one’s own.

The question has arisen around this definition as to whether we are truly talking about misappropriation or, in most cases, it is a tribute to other cultures.

If we analyze the concept of cultural appropriation in more depth, we see that the idea also encompasses the presence of power dynamics. That is, a dominant culture elements of cultures that have been systematically oppressed are attributed.

The concept of cultural appropriation is increasingly debated, although it is not truly something new. Globalization and technological advances have allowed us to have access to a large amount of information in just one click. Therefore, although cultural appropriation is not a new concept, its global dimension is new. However, What distinguishes cultural appropriation from a tribute to culture?

The two key points to answer this question are found on consent and benefit sharing. This is because appropriation, and especially in the musical field, usually has a clear economic interest.

In this sense, cultural appropriation would be being used to designate exploitation by cultural industries of certain exotic symbols. They would do this exploitation without recognizing the original culture in a symbolic or economic way.

Cultural appropriation or assimilation?

Cultural misappropriation is a complicated topic. It has its origin in the confluence of all our histories and in order to analyze it in depth it is necessary to understand how international power dynamics work.

First of all, reference should be made to other points of view that have been developed on the subject. One hears it said, for example, that non-Western people who wear jeans or indigenous people who speak English, in some way, they are appropriating dominant cultures.

However, we must take into account that marginalized groups do not have enough power to decide whether to stick to their traditional customs or not. In this way, assimilation occurs when people belonging to marginalized groups adopt elements of dominant cultures to survive.

Examples of cultural assimilation

The world of music offers very clear examples of cultural appropriation. The popularization of African American roots music by Elvis or twerkingwhich until recently was associated with non-white lower class groups.

We even see examples in Buddhism, a religion that has been associated with peace, because of the stereotypes surrounding meditation.

Thus, cultural appropriation would be a way of commodify aspects that have existed outside the margins of the market and that have been introduced into it from a white-Western perspective. Even when this washes the image of an ethnic group, this is also a sign of the extent to which these groups are removed from the centers of economic decision-making.

Cultural appropriation, a real problem?

Cultural appropriation is a problematic concept that some people deny. This is due to several reasons:

Many people argue that, although Cultural appropriation exists, this is not a problem.

His argument focuses on one idea: Cultures are changing and have no limits. They flow and change constantly, passing from one hand to another.

For cultural appropriation to exist there must be cultural elements that belong to a few hands.

Usurpation occurs when someone is deprived of enjoying something they used to do by the action of another person. However, in cultural appropriation, something that was previously only used by a small group of people is popularized.

Anti-racist racism? We can consider that no cultural element is pure or improper.

The activists They can become possessive of culturesa purity uncharacteristic of the social environment in which we develop.

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