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Cultural appropriation is the use of a culture’s symbols, artifacts, genres, rituals, or technologies by members of another culture. It is a broad, widely practiced, pervasive phenomenon that is inescapable when cultures come into contact. The theory is most commonly used to reference acts in which aspects of a marginalized/colonized culture are taken and used by a dominant/ colonizing culture to serve the interests of the dominant culture. . It is also used to reference acts in which cultures overcome historic and resist ongoing oppression. .

it is a focus of research in anthropology, history (art history), sociology, ethnomusicology, postmodern literary theory, political science, law, and cultural studies.

It is criticized as an essentialist model of culture.

Definitions
Applies to all contexts under which acts of appropriation occurs.

Cultural goods
Difficult establishing group parameters. Cultural products. what is being appropriate are cultural goods—a creative project—tangible or intangible— the “objects of appropriation”. . Evolving nature of cultural products. Scafaldi 2005, 10

Acts of appropriation
Appropriation vs. exposure: Widely practiced, relationships among people (taking), wide range of modes through which it occurs Appropriation requires a taking/ “making one’s own” vs. exposure. determined not by intent/ awareness of those engaged in such acts but are instead shaped by, and in turn shape, the social, economic, and political contexts in which they occur.

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Contexts in which appropriation occurs
(Overview paragraph. Talk about how the typology of appropriation focuses on the conditions under which appropriation occurs. Power relations among cultures are primary basis of categorization). Cultural exchange, domination, and exploitation presume the existence of distinct cultures. Power relations: dominant-subordinate binary (two equals, or asymmetrical), or varying forms and complex intersections of power.

Cultural exploitation
Cultural exploitation: the appropriation of elements of a subordinated culture by a dominant culture without substantive reciprocity, permission, and/or compensation. (commodification and incorporation of elements of subordinated cultures.)

Cultural appropriation has most commonly been used to reference acts in which aspects of marginalized/colonized cultures are taken and used by a dominant/colonizing culture in such a way as to serve the interests of the dominant. Cultural exploitation is "...the use of one culture's symbolic and material resources by another without reciprocity, permission, or compensation." Cultural exploitation includes appropriative acts that appear to indicate acceptance or positive evaluation of a colonized culture by a colonizing culture but which nevertheless function to establish and reinforce the dominance of the colonizing culture, especially in the context of neocolonialism. These instances often carry the connotation of stealing or of in some way using the culture of a subordinated group against them. . Pejorative connotation.

Four main arguments against cultural appropriation by dominant/colonizing cultures against marginalized/colonized cultures: cultural degradation, preservation of cultural elements/ deprivation of material advantage/ and commodification

Cultural dominance
Cultural dominance: the use of elements of a dominant culture by members of a subordinated culture in a context in which the dominant culture has been imposed onto the subordinated culture, including appropriations that enact resistance.

A condition characterized by the unidirectional imposition of elements of a dominant culture onto a subordinated (marginalized, colonized) culture. In terms of cultural appropriation, this category focuses on the use of elements of a dominant culture by members of a subordinated culture in contexts in which the dominant culture has been imposed onto the subordinated culture,  including appropriations that enact resistance. Targets of cultural imposition negotiate their relationship to the dominant culture through various appropriate tactics.

One form of cultural dominance is institutional assimilation—the use of educational, religious, or other institutions to replace a subordinated culture with a dominant culture). Example: Native American boarding schools.

Assimilation
Assimilation involves internalization of the imposed culture, including reformation of identity, values, and ideologies. Assimilation involves the displacement of the subordinated/native culture by the colonizing culture, which necessarily involves the appropriation (broadly speaking) of the dominant culture by a member of a subordinated culture. .

Integration involves internalization of some or all the imposed culture without (complete) displacement or erasure of native culture and identity. Integration can involve the operation of two distinct cultures within an individual or a group or the fusion of aspects of each into a single culture and identity.

Intransigence. Mimicry.

Resistance
Cultural appropriation can take the form of resistance. Cultural resistance involves the appropriation of elements of a dominant culture by a subordinated culture for survival. Examples: reappropriation of derogatory words (E.g. n-word, bitch, queer). (Rogers, 485). This dynamic, in which cultural appropriation is used to enact resistance covertly,.

Legal appropriation as resistance. The appropriation of an alien legal system in the search for sovereignty can be interpreted as an act of resistance to the threat of European takeover even though it appears to be a capitulation.

The Hawaiian chiefs who adopted the Anglo-American legal system faced the periodic reappearance of European gunboats threatening to flatten the harbor towns. This pressure fueled their willingness to accept European notions of the superiority of civilization and the rule of law. Rather than the breakdown of a cohesive cultural system, this was a resistant appropriation of those aspects of the dominant system that constituted a cultural form more resistant to political conquest even as it incorporated certain cultural practices and institutions of that dominant system itself.

Cultural exchange
Cultural exchange: the reciprocal exchange of symbols, artifacts, rituals, genres, and/or technologies between cultures with roughly equal levels of power. (generally assumed to be a nonexistent ideal). Widely presumed not to exist. Presumes a reciprocal exchange of symbols, artifacts, genres, rituals, or technologies between cultures with symmetrical power. Appropriations of this type are generally voluntary, with the ‘‘choices’’ involved being individual and/or cultural. . The identification of ‘‘pure’’ cases of cultural exchange may be difficult insofar as few acts of intercultural communication and appropriation occur in contexts in which power imbalances are not an important element. .

Transculturation
Transculturation: cultural elements created from and/or by multiple cultures, such that identification of a single originating culture is problematic, for example, multiple cultural appropriations structured in the dynamics of globalization and transnational capitalism creating hybrid forms.

Implications of transculturation question the assumptions of the previous three categories in both contemporary (globalization and transnational capitalism) and historical contexts.

Criticism of validity of assumptions of previous three categories. Transculturation: a new paradigm for thinking about cultural appropriation, a paradigm that challenges the validity and embedded assumptions of the previous categories. . Transculturation involves cultural elements created through appropriations from and by multiple cultures such that identification of a single originating culture is problematic. Transculturation involves ongoing, circular appropriations of elements between multiple cultures, including elements that are themselves transcultural. .

Tranculturation implies that appropriations do not simply occur between cultures, but that such appropriative relations produce the cultures themselves. No culture exists independently of others, and if the history of a cultural practice is traced back far enough, its hybridity (impurity) will almost inevitable become evident. (Little john).

Values implicated by acts of appropriation
Social policy: Implications for group identity politics. (Does success of oppressed group depend on strong identity?)

Integrity of group identity
(Erroneous depictions). Distorts understanding of the appropriated culture in both appropriating and appropriated cultures. .

Creation and perpetuation of stereotypes:

Ex: Halloween costumes based on ethnic stereotypes). At Halloween, some people buy, wear and sell Halloween costumes based on ethnic stereotypes.  Costumes such as "Vato Loco", "Pocahottie",  "Indian Warrior",  or "Kung Fool" are sometimes worn by people who do not belong to the racial or ethnic group being made fun of.  (DELETE: These costumes have been criticized as racist).   (WHY IMPORTANT? Those who have dressed up this way often claim their actions are "comedic". In some cases, theme parties have been held where everyone is encouraged to dress up as stereotypes of a certain racial group. A number of these parties have been held at colleges, and at times other than Halloween, such as when white students donned Blackface for Martin Luther King Day. )

The discourse of cultural exploitation also implies, especially via the trope of ‘‘degradation,’’ that sovereignty involves a right to remain pure, uninfluenced by others, and that the purity of subordinated/colonized cultures is maintained by being static, not dynamic—the former associated with primitive peoples and the latter with the ‘‘developed’’ world.

Preservation of cultural goods
Preservation of cultural elements. (Rogers, 487). Preservation of cultural objects as valued objects. . Protect cultural goods because they are precious and finite resource. Cultural treasures diluted altered, ruined, commodified, sacred practiced trivialized or lost, sacredness ignored or profaned.

Arguments against cultural exploitation on the grounds of cultural preservation claim that cultural objects, symbols, and practices are best understood in their native contexts and that the priority should be preservation of the integrity of marginalized cultures. . Ex: Removal of cultural artifacts to museums. Distortion of native spiritual traditions. People have been injured, and some have died, in sweat lodge ceremonies performed by non-Natives.

Cultural implications of commodification. Commodification, by abstracting the value of a cultural element, necessarily removes that element from its native context, changing its meaning and function and raising concerns about cultural degradation. (Ex: Bindi) (Include cites from current article. This one is huge. Most of the current article seems to focus on this. Ultimate example of cultural symbol forever lost: transformation of swastika to symbol of hatred. Examples include wearing jewelry or fashion with religious symbols such as the war bonnet,  medicine wheel, or cross without any belief in those religions; mimicking iconography from another culture's history such as tattoos of Polynesian tribal iconography, Chinese characters, or Celtic art worn by people who have no interest in, or understanding of, their original cultural significance. When revered cultural artifacts are copied from living cultures and regarded as objects that merely "look cool", or when they are mass-produced cheaply as consumer kitsch, people who venerate and wish to preserve their indigenous cultural traditions are often offended. Examples include sports teams using Native American Tribal names, images, or human beings as mascots. Native American mascot controversy. Bindi.

Commodification simplifies and standardizes. Scafaldi 2005, 10.

Commodification, therefore, both relies upon and constitutes culture as essence, perpetuating the denial of agency, dynamism, and invention to Native Americans. This same essentialist view of (subordinated/colonized) culture is embedded in critiques of cultural exploitation on the grounds of cultural degradation. (Rogers, 490)

Concern: freezing the growth of cultural expressions in time and place. Appropriation can generate new artistic treasures.

Ownership of cultural goods
Deprivation of material advantage: (cultural products exploited for material gain. Copyright laws favor individual ownership over collective ownership. Ex: Kokopelli imagery) (Rogers, 487).(Other examples: Dakota, Lakota, Nakota people in original article). It is also argued that the specific term "appropriation," which can mean theft, is misleading when applied to something like culture that is not a limited resource: unlike appropriating a physical object, others imitating a cultural concept doesn't inherently deprive its original users of the use of it. Intangible cultural heritage.

Difficult establishing authorship.  Connecting particular cultural practice to that group. Degree of nexus between cultural good and given community . Intertextuality is a critique of authorship. Author does not work tabula rasa but draws on past creations. Any given work is layered with the contributions of others.

Generally, cultures lack authority to block what they perceive as inappropriate uses or adaptations. . Defending the rights of subordinated peoples to protect the integrity of their culture and to control its use. Right to control cultural expression. "Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as the manifestations of their sciences, technologies and cultures, including human and genetic resources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora, oral traditions, literatures, designs, sports and traditional games and visual and performing arts. They also have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their intellectual property over such cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions."

- Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Article 31 1

Agency
Resistance. Freedom of expression. Creating new forms of art.