And yet the only protection that native Americans get, in their own country, is whatever they can scrounge tangentially from intellectual property laws.
I’m almost definitely convinced that this is a little bit sad.
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Aren’t reservations able to make their own rules for those in the reservation? (I’m not American, so I’m not up on the details)
Regardless, I agree that’s a case where there is a real problem from the lop-sided power dynamic (and more than a little bit sad). I don’t think that US medal laws shows a double standard about rules though; it shows that cultures have their own rules about stuff, which we already all agree is true.
I imagine native Americans are also US citizens?
I’d be willing to at least hear out anyone who did.
I wouldn’t, we need less of these kinds of laws, not more.
A teeny tiny bit sad?
I don’t see it as sad no, because I don’t see it as anything being lost.
It’s easy to say you don’t care if your culture is protected when:
- It doesn’t need it.
- It probably is anyway.
The culture of my country was largely a fiction created by W. B. Yeats and others at the end of the 19th century, and not one I care much about to be honest. It was created to fill a hole left by the active suppression of our culture by the British over hundreds of years, so I understand the sentiment, even if I don’t particularly agree with it. I prefer a more organic and naturally developing culture myself, it shouldn’t be something to be codified, protected, and used as a tool for separating people into groups.
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US military medals laws are only for actual military medals and replicas passing themselves off as real. There are plenty of non-military medals they’ve inspired that are perfectly legal because even Congress doesn’t think you can protect a style.
I admit I haven’t read the whole thread, but what protection do they have? I imagine there are certain symbols and phrases you could trademark, but you can’t prevent someone from copying the style of Native American art (and various tribes have their own unique style). Certain adornments like eagle feathers are regulated.
But then again, the whole point of indigenous art is to get something MADE by those people of that culture. One could also make copies of African masks, Mexican blankets, or what have you - and really it loses all value as an art object and is debased to just a decorative object.
Ironically though, many cultures who still use traditional dress, masks, and other paraphernalia for festivals and such, end up having much of it made in China because it is cheaper than the traditional, hand made stuff. Are they watering down their own culture through mass production?
And bigger picture wise, I don’t really have a problem with remixing cultures into making new art and design. We have been doing it since forever. Walk around in old Spanish churches to see Islamic design features, for an example. The Romans perfectly emulated the Greeks and built upon their work. I think there is some ways to do it that are disrespectful. But fusions of art can create some wonderful things.
Fun fact - the Nazis ripped off the Navajos. https://arizona100.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/swaztika-stormpattern_chinle1920nps.jpg
You know, no one gets bent out of shape when it’s food that gets appropriated…
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Shhhhhhh pasta is Italian! So are tomatoes!! Shhhhhhh
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Tomatoes are a new world food. I don’t know what Italians ate before 1492.
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and pasta came from asia.
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What do you put on pasta? No, not sauce. You put gravy on pasta. The clue is in the name.
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Um, yes, I know, hence why what I said was funny?
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I’m slow today…
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Have a lovely glass of espresso, the totally Italian coffee beverage! That’ll wake you up!
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I definitely agree with that. In New Zealand I fancy there’s a culture emerging that’s a fusion of Māori ideals and traditions with the western philosophies that we all know and love/put up with. It’s for sure a good thing, I speak English which connects me with the rest of the world but for example I prefer the word “whānau” over “family” because I think it’s a better concept that no English word properly captures. Instead of European or Māori we call ourselves “Kiwis,” except unfortunately this name of our native bird has been appropriated by businesses looking to market Chinese Gooseberries…
That rings a bell too. The Māori people, and their ancestors’ ancestors, had to stand up against the British for over a century before an international court of human rights was invented and actual legal protection could begin. There are all kinds of bits and pieces of who I am, that I’m proud of, that I credit to the people who came before us to this land and the work that they’ve done to preserve their traditions and way of being. The thought that such things might have been lost, that such things continue to be lost even today, often for the sake of nothing more than corporate profit, it makes me sad.
@Mister44 These are all valid nuances you point out. I’m all worn out typing so all I’ll say is that, as we approach some great inevitable cultural singularity, we should be doing as much as we can to ensure that we maintain as much of the richness, depth and above all wisdom of the cultures that are being integrated. The physical manifestations of those cultures are a red herring, but they end up being the centre of the legal battles because that’s all our western culture of legal ownership and intellectual property truly comprehends.
Ultimately (and I guess this is a response to @Aloisius too), I think turning it into a discussion of legal frameworks is pretty vulgar, but I respect that certain cultural groups have often felt that they had no better option. Ultimately I just want to say that we should all do our best to respect the cultures around us, to avoid and shun superficial imitations that have been taken from them and to instead allow them to give us the parts that their practitioners hold most dear.
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That symbol has been used by various cultures around the world since the neolithic.
Well, see now there’s the thing- Let’s say I buy a Purple Heart off eBay.
Is there a difference between my posting a picture of myself wearing it on Instagram; versus doing a photo series where it’s being worn by Iraqi war orphans?
Assuming we’re talking about the Stolen Valor Act in the US, it’s only a crime to if you fraudulently claim military decoration “with the intention of obtaining money, property, or other tangible benefit from convincing someone that he or she rightfully did receive that award.”
So even posting a picture of yourself on instagram probably won’t get you busted. Putting that picture on GoFundMe might be a different story, but even there I think you’d have to, like, get significant media attention before a prosecutor would bother to notice you
Yeah. I’m not the culture police, but I do feel weird when people, mainly new age hippies, decide to dress up as Sikhs to go to a Snatam Kaur concert. It smells of exoticizing the other, but who the heck knows - apparently several thousand americans are converted Sikhs, and I’m not going to tell them how they can or can’t practice or dress
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Yes. It is one of the oldest symbols of humanity. I have a screwdriver made in Missouri in the 20s with one on it.
There is a movement to reclaim it from the Nazis and I want it to succeed.
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