From: tmaddox@netcom.com (Tom Maddox)
Subject: Re: Cultural Appropriation and the New Age
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1992 22:09:12 GMT

In article <1992Dec23.155759.1@wharton.upenn.edu> millerl@wharton.upenn.edu writes:
>In article <1992Dec23.192222.10975@netcom.com>, tmaddox@netcom.com (Tom Maddox) writes:
>> 	The work is usually divorced entirely from its original context and
>> is in fact being offered for the esthetic pleasure of the urban dweller with
>> (often significant) disposable income.  
>
>> 	While I generally stand foursquare in favor of cultural mixing 
>> (which has given us, e.g., much of the best popular music of the 20th 
>> century), I confess the practice I've just described makes me uneasy.
>
>Lots of pop music is influenced by gospel music, hymns, and other sacred
>music. 

	As I just intimated.

>Why is it somehow bad to borrow sacred or culturally important
>visual or narrative artforms and good to borrow similar musical
>artforms? Is George Harrison bad for sticking "hari krsna hari rama"
>into the song "my sweet lord"?

	A different situation:  Harrison was to some extent a believer; i.e.,
he hadn't simply appropriated "hari krsna . . ." because he liked the
sound of the words--like the Hare Krishnas themselves, he thought that
chanting the words was a good thing to do.

	(There is the other question, oddly enough, of Harrison's having 
lifted the melody of "He's So Fine" [I believe that was the r&b song in
question], for which a court ordered he pay damages.)

>Artistic work has often drifted between sacred and mundane usage. 

	Yeah, sure, I get all that, and as I stated above, I'm even in 
favor of it.  

	Nonetheless--

	There are issues of taste, irony, cultural imperialism of a sort.  
In most cases I'm happy to enjoy the fruits of "quoting" as postmodernism
calls it, or cultural syncretism, or whatever else you want to call it, but
in others, the act of appropriation simply feels transgressive--in the 
instances I cited originally, the enormous material and ontological gulf
between the peasant artist and the yuppie consumer gave me a mild case of
the willies.  Note also that the artist and his or her culture is alive and
functioning--we're not talking about hanging Ancient Egyptian religious
symbols on a late 20th century wall.

>IMO, this boils down to heresy... some people try very hard to avoid
>what other cultures might consider offensive ideas, but I don't this
>will ever be successful if, for instance, the english word "bus" means
>"fuck" in hungarian. By coexisting with a society without adopting its
>culture we implicitly deny that culture, and fanatics will treat that as
>an offense no matter how hard we censor ourselves.

	There's no question of censorship.  Indeed, there was no cultural
syncretism, which is perhaps the point.  One artist did not appropriate the
work of another; consumers *purchased* the work of artists, which is something
rather different.  (Perhaps the Marxist notion of commodification will make 
sense of that difference, but I don't think so.)

>So what can you do to help? 

      Help whom?  Help what?  

>How about listening when people tell you
>about themselves, and when they ask you about things tell them the whole
>story? If you're writing fiction based on a culture that is not your own
>you can only use as much as you comprehend of it, but if you want to be
>safe then remind your reader of this.

>Acknowledge your sources and your prejudices.

>That's good enough, and it's all you can do.

	A very optimistic and perhaps naive point of view.  There are several
fairly compelling theories around that tell you this is simply (a) impossible
and (b) not good enough.  Good will, a good heart, good intentions--they 
probably aren't enough, but you (or I, or anyone) cannot "acknowledge"
prejudices in many instances because we simply aren't *aware* of them.  Also,
some would argue that there is no privileged or prejudice-free position from
which to work.  And also, power relations determine what happens, not good
or ill will.

-- 
				Tom Maddox
		    	    tmaddox@netcom.com
	"That's a bird bone, chair, Bob.  I don't know if I should sit there."
				Tom Waits
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books