Cultural Appropriation – What Is It?

Art is a mixture of influences that contains many imitative aspects. The problem with cultural appropriation lies in the difference between this way of creating and the concepts of copying, theft and plagiarism.

At this point, copyright is diluted in the collective identities, which makes room for traditions that have their origins in power relations where the stronger exploit the weaker.

There have been a significant number of protests regarding this fact. For example, the existence of tattoos with Polynesian tribal motifs was very popular for a while and led to some controversy. Similarly, many singers recently criticized Rosalía’s use of Roman symbols.

What exactly is cultural appropriation?

As we mentioned above, cultural appropriation is the adoption of expressions, images and symbols that belong to a culture that is different from one’s own.

Around this definition is the question of whether it is really about unfair appropriation or whether, as is usually the case, it is just a tribute to other cultures.

If you further analyze the concept, you will see that the idea also includes the presence of power dynamics. That is, people blame the dominant culture for using parts of the cultures that they have systematically repressed.

The concept of cultural appropriation is the subject of much debate, although this is nothing new. Globalization and technological advances enable us to access a large amount of information with just one click. Although cultural appropriation is not a new concept, it has a global dimension. But what exactly distinguishes cultural appropriation from a tribute rooted in the admiration of a culture?

The two important points to answer this question are consent and distribution of benefits. This is because there is a clear economic interest in certain forms of imitation, especially in the musical field.

In that sense, you can use cultural appropriation to denote the use of certain symbols from the cultural industry. This exploitation often takes place without paying attention to the original culture on a symbolic or economic level.

Cultural appropriation versus assimilation

This is a complicated issue with its origins in the confluence of everyone’s stories. Therefore, you need to understand how international power dynamics work to analyze it in depth.

First, you need to refer to other comments on the topic. For example, some argue that non-Western people wearing jeans or indigenous peoples who speak the language of more dominant cultures somehow appropriate the dominant cultures.

But the argument against this is that marginalized groups do not have enough power to decide whether or not to adhere to their traditional customs. Thus assimilation occurs when people belonging to marginalized groups adopt elements of the dominant cultures in order to survive.

Examples of cultural assimilation

The music world offers some clear examples of cultural appropriation. The popularization of African American music by Elvis Presley and “twerking,” which until recently was associated with non-white groups in lower classes, are just a few examples.

There are also examples from Buddhism, a religion that is usually associated with peace because of the stereotypes surrounding meditation.

Thus, cultural appropriation is a way of commercializing things that were once outside the margins of the market but were then introduced into it.

Is cultural appropriation a real problem?

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

• Many argue that cultural appropriation exists but that this is not a problem.
• Their argument focuses on the idea that cultures are constantly changing and have no boundaries. That is, the boundaries are variable and go from one trend to another.
• For there to be cultural appropriation, there must be cultural elements that belong to only a few individuals.
• Violation occurs when a person can no longer benefit from something they previously benefited from because of someone else’s actions. Cultural appropriation, on the other hand, is when something that was previously only used by a small group of people becomes fashionable.

• Non-racist racism? It must be remembered that no cultural element is 100% pure or inappropriate.

Activists often become overprotective of cultures, a purity thinking that does not characterize the social environment in which every human being develops existence.