Cultural Appropriation as an Ethical Problem in the Context of Cultural Heritage Preservation
Authors: Московчук Л.С. 
Published: May 2022

Статья посвящена определению границы между культурной апроприацией и культурным признанием; в качестве источников используются результаты исследований из различных областей гуманитарного знания (культурологии и теории культуры, эстетики, этики, лингвистики, теории моды), а также законодательные акты. Проанализированы сферы общественной жизни, в которых достаточно широко осуществляется процесс культурной апроприации в условиях глобализирующегося мира. Указывается на значение культурного наследия для связи с прошлым и на травматичность его помещения в неподобающий контекст. Выделены четыре подхода к обсуждению проблемы культурной апроприации: экономический, социально-политический, юридический, эстетический и этический. Определено, что смещение дискурса с экономических, социально-политических и эстетических вопросов культурной апроприации в сторону этики дискурса позволит избежать ситуативности и выработать универсальные критерии этичности межкультурной коммуникации.

The article aims to define the boundary between cultural appropriation and cultural recognition. Results of studies of cultural appropriation from various fields of humanitarian knowledge – cultural studies and the theory of culture, aesthetics, ethics, linguistics, fashion theory, legislative acts – are used as sources. The basis of the methodology is a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach based on traditional methods of the humanities and social sciences (comparative and typological methods, content analysis) using a dialogic ethical approach to analyze cultural phenomena. The spheres of public life are analyzed, in which cultural appropriation is quite widely carried out in the conditions of a globalizing world. Specific examples of controversial situations that arose in the public sphere due to not quite correct cultural borrowings demonstrated by representatives of the world of fashion and show business are given. Turning to the topic of cultural heritage appropriation, the author points out its importance for connection with the past and the traumatic nature of placing cultural heritage in an inappropriate context, reveals the cause of the contradictions arising from the inadequate use of the heritage of other cultures. The mechanism of cultural capture, which leads to the misuse of cultural symbols in the information space, is studied. The differences between cultural appropriation and cultural exchange are revealed, the need for legal protection of the rights of ethnic groups from the misuse of their cultural heritage is emphasized. The socio-cultural essence of the analyzed problem is determined, which consists in the absence of boundaries between the condemned cultural capture and the approved cultural exchange. According to the author, this issue should be solved in an ethical context by referring to the ethics of discourse by J. Habermas and dialogic ethics in general. The conditions for applying the ethics of discourse in solving problems related to cultural appropriation are established, and relevant examples are given. The author concludes that solving the problems associated with cultural appropriation is important for establishing the limits of what is acceptable in the treatment of cultural heritage. Distortion of the cultural context is fraught with desacralization, commercialization and commodification of monuments; therefore, the ethics of discourse will allow developing universal criteria for the ethics of intercultural communication.