I don't often write on topics so inflammatory as something like this simply because it's rarely worth the energy to write about it and then deal with flamers and the, in general, butthurt, however, the notion of cultural appropriation in America (and, to an extent, the Western world) is something that sticks in my proverbial craw. Why? Because it is something we all do in one way or another, whether or not we realize it. This is a topic that goes beyond being pagan, too, and is something that happens in regular life. It's part of our *gasp* culture, as Americans.
If you don't believe me, here is a prime example:
Side-by-side, we have white Jesus and we have black Jesus. If we are to believe what we read in the Bible, this was a man born in the middle east during Roman occupation. He was neither black, nor was he white. So, this means that not only did Europeans, but also Africans appropriated the image of a neither white, nor black, but olive skinned man who may or may not have existed in the latter part of pre-history and remade him in each culture's own image. And they did so using the same book.
Want more cultural appropriation? Yoga. Have you seen the YouTube of Ghandi in the yoga studio? If you haven't, it's here. It's pretty funny, but it also shows the really generic white chick not even remotely recognizing that she's taken Ghandi's religion and, essentially, blasphemed it. Here, yoga is simply breathing and exercise to most people.
Want another appropriation? Bellydance. All these cute white women doing bellydance, but where did it originate? Oh, that's right, the middle east. How about everything Michael Harner wrote about shamanism? That's appropriating another spiritual practice from... Well, from native peoples all around the world. What about that Chinese chick with dreadlocks? Well, you know, Rastafarians? Yep! Even farther back than that, though, yogis. Why? Because they renounced all of their worldly possessions, including the comb. (Despite the name 'dreadlock' coming from Jamaica.) Oh, one more bit of cultural appropriation! That white woman who is a Voudon priestess. It's not a 'white' religion, is it? No. It's Afro-Caribbean. What about Cinco de Mayo? Did you get fucked up in remembrance of the Battle of Puebla? Are you even Mexican?!?!
I'm sure that by now I have listed something to offend everyone. I bet that if we all don't do at least one of these things, then we know people who do. The point is, we are becoming a global community with each passing year. Many Americans, like myself, have had family on this continent for centuries, no matter where they may have come from and no matter what their genetic makeup may be now. My own heritage in America began somewhere around a century before the founding of the nation. I have documented family in the Revolutionary War and family that fought on both sides of the Civil War. I have documented Cherokee and, on my mother's side of the family, undocumented Ojibway or, maybe Apache or, maybe something else. It was not told to my grandmother that she was 1/4 Native until her sister was on her deathbed.
Society borrows from other societies. It claims and discards traditions to suit the times. Christmas? Taken from the pagans by the Christians. Halloween? Taken from the pagans and made secular. Dancing and chanting to induce trance? Taken from various indigenous cultures around the world and still used by them today, as well as by modern pagans.
The point I make with all of this over-the-top 'everyone is a thief' is that if someone takes something that is culturally 'yours' and makes it 'theirs', it's not the end of the world. It doesn't make your own practice or tradition 'less pure'. It makes what they are doing 'theirs'. Do you really think that the sages and yogis of India are upset that Sally Mae in BFE, America is using yoga as a way to stay in shape and to stay strong? Probably not. Another point I want to make is, in modern day America, unless you live in Little China, Little Italy, or a pure Jewish neighborhood, whatever traditions you may practice have probably been taken from another time and place, stripped of their meaning (because life 100 years ago was different than life today is), and has been rewritten in a whole new context now. So, don't be so butthurt. Remember that everything you do had to be taken from someone, somewhere. Maybe it was taken from people who were, culturally, the same as you, but maybe it wasn't.
Brightest Blessings, Friends!
If you don't believe me, here is a prime example:
Side-by-side, we have white Jesus and we have black Jesus. If we are to believe what we read in the Bible, this was a man born in the middle east during Roman occupation. He was neither black, nor was he white. So, this means that not only did Europeans, but also Africans appropriated the image of a neither white, nor black, but olive skinned man who may or may not have existed in the latter part of pre-history and remade him in each culture's own image. And they did so using the same book.
Want more cultural appropriation? Yoga. Have you seen the YouTube of Ghandi in the yoga studio? If you haven't, it's here. It's pretty funny, but it also shows the really generic white chick not even remotely recognizing that she's taken Ghandi's religion and, essentially, blasphemed it. Here, yoga is simply breathing and exercise to most people.
Want another appropriation? Bellydance. All these cute white women doing bellydance, but where did it originate? Oh, that's right, the middle east. How about everything Michael Harner wrote about shamanism? That's appropriating another spiritual practice from... Well, from native peoples all around the world. What about that Chinese chick with dreadlocks? Well, you know, Rastafarians? Yep! Even farther back than that, though, yogis. Why? Because they renounced all of their worldly possessions, including the comb. (Despite the name 'dreadlock' coming from Jamaica.) Oh, one more bit of cultural appropriation! That white woman who is a Voudon priestess. It's not a 'white' religion, is it? No. It's Afro-Caribbean. What about Cinco de Mayo? Did you get fucked up in remembrance of the Battle of Puebla? Are you even Mexican?!?!
I'm sure that by now I have listed something to offend everyone. I bet that if we all don't do at least one of these things, then we know people who do. The point is, we are becoming a global community with each passing year. Many Americans, like myself, have had family on this continent for centuries, no matter where they may have come from and no matter what their genetic makeup may be now. My own heritage in America began somewhere around a century before the founding of the nation. I have documented family in the Revolutionary War and family that fought on both sides of the Civil War. I have documented Cherokee and, on my mother's side of the family, undocumented Ojibway or, maybe Apache or, maybe something else. It was not told to my grandmother that she was 1/4 Native until her sister was on her deathbed.
Society borrows from other societies. It claims and discards traditions to suit the times. Christmas? Taken from the pagans by the Christians. Halloween? Taken from the pagans and made secular. Dancing and chanting to induce trance? Taken from various indigenous cultures around the world and still used by them today, as well as by modern pagans.
The point I make with all of this over-the-top 'everyone is a thief' is that if someone takes something that is culturally 'yours' and makes it 'theirs', it's not the end of the world. It doesn't make your own practice or tradition 'less pure'. It makes what they are doing 'theirs'. Do you really think that the sages and yogis of India are upset that Sally Mae in BFE, America is using yoga as a way to stay in shape and to stay strong? Probably not. Another point I want to make is, in modern day America, unless you live in Little China, Little Italy, or a pure Jewish neighborhood, whatever traditions you may practice have probably been taken from another time and place, stripped of their meaning (because life 100 years ago was different than life today is), and has been rewritten in a whole new context now. So, don't be so butthurt. Remember that everything you do had to be taken from someone, somewhere. Maybe it was taken from people who were, culturally, the same as you, but maybe it wasn't.
Brightest Blessings, Friends!
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