Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)
Over the weekend while driving I listed to NPR, NPR has some great stories and news items of interest so when they began broadcasting a story of cultural appropriation as it is tied to costumes of the Halloween celebration it triggered a thought. The thought was, “Can we Americans or others of the world outside the culture of Asians in regard to Asian Martial disciplines be appropriating there culture?”
Here is a quote to what cultural appropriation is, “Cultural appropriation (Cultural appropriation can involve the use of ideas, symbols, artifacts, or other aspects of human-made visual or non-visual culture.) is a concept in sociology, dealing with the adoption of the elements of one culture by members of another culture. Often unavoidable when multiple cultures come together, cultural appropriation can include using other cultures' traditions, food, fashion, symbols, technology, language, and cultural songs.”
AND
“According to critics of the practice, cultural (mis)appropriation differs from acculturation, assimilation, or cultural exchange in that the "appropriation" or "misappropriation" refers to the adoption of these cultural elements in a colonial manner: elements are copied from a minority culture by members of a dominant culture, and these elements are used outside of their original cultural context—sometimes even against the expressly stated wishes of members of the originating culture.”
To read the entire article on this, beware it is wiki so needs further validations, you can read it HERE.
When we first became aware of and were directly exposed to the martial arts, disciplines, sports or “Way” it was just after WWII while occupying the “Conquered Countries” of Japan and Okinawa. As occupiers were we not looked upon as “Dominant?” Did we not take the lessons we learned while there, adapt and adopt them, then modify them to fit our needs or wants or desires, then did we not take them back to our homes and then did we not start to teach and use and live according to the cultural parts we found beneficial, useful and sellable to open schools, gain paying students and then commercially make a living off them?
Does this mean, along with other factors, that we may have “Culturally (Mis)Appropriated” that culture to our own ends? Does that use take such cultural elements and misuse them due to ignorance and lack of full understanding and experience of said culture and people regardless of meaning well and no harm? Did we not end up reducing, misusing and misinterpreting these perceived exotic cultural things into fashions, toys, and money oriented ways?
Is our interpretations insulting and demeaning and embarrassing to the original culture and its people? Do we or did we ask the appropriate authorities of those cultures for permission to use their culture’s symbols, etc., for our own?
Have we literally distorted and displayed their cultures in a way that demeans that culture? Are we hindering their rights to maintain, control, protect, pass down and develop their continued cultural heritage, traditions, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions as a perceived dominant culture?
The following quotations from the wiki article help to understand this possible point and it is recommended one read the site and do further research. Is it possible in our excitement and drive to learn and adapt/adopt the exotic of the Asian culture that we have done wrong and is that a result of our dominant position and victors of WWII against Japan?
“Often, the original meaning of these cultural elements is lost or distorted, and such displays are often viewed as disrespectful, or even as a form of desecration, by members of the originating culture.[9][14][15][16] Cultural elements which may have deep meaning to the original culture may be reduced to "exotic" fashion or toys by those from the dominant culture.”
“Trans-cultural diffusion has occurred throughout history and is subject of study by a variety of academic disciplines, including folkloristic’s, cultural anthropology and cultural geography. For instance, most of the world have adopted the Hindu-Arabic numerals as the common, standard form of describing numbers, which can be interpreted as a form of cultural appropriation. Opposition to cultural appropriation is seen as controversial as it may clash with the right to participate in culture.”
Article 31 1 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states:
“Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as the manifestations of their sciences, technologies and cultures, including human and genetic resources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora, oral traditions, literatures, designs, sports and traditional games and visual and performing arts. They also have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their intellectual property over such cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions.”
Maybe it is time to consider what it is we did, what we took and what we have assimilated as it regards our assumed respect and admiration for cultures that allowed us the privilege to learn and study their cultural heritage of martial arts, disciplines and practices.
Bibliography (Click the link)
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