Yes.
I just said that.
I’m conscious of this fact because… well, I’m not white.
Whenever the topic of Cultural Appropriation comes up, it’s always with a white friend.
They all have different answers but it all sums up to pretty much one thing.
“Who cares!”
Now I’m not speaking about anyone in particular. I’m talking about all of them. In general. It’s difficult for me because for a long time now I’ve been trying to figure out where I stand. Who am I? Where do I come from? What is mine? What isn’t? Will I share? What will I defend? What is important to me?
I come from a far off land… called… South America. Yes. That exotic place where the Amazon River cuts through. With the waterfalls and the colourful birds. The tribes and the cities. Where hundreds of years ago the Pre-Columbian peoples ruled and dressed in golden jewellery and vibrant feathers until the white people came and killed and stole everything. Where there are carnivals and festivals, where there are many different shades of skin colour but it doesn’t really make a difference. Where the other parts of the world like to call us… “Third World”. As in… “not advanced enough”, “those dirty, poor people from down there”.
Not many people know about South America. Surprising, isn’t it? When it comes to Cultural Appropriation we’re usually not the targets. It’s easy for assholes to stereotype a person who is Asian, Indian (even though India is actually Asia but let’s pretend I’m not educated), North American Natives, etc… but what is the stereotype for a South American? I’m not talking about Mexico here, people. Don’t make me slap you. Mexico is not part of South America (Well it was, for some reason they started calling it “Central America”). So. Answer my question. What are they?
Think.
Hard, isn’t it? There aren’t many stereotypes and I still haven’t been able to figure out why. Is it because we’re THAT forgotten? We’re rarely mentioned, people rarely think about our land. Well… until it comes to rich white people who want a vacation. Then we’re all they think about.
Part of the reason why there aren’t any specific stereotypes of our people is because we’re just so mixed. Even before the white people came, all over South America every tribe was completely different. With different gods, and rituals, different ways of war, and different ways of living. After the white people came and took over everything, they brought with them many things from their own cultures. They became part of ours and a whole new culture developed. Perhaps what is now South America… just a big mix of… stuff. The white people brought with them not only their culture and belongings but also their black slaves. Who we also mixed with. Who also brought their culture with them and we mixed it in with ours.
I could stop right here and now and start talking about all the Cultural Appropriation that South America has done. Whether or not we meant to hurt others or wanted to combine important things together to make a whole new culture… it’s still Cultural Appropriation. We took things from other cultures. And formed a whole new being. Does is have a different name now? What happens when you take something in from another culture, combine it with everything that you are, to form a new you? A new person with a wider understand for things? Or just… more you?
But let’s go on. Now that all that big cultural mixing thing has finished (mainly, it’s actually still happening because the world never stops mixing!), we are left with… this South American culture.
Is every person who wears a peruvian hat (did you know it was originally from Peru??) appropriating peruvian culture?
Where the hell do sweet plantains come from? South America! Are you appropriating us?
What about corn? Corn used to be something very sacred for the Pre-Columbian peoples. It really was part of the culture… but it’s food!
What about all the gold? There are many replicas of jewellery from Pre-Columbian times… if someone non-South American wears them… is it cultural appropriation?
Are people who take “Latin Dancing” lessons appropriating my culture?
Are people who have a septum piercing appropriating the Pre-Columbian peoples and their sacred beliefs?
How about people who do cocaine and marijuana? Both were used for sacred rituals. As well as many other drugs.
What about everyone who eats chocolate and drinks coffee?
Do I care? Do you care? Why should we care?
There must be a line somewhere. Where do I draw the line? And when I do, should I force it upon others?
Let’s talk about something that is commonly debated.
Dreadlocks.
Most people will automatically assume that dreadlocks belong exclusively to the Rastafari movement but the truth is many groups of peoples before this movement have had dreadlocks as part of their culture. To name a few: Sadhus of India, the Sufi Rafaees, the Maori people of New Zealand, the Maasai of East Africa, the Sufi malangs and fakirs of Pakistan, Ancient Egypt, Pre-Columbian Aztec and so many others. This isn’t a secret people, there are plenty of places you can research this!
What then, is the meaning of this? Who is appropriating who? Who should be punished and who should we spare? Who is safe, and who isn’t? What is someone who grows up who has very small curly hair doesn’t touch it and it forms into dreadlocks? Should we shame them?
Should we tell people what they can and cannot do with their hair because someone already came up with it before them? Should we tell them which piercings they can and cannot get? What tattoos they can or cannot get? How do we know?
There are many rituals and sacred things that belong to cultures. Obviously those should be left to those who understand. Dreadlocks are sacred to many people, but to others they are just dreadlocks. I’m not talking about modern people, but ancient cultures as well.
What if an outsider wants to understand a specific ritual or culture that is not their own? Should they take and do as they wish or should they ask for permission first so as to not disrespect that same culture they wish to understand? Who should they ask? What if they’re all dead?
When I was studying psychology (on my own because I do stuff like that) I ran into a very interesting theory by Carl Jung. The Collective Unconscious.
The collective unconscious is an universal datum, that is, every human being is endowed with this psychic archetype-layer since their birth. One can not acquire this strata by education or other conscious effort because it is innate.
We may also describe it as a universal library of human knowledge, or the sage in people, the very transcendental wisdom that guides humankind.
Jung stated that the religious experience must be linked with the experience of the archetypes of the collective unconscious. Thus, blah blah blah, something about “god” because Carl Jung was religious blah blah.
Anyway. How I see this theory is that we are all connected. Everything that our ancestors have done is embedded into our subconscious. Everything we feel and experience and do has been done many times before. It would be impossible to label a specific thing to be of exclusively one group of people.
I don’t even know what I’m saying anymore I feel like I just rambled on about stuff without actually saying anything. Now I’m just as confused as I was in the beginning. Anyway, this is open for discussion if you want. Don’t you dare try and insult me because I’ll troll you and laugh.
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acme-aspirin reblogged this from omfgjo and added:
A great “food for thought” (don’t know if the expression is right).
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