Cultural Appropriation and Appreciation (Essay Sample)

Cultural appropriation is defined as the inappropriate adoption of elements and objects of a non-dominant culture by the dominant culture. According to (Matthes,2016), Cultural appropriation is the practice of using or taking something from another culture without giving the right recognition or recognition to that subculture. This contributes to oppression and stereotypes and disrespects the original meaning. Back in the 1980s, cultural appropriation was originally used in academic spaces to discuss the relationship between minority and majority groups as well as colonialism. After that, it labored its manner into the cutting-edge lexicon but interpreting what does and does not constitute cultural appropriation may be tricky. To fully understand the meaning and consequences of cultural appropriation, take a step back and understand the meaning of Culture. Historically, the definition of Culture is believed to be complex. The English anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor wrote the earliest and the most mentioned definition of Culture in 1817. According to him, "Culture… is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, laws, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. it can be described by adopting things like fashion, makeup, hairstyles, ways of living, meals, and health practices." Tylor implies that Culture is not genetically inherited. Still, it can be experienced and learned when one belongs to a particular group (Kuper 2017). Culture can also be described as the "patterns of what has traditionally been constructed as an identification and the behaviors, language, traditions, rituals that are related to that identification." Where you stay, your ethnicity, race, religion, and lived, reports are all examples of identities that may shape a lifestyle. And because all of us have such overlapping identities, we can belong to multiple cultures at identical times.
Appreciating and appropriating Culture have different meanings. Appreciating means adopting Culture in a respectful manner, whereas appropriating involves adopting elements of a dominant group in a disrespectful and exploitive way. However, it is important to note that cultural appropriation has both bad and good sides that society should acknowledge, just like other ideas and concepts. It is important that societies understand and acknowledge the presence of cultural appropriation to foster cultural appreciation by creating awareness of the right ways to interrelate with different cultures so that each Culture is equally respected.
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There is little difference between cultural appropriation and appreciation but the difference can be argued about. The fact that some traditions are very original and unaffected by others makes appropriation to exist in minimal. A group of people believe that artists, musicians and creative designers have a pass due to their art being open to influence and discussions. In order to understand more about appreciation rather than appropriations it’s advisable to gain knowledge on the culture you borrowing from and acknowledge its records of marginalization and oppression.
Cultural appropriation is a layered phenomenon that most people face difficulties comprehending, and they find themselves doing it without realizing it. The ultimate question is, is cultural appropriation always wrong? It is typical to merge cultures as people from different backgrounds intermingle; actually, it can result in brilliant inventions. For example, country music was born as a result of such merging. However, the line can be drawn when the majority cultural group uses the elements of minority groups in a way that is exploitive. There are several ways in which cultural appropriation can be exploited, for example, when someone from the majority group gains financial or social profit from the minority group's culture. This was witnessed in 1990 when the music video for the song" Vogue" by Madonna was released. It featured voguing dance that was developed in the gay drag-ball Culture. Madonna may have used the drag performance in her video with the intention of respecting and appreciating the origin of the dance. Still, in the end, she solely profited when vogue became a hit song in the United States. She gained cultural and financial benefits that the developers of voguing did not; this was a form of cultural appropriation.
Cultural appropriation remains an issue for various reasons. In the first place, this sort of "acquiring" is manipulative as it denies abused gatherings of the FICO assessment, they merit and frequently the capital owed to them as appropriately. For instance, a greater part of rock tracks pioneers passed on broke and poor while white specialists drained them off large number of dollars. Social appreciation has likewise prompted psychological wellness issues because of victimization certain gatherings. As per (Ramirez 2021), a few looks are not appealing to people of color in spite of being viewed as wonderful by white ladies. Such appearance contrasts can bring about scorn and racial segregation bringing about individuals of color acclimatizing white people\'s haircuts and clothing standards.
Ultimately, artwork and track office work that originated with oppressed companies turn out to be associated with contributors to the dominant organization. As a cease result, the dominant organization is deemed progressive and edgy, even as the deprived organizations they "borrow" from face terrible stereotypes, implying they're missing in intelligence and creativity.
When an individual of a dominant group treats the Culture of a minority as a joke or distort is cultural appropriation. This was the case when a baseball team of Cleveland Indians was developed in 1915, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cleveland-Indians. The Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper claimed, “there will be no real Indians on the roster, but the name will recall fine traditions." this statement was not meant to be a criticism, but it clearly points out the problem with concepts such as Native American sports mascots. They represent the indigenous Culture assumed by non-indigenous individuals even though they are not the actual product of indigenous Culture. The mascots often rely on false stereotypes and racial misrepresentation of Native Americans (Leavitt et al. 2015); this is cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation is also evident in major Sports groups however, a few have started to do things properly. For instance, on July 2020 The Washington Football Team modified its name. some groups are however still protecting their names despite it being considered offensive and unappealing to the native American human beings. Some of the protective sports groups include Cleveland Indians and the Atlanta braves who have not being shaken to change their names.
d with the Dark lifestyle, despite the fact that it's smooth to find non-Dark people wearing the design as pleasantly. Albeit Individuals of color have stood up to segregation for generally Dark haircuts, which incorporate locks (Orey and Zhang