Defining "Cultural Appropriation"

[crabapple]

A working definition:

Appropriation of cultural symbols, especially religious symbols, by someone who is not part of the culture from which the symbols come. Especially applies to members of a majority culture adopting the symbols of a minority culture, particularly an oppressed one.

The biggest issues with cultural appropriation tend to come up in the case of white Americans adopting the religious and cultural symbols of American Indians.

In 1993, the Lakota community declared war on the appropriation of their cultural and religious symbols. The declaration of war, along with many many different kinds of responses, can be found here:

http://puffin.creighton.edu/lakota/war.html

[jim mcdonald]

sigh.

This issue is such a quagmire.

There are a few people from Pine Ridge who offer Inipi (sweat lodges) in this area. None of them do it like the others do, and I don't know that any of them could be considered equivalent to a lodge done by native people on the reservation (pine ridge in this case). I have a number of friends who have been invited to one of a couple of sundances held on pine ridge, and again, they're both different. Which is right?

I think it comes down to intent.

As an example, I carry a prayer pipe. I don't call it a chanupa (the lokota word for such pipes) and I didn't use pipestone to make the bowl. But I made it myself, I make my own kinnikinnick, and I have used it to pray, in ceremony, in making relationships with the plants I use and occasionally with clients. I have had blessed results in all those areas.

But, despite that I don't call it a chanupa (pipe works fine for me) and didn't use pipestone, I have no doubts at all that I can be and am (in some folks minds) still appropriating and desecrating their culture.

I guess that'll have to be fine. Because I know how it feels to be connected to Spirit, and to all things, I know what the Sacred is, I know when something is a good thing and me having and using my pipe is a good thing.

Again, intent is the key. We should be less concerned with who is doing what and more concerned with how these things are being done. That, I feel, is what matters most.

(my 2 k'nuts)
_________________
jim mcdonald
~herbalist~
www.herbcraft.org

[linden]

This makes sense. All we can do is be careful to balance our own sense of things with other people's sensitivities... and we can't always please everyone. But I think we do have a gut-level sense of whether or not we're being respectful. And we need to listen to that. A lot of people who imitate Indian ceremonies are doing it to make themselves special in other people's eyes. And that's not respectful at all.

[mamajess]

I am glad to see this topic being discussed, too often people shy away from or are oblivious to the continued genocide of Native north americans. I feel as an Euro-American it is important to realize my white privlage and challenge it by standing up to and not participating in disrespectful cultural appropriation.

I am reading a great book by Winona LaDuke titled "Recovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming" covers contemporary struggles of Native american communities to reclaim their land, language, names, remains of their ancestors, excellent book.

Thanks.
Warmly,
Jess

[verbenagirl]

i'm glad to hear about it too. i've never felt right about people copying "indian" ways, but now i have a way to talk about it.

[stormwatcher]

So how, regarding herbalism, does one appropriate from another culture? The rights to include plants in one's life aren't "owned" by any one culture, are they? Unless we walk around proclaiming that we are what we are not in using the plants, where is the appropriation?

Personally, sweet grass is one of my favorite herbs. In enjoying and using sweet grass, am I infringing on anyone's cultural boundaries? With anything - animals, plants, clothing - who really has the owner's rights to them? I was once severely scolded for talking about an elderly bison cow, who laid herself near the fence daily. I was told that bison are sacred animals to the Native Americans and as a white woman of Celtic origins, I could not talk, whisper or dream about them. Who's to say that bison are not sacred animals TO ME? The same goes for plants or any other things included in my life. Are we saying that those of us of non-Native origins only have a permit to use domestic culinary herbs and talk about our milk cow rather than the inspiration of a brief gaze into the eyes of an white tailed doe?

I think that this thing gets way out of hand these days. Anyone can walk around with a chip on his/her shoulder. I agree that intent is the key here.
_________________
Kathleen

[verbenagirl]

no one owns the plants themselves, but we do have to be careful about taking bits of somebody's culture in the process. like somebody said, it's a question of paying attention.

[mamajess]

I agree no one person can own a plant but I think this issue is more complicated than that.

People (ex. Euro-Americans) appropriate by using symbols, images, names, & ceremonies of a group of people who have been colonized(ex. indigenous North Americans). I think the web link crabapple first wrote about clearly lays out in what ways this happens.

Herbalism is often associated with many of the things the Lakota people wrote is appropriation. We must respect what they and other indigenous people have and are saying.

Here's an example from my life. I am involved with the natural childbirth movement. Many women today who are digusted by baby showers are having something to honor the mother/baby and calling it a Blessingway. I also called it that untill a Native woman informed me that a Blessingway is actually a very sacred, multi-day ceremony of the Dine people. Instead she asked if I could call it a mother blessing. There was also an article in Midwifery Today asking the same thing. I feel this is fair and respectful not to use this term. I am not Dine nor were the ceremonies I particpated in anything remotly close to a true Blessingway.

Jess

[jim mcdonald]

have I mentioned the word quagmire?

When it comes down to it, there are no clear lines to differentiate when something is appropriation and when one's intent and the way in which they hold the practice honors the ceremony (or whatever it may be). Where the people who created the document against the appropriation in their culture that is linked to in the first post feel one way, and present it on behalf of their people, there are others among their people who feel differently, to a variety of degrees.

I've seen clear cut cluelessness that is objetionable, I've seen also seen reactions natives react to nonnatives holding their ceremonies with great honor and respect by returning them intolerance. We need to let go of the polarity and change the way we see things.

No preconcieved stance is appropriate. If we know what we think about an issue before we encounter it in a specific instance, we cannot see the individuality and intent of that instance.

I say that as someone who is seen by some native americans as appropriating, and by others as honoring. Probably, I do both, as we all do. I do my best to stay toward the end of honoring.
_________________
jim mcdonald
~herbalist~
www.herbcraft.org

[mamajess]

No preconcieved stance is appropriate. If we know what we think about an issue before we encounter it in a specific instance, we cannot see the individuality and intent of that instance.

Great point, Jim. I think I tend to err of the side of caution with this issue because of how you put it, I've seen/heard too many examples of clueless, questionable appropriation. It's just important to me to get this on people's radar, ya know?

Jess

[jim mcdonald]

Oh yeah, I know.

I've got an intimate relationship t this issue because I've been involved with the inipi (sweat lodge) community at the place I teach for over 10 years now. I'm apart of the council who takes care of a lot of the fine details. I used to be the person who answered inquiries, and have been poked and prodded from all sides of the issue of legitimacy, by both natives and nonnatives. If I let the opinions I've been given guide me, I'd be schizophrenic.
_________________
jim mcdonald
~herbalist~
www.herbcraft.org

[verbenagirl]

it seems like having the issue "on people's radar" is a huge step. so many people seem like they've never thought about this sort of thing.

[Herby Canopy]

To start I should make it clear that I am Native-American. My fathers mother is full blooded Chickasaw and Choctaw. My mother once told me that my grandmother got me papers when I was a baby that I could use to prove my blood linage and get things from the government. I told her that I though it wrong that I take "blood money" or "bribes" form a government, like it could help cover up the sins that they did in the past.

I should say though that I can can speak for Native-American since I have almost no real knowledge of their ways and/or customs. I only been to the reservation twice since I was 3 years old and that was over ten years ago.

Now it the point of my post. I feel that since I am Native-American by blood that I can say that to me it seems that these Lakota are nothing but raciest though and though. I can understand why they would not like the American government with what was done to Native-Americans in the past and the insults that they have to put up with. That is no excuse for their "War on the white man" though.

In their declaration of war" they basically say that white man has no right what so ever to believe how they do. How foolish that sounds to me. Would it not be poetic justice if the "Indian way" became the majority "way" in America? After all that the Native-Americans had to put up with to have the "white man" realize that the "ways" Natives that they so wronged where so "right". Oh... what true irony that would be, and I think that America might even be a better place if we where to learn to follow their religion.

But then what do I know...
_________________
“A weed is no more than a flower in disguise, Which is seen through at once, if love give a man eyes”
James Russell Lowell

[GrannySam]

I have a bit of input here.

I've been to sweat lodges many times, because I have been invited to do so. When I go I am going to make my own prayers, not to copy a way of life that once was. I do not use Lakota words. I do not partake in the songs, for they are not *my* songs. I simply do not connect with words or prayers foreign to my tongue. My songs in such times are silent and in my own head and heart. I do try to observe the expected customs of sitting properly, passing the pipe correctly etc, so as not to offend.

I think sometimes that *some* native americans claim all indigenous beliefs as their own. They seem not to realize that sweat lodges were built and used by MANY indigenous peoples, not just those on the north american continent. There is plenty of evidence found in ruins throughout the British isles to support that belief for example.

I use feathers, bones, teeth and other animal parts in my personal ceremonies. People have done so throughout time. I burn herbs and send my prayers on sacred smoke. Again, evidence all over the world supports this has been done since the beginning of time, not just by north american natives.

Other indigenous peoples smoked too jim. So I don't see how you are copying native american ways. Your own ancestors, wherever they were from, likely gave you the smoking gene. :)

Other indigenous peoples played drums. Other indigenous peoples played flutes, pipes etc. My Irish ancestors did. So how am I copying lakota ways when I pick up my drum and play? I'm not.

I DO have a problem with what I call "white people pretending to be indians". I know of a pair of non-americans, each from entirely different continents, who have come to this area to teach the Lakota way. To me this is wrong and it offends me. If one is to teach the Lakota way, then he/she should at least have Lakota blood flowing through their veins.

However I think that to declare war on any such practice is as wrong as the practice itself, and serves no good for either party. Separatism is separatism, and breeds hatred and fear, no matter how it is disguised.

Blessings,

[Herby Canopy]

Grannysam:

I do not see a problem with non-Native Americans believing in the Native way so long as they are doing it because they really *believe* it is the right way. I do have a problem with people that do it because so some reason they think that it is the *cool* thing to do.

I see a flaw in your logic that I think that you should see. Please to no think that I am trying to "flam" you because that is not my purpose at all.

Do you have know that Buddhism was founded in India by a Hindu priestly family? Does that mean that you are offended by all those Asian people that teach the Buddhist way?

Did you know that Islam was founded in Saudi Arabia? Do Islamic people that live in Iraq, Iran, or even Egypt offend you? (will not counting this whole war problem...)

Did you know that Christianity was founded with the Jewish people? What do you think about all these "white men" that teach the Christan way?

Did you know that a lot of the New Age movement comes ancient Celtic believes? What do you think of non-Irish people that believe some of this "new age" ideas?

My only point is that I think people put to much meaning on race and nationality. I think that there is only one thing that is important in this world and that is intent.

What is the real reason those two people in your area are trying to teach the Lakota way? Lets say that it is because they think they can make some money from teaching it. Does that make them any more "wrong" then a Lakota that teaches his peoples way to make money? I do not think so because their intent is "wrong", their race has no baring the morality of it.

If those two moved to my area I would ask them why they are trying to teach this way. If they have a morally "wrong" intent then they more that like likely will not tell you, but then are good with people you will still now. The best way is if they are always trying to sell this or that then you have your answer. After my paradigm shift I find myself in this case asking myself does it really matter what their intent is? Does it even really affect my life how this person wants to believe?

Yet, I find myself saying what is looking to become my new montra...
But what do I know...
_________________
“A weed is no more than a flower in disguise, Which is seen through at once, if love give a man eyes”
James Russell Lowell