I’ve cancelled my Yoga membership already. Next up is quitting my shameful appropriation of arabic numerals. After all, I live in the year of MMXV and should know better.
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Thinking modern yoga is cultural appropriation seems like a bit of a stretch to me! 
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lol!
Now that you have some free time, can I interest you in Kung Fu or Capoeira classes? How about Samba band? No…wait i know Hip Hop Dance Class! None of these or the various other things we enjoy were appro…er…wait, breaking news, this just in, everything originates somewhere from some culture. We are all richer for it. Sure it often gets watered down the closer to mainstream it gets, but that doesn’t stop people from seeking out and connecting with more authentic forms.
I think people forget that ideas/practices/foods/styles/beleifs can spread beyond their initial culture and that very few cultures developed in a vacuum. Thinking that no other culture has the right to legitimately enjoy these same things and make them their own is a bit racist and provincial. As long as they aren’t intentionally disrespecting the culture something originated from then this is is typically a positive thing.
awesome quote. my thoughts exactly.
i agree. also with the rest of that comment as well. well said.
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Cultural appropriation is a term that makes me uneasy for sure. But look at it this way:
From Mickey to Tiki Tu Meke - Dick Frizzel
A well-known NZ artwork. The blurb from the gallery website is all thought-provoking and shit too.
Through a swift series of changes, Mickey Mouse becomes ancestral tiki, extending his bright red tongue in the threatening pūkana gesture. But who’s threatening who? If the expression ‘seeing red’ can mean getting cross, then perhaps the tiki doesn’t like this transformation, and is surprised by this artist and whatever he thinks he’s up to. And how does Mickey feel?
I feel like at the deep end cultural appropriation can become segregationist and sort of self defeating. People like your culture and they want to share it, isn’t that a good thing? Then I see someone with a “tribal” tattoo. There might be a koru or two in there and I’m like oh yeah, that’s us. Right next to it is some intricate triangular work that’s probably Tongan, the rest comes from other cultures real and imagined. Not that I can’t be friends with someone who has a tribal tattoo, but you think he knows what he’s wearing? These are symbols charged with meaning that are used to weave the stories that bind together a culture, developed over hundreds and hundreds of years. Not to mention if you want a proper moku you’re supposed to cut open the skin with a flint and pour ink into the wound. It’s supposed to be something earned, and the way that it’s earned is the thing that gives it true significance as an element in a value system.
Something is shared. Something is lost.
So given the description of modern yoga as a synthesis of “yoga philosophy” with “Indian wrestling exercises, British army calisthenics, and Scandinavian gymnastics,” I would imagine that there are people with a deeper understanding of the philosophical side who are perhaps sad at the emphasis the western world has instead put on the Scandinavian gymnastics. They wanted to share their culture, philosophy and traditions, instead we have received vaguely mystic wrestling exercises. I mean, I hadn’t heard yoga put into the same context as cultural appropriation before today, but if somebody told me that I’d be sympathetic.
So I guess I’d say that Capital Letters Cultural Appropriation is when you take on some superficial, sometimes literally skin deep aspects of a culture without making any effort to understand their place within a larger tradition and shared knowledge.
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Fine, comically evil?
A french fashion company has copyrighted Mexican indigenous designs going back centuries… what would you call it?
is this better?
What about protected? I think cultural groups often claim “ownership” over traditions they would like to protect only as an artefact of a deeply capitalist legal system that does not understand other forms of protection.
Yes. If I had to take a wild guess I’d say there are probably more people wearing “tribal tattoos” than there are tribespeople wearing their traditional skin decorations. There could easily be more people alive today who have dressed up as injuns for halloween or other dressup parties than there are living Native Americans. India’s a big place but good lord are yoga exercises popular. It’s easy to underestimate the size and strength of the western juggernaut as compared to some of the cultures that it engulfs, or at least it is when you’re inside it.
I think what people don’t consider is that while they’re sharing with us, we’re sharing with them, and we’re also sharing with them our impression of who they are, and that the sharing takes place intergenerationally. Sure, some buff gym-rat wants to get a rad tribal tattoo and nobody gives a fuck, but when a Māori child starts to take on the western opinion that tribal tattoos are just for big dumb jocks then something is actively being lost.
When a colonial government was established in New Zealand it outlawed traditional medicinal practices as witchcraft. More than a hundred years later we’re finally figuring out that all sorts of native plants have all sorts of interesting properties, and that actually those centuries of accumulated wisdom could have been quite poignant if only there was still somebody around who could remember any of it.
Māori are another group who have claimed copyright of their traditional patterns and symbols. Without that sort of protection it would be too easy for an entity like McDonald’s to capture large swaths of their identity. They can’t easily come out and say “if you’re a real Māori you should eat our burgers,” but given the millions in pocket change they can throw at an ad campaign, if you give them access to all your cultural icons they will get the point across on a pavlovian level. That’s how they do.
One last thought for now. I would say that what we’re seeing with the Canadian school is clearly a form of chinese whispers. A complicated idea has been condensed down to “cultural appropriation,” and now we’re unpacking it using our own preconceptions of what that means, and how it relates to more familiar examples such as the Harlem Shake. But isn’t this…
For example, the extremist, violent, xenophobic Hindu nationalist regime of Narendra Modi has exulted in the globalization of yoga, using it as proof of Hindu superiority over the country’s Muslim minority.
…a very good reason for anyone who is intimate with the deeper tenets of yoga philosophy to want to point out to anyone who will listen, that what we’re doing over here in the western world isn’t the same fucking thing?
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Not likely to stand up in court.
A multinational corporate entity vs what, a small grassroots collective trying to preserve their heritage?
Not likely to make it to court.
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nope it was a French fashion house vs a French designer.
I don’t see how this threatens the village’s heritage either. If anything it’ll probably be boon for their economy.
Exactly, the actual aggrieved aren’t anywhere near being able to make a case, so corporate entities are left to fight for the right to do whatever the fuck they want with something they ripped off.
Also the style being sold is probably an aggregation of the traditions of several different villages. I’d like to know what sort of boon you’re imagining. Some local street vendors flog a few more trinkets for a season or so because they look just like the latest Paris fashions? That’s a “boon”?
Meanwhile the symbolism of their culture is ground up into a homogeneous paste, all the flavour is sucked out, and the remains are discarded. I mean hey, progress, but maybe we can agree it’s a little bit sad?
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[quote=“doop, post:51, topic:69772”]
Exactly, the actual aggrieved aren’t anywhere near being able to make a case, so corporate entities are left to fight for the right to do whatever the fuck they want with something they ripped off.[/quote]
I don’t know if you can rip off a broad cultural practice, it’s not owned by anybody, what legal case could they possibly make? You also can’t patent it, due to prior art, so the French company is clearly in the wrong and should lose their court case.
Yes.
And likely Taino…
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I don’t like repeating myself.
To another french company, which…
And if losing control of the symbolism which has been built over centuries to define a cultural identity, in exchange for the ability to turn said symbols into two dollar trinkets sold to tourists at the seaside is a “boon”, what’s the word for making millions by imitating a style you did nothing to develop? A hyperboon? “Business as usual,” I guess.
A little bit?
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you really think that copyright should apply to traditions that might be many hundreds of years old? that seems a gross abuse of something which is already being grossly abused by commercial interests.
And if losing control of the symbolism which has been built over centuries to define a cultural identity…
I don’t believe they ever really had control of it, nor do I think they have any moral right to such control.
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For the third time.
It shows the gulf between cultures, the exact thing that is being lost. Many cultures would prefer that intellectual property law didn’t exist at all, but it’s the only avenue available to them given the legal framework into which they are being subsumed. And still they get criticized by people such as yourself for trying to “own” an idea, when they would prefer not to acknowledge ownership as an idea at all.
Due to its prestige and status, the Medal of Honor is afforded special protection under U.S. law against any unauthorized adornment, sale, or manufacture, which includes any associated ribbon or badge.
Oh hey look, the law does recognize the sanctity of certain cultural symbols because of the gravity and importance of the thing they represent! Isn’t that interesting?
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“Bob, in that hat you look like a fork.”
True story, ended up with a half-drunken duel in the woods around midnight. Calum smashed Bodine’s shield to bits with a bastard sword. Must have been damn near 30 years ago.
You’re not palming off haggis on me! Nor tatties and neeps either! I’ll just take the bagpipes, thanks.
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And still they get criticized by people such as yourself for trying to “own” an idea, when they would prefer not to acknowledge ownership as an idea at all.
But if they weren’t to acknowledge legal ownership how would they prevent others from using ‘their’ culture? Are you proposing some specific legislative change?
Oh hey look, the law does recognize the sanctity of certain cultural symbols because of the gravity and importance of the thing they represent! Isn’t that interesting?
That wouldn’t be a law that I agree with in principle, I’m not American though.
I’d be willing to at least hear out anyone who did.
I don’t think your nationality is relevant either, but I’d encourage you to take a quick look at your own country’s legislation with regards to display of military insignia. But America leads the world in pushing copyright laws onto anyone it can to protect its own interests, while any protection that might be offered to local cultural interests is incidental. They certainly do protect the cultural icons that are important to themselves, though. It’s not really fair, is it?
A teeny tiny bit sad?
It’s easy to say you don’t care if your culture is protected when:
- It doesn’t need it.
- It probably is anyway.
No, that is an example of a culture having its own rules about it’s own culture (as most cultures do). Cultural appropriation refers to issues where something inspires something in another culture. If that ribbon became a popular thing for lovers in China to gift each other, there isn’t law against that.
