THE cultural appropriation it occurs when a person or hegemonic social group in a society starts to reproduce behaviors, habits, clothes, objects, languages of marginalized social groups. This practice disinvests the sacred or political meaning that the latter give to cultural elements, replacing them with other meanings, usually linked to entertainment and aesthetics, promoting the emptying and colonization of these elements without, on the other hand, generating benefits for the group that produced that culture.
Read too: Racism - one of the main problems faced today
As defined by the anthropologist Rodney William|1|: “cultural appropriation is a oppression mechanism through which a dominant group seizes an inferior culture, emptying its productions, customs, traditions and other elements of meaning. It is a strategy of domination that aims to erase the power of groups historically and systematically inferiorized, emptying all their productions of meaning, as a way to promote their genocide symbolic. Cultural appropriation and racism are intertwined themes”.
cultural appropriation consists of adopt specific elements from another culture out of its specific context and meaning. This mastery can take place in the field of behavior, language, aesthetics, arts, music, religiosity, technique and knowledge, in short, of multiple cultural aspects.
The discussion about cultural appropriation is not, as it appears, a cultural purism whereby only those who participated in its creation can enjoy artifacts or elements produced by a culture. The issue, according to race relations researcher Suzane Jardim, is the relationship between hegemonic and marginalized groups, historically marked by ethnocentrism, prejudice and exclusion. In this context, the appropriation by hegemonic groups of the cultural elements of subalternized groups resonates as a new facet of this historical experience of domination.
The idea of cultural appropriation should not be seen in the field of individuality, but as a structural issue related to society in a systemic way. The question that arises is that the use of certain cultural elements outside their context may be disrespectful to that social group, or imitation may sound pejorative and caricatured.
Another common reflection is the fact that certain cultures are not well accepted by a dominant cultural group, however, in situations of cultural appropriation, traits of their culture become palatable to those who reject their original group simply because they are being used by people outside that group.
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Origin of cultural appropriation
THE problematization of cultural appropriation is a phenomenon that developed in the context of capitalism in its global expansion process. Because? For at least three reasons. The first is that the cultural industry it transforms culture into a commodity, emptying it of other meanings to give it commercial, aesthetic and entertainment meaning. The second is that the globalization accelerated the intense contact between cultures from different parts of the world, not only through technologies, but mainly through migrations and diasporas, which they conceive multicultural societies, with different languages, customs and worldviews, sharing the same territories.
The third is that in the bloom of democracies Liberal representatives, closely linked to capitalism, formed political groups of pressure and demand for rights whose cohesion is linked to cultural identities. They are the identity groups linked to social movements, such as black movements, feminists and of sexual diversity. In this context, the construction of identities is of fundamental importance and requires the rescue of practices and artifacts that refer to a deep connection with the past (ancestry) in the eagerness to produce meanings in the secularized present.
So, the cultural resistance developed by ethnic-racial identity groups, for example, it seeks elements originating from African peoples or enslaved ancestors in Brazil to reframe them in the fight against racism in its contemporary manifestation.
Read too: Black movement – acting for equality between blacks and whites
Positive and negative points
Like positive point, we can point out that situations of cultural appropriation enable the dialogue about the topic with those who are unfamiliar. Many people practice cultural appropriation without being aware of it, so this discussion should not be reduced to the field of individual relationships, nor should it be guided by the "cancellation policy", but treated with consideration, keeping the due proportions of each situation so as not to give rise to intransigence and breakdown.
Thus, it is an opportune time to practice otherness, to listen to groups that feel embarrassed and rethink practices that seem harmless, but are uncomfortable for others, and also for the “racial literacy”, that is, seeking to study and understand the symbolic elements of an ethnic group to which you do not belong, but want to get closer and consume artifacts. The knowledge of the object's history and meaning generates rapprochement and opens the possibility for cooperation with that ethnic group in other ways, such as the practice of anti-racism.
Like negative point, when non-white cultural elements are portrayed in a caricatured way and stereotypes are reinforced, there is perpetuation of racism it's the depletion of political potential when such elements are reduced to commercial purposes.
Consequences of cultural appropriation
Cultural exchanges are common, constant and welcome between different cultures. What is the difference between cultural exchange and appropriation? In cultural appropriation, there is a well-defined hierarchy between the two peoples, so that that takes possession of knowledge, symbols and objects does not offer a return equal to what it receives – it is not a reciprocal exchange, but an exploitative one. The consequences of this for the people who undergo this process are expropriation, emptying, weakening, losses in a long arc that goes from the symbolic extreme of the disrespect, the political disarticulation for rights up to the material extreme of loss of financial, human and technical resources, as pointed out by law professor Funmi Arewa |2|:
"Cultural borrowing can become appropriation when it historically reinforces relationships exploiters or deprives African countries of opportunities to control or benefit from their materials. cultural”.
Read too: Cultural industry - way of making art on an industrial scale
Examples of cultural appropriation
A common example of cultural appropriation is a person who does not share a certain religion to use as everyday ornament artifacts that for their followers are sacred, represent protection or connection with the divine.
Another example is the characterization with elements from a foreign culture for entertainment and fun, like the blackface, which is to paint yourself black and wear a curly hair wig. This practice was used in Brazil in the early years of television, when black actors were not allowed in soap operas and movies, that's why white actors characterized themselves in this way to play mulattos and slaves.
There are also those who use blackface to attend costume parties like Carnival. If you, on reading this, think it is an exaggeration, I propose a reflection: would you find it funny a characterization of a Jew on his way to a concentration camp? If the answer is no, why a facetious characterization of the cruel period of Brazilian slavery would be acceptable?
An environment conducive to cultural appropriation practices is the fashion world. A factual example is the episode in which the french stylist Isabel Marant was accused of copying a traditional embroidery made over 600 years ago by the Mexican community Santa-Maria Tlahuitoltepec and using it in pieces sold at exorbitant prices, which would in no way revert to benefits for the original community that created the embroidery.
Grades
|1| LIMA, Juliana Domingos de. What is cultural appropriation and why the theme comes up at Carnival. To access, clickon here.
|2| MARTINS, Vinicius. Cultural appropriation: what is the boundary between whites and blacks. To access, Click here.
Image credit
|1| lazyllama / Shutterstock.com
By Milka de Oliveira Rezende
Professor of Sociology
