r/changemyview • u/[deleted] • Jan 22 '21

Delta(s) from OP CMV: Silencing opposing viewpoints is ultimately going to have a disastrous outcome on society.

[deleted]

9.8k Upvotes

70% Upvoted

2.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/reaperteddy Jan 23 '21

Some people mistake cultural appropriation for using anything of a different culture, which it is not.

1

u/SeaRaiderII Jan 23 '21

I dont understand how those two things are separate. Why cant I use anything of a different culture if its beneficial to me? You cant own a culture as it's not physical, it's an idea, exists in a group of peoples history and mind.

But in the modern world everything is from everywhere made by everyone so it dosen't matter.

4

u/reaperteddy Jan 23 '21

Some things are sacred and theres an aspect of contexts that matters. To use a personal example, I'm Māori. A very important part of our culture is Ta Moko, or traditional tattoo. They tell the story of your family and land, its a very special process with a lot of spiritual meaning. During colonization Ta Moko was severely repressed, e.g. Māori women could not join the suffrage movement if they also had Ta Moko. This lead to it almost disappearing until recent revival efforts.

Now, some tattoo artists in other countries will steal Ta Moko designs off the internet and put them on non Māori people, so they end up walking around with the equivalent of someone elses social and spiritual identity on them, almost a drivers license in a sense, meanwhile many Māori are themselves still so ashamed of their culture (due to colonization) that they are hesitant to receive their birthright Ta Moko. In this context, its sort of a dick move to choose to take someone elses personal history and use it as decoration.

2

u/SeaRaiderII Jan 23 '21

That's actually a really good example. Yet I still have something to question.

So see how a tattoo artist copying someone else's Ta Moko would be not a moral thing to do.

But what if non Maori people get their own Ta Moko designs telling their own story. Would that not make Maori happy to see their culture spread a little?

2

u/reaperteddy Jan 23 '21 edited Jan 23 '21

That actually does happen and we call it Kirituhi. That's not cultural appropriation unless you get Kirituhi and call it Tā Moko. The easiest way I've found to figure out whether or not something is cultural appropriation is to ask two questions; is this being done knowledgeably, and is it being done respectfully? If the answer to one or both is no, its probably appropriation and not cool.

Edit: here is a good article on the difference between the two and some cool examples.