Cultural Appropriation

The term cultural appropriation describes in the broadest sense the acceptance of a cultural aspect that does not belong to one’s own culture. Cultural appropriation is particularly interesting because the foundations of cultural disputes are revealed in claims of ownership and strategies of exclusion (cf. Hahn 2011, 19). Therefore, cultural appropriation is often criticized as theft or disrespectful.

Research Aspects

Cultural appropriation focuses on a cultural change (cf. Hahn 2011, 11f). However, the adoption of individual elements of a culture, such as clothing, jewelry or the like, does not immediately fall under this term. Only when the use occurs in a pejorative, hostile, or unreflected manner, thereby suppressing or ridiculing the respective culture, one speaks of cultural appropriation (cf. Krieg 2019, 105). Occasionally, cultural appropriation is also equated with theft and destruction of marginalized cultures (Cuthbert 1998, 257).

Through the process of appropriation, no homogenization of cultures (=one uniform culture) and also no fragmentation of cultures (=decay of cultures) is to be achieved (cf. Hahn 2011, 13). The goal is rather to adopt one’s own culture into new, other cultural ideas. Ultimately, therefore, a new culture can emerge that results from aspects of all influences involved (cf. Hahn 2011, 13f).

Social relevance

However, cultural appropriation does not proceed harmoniously and is a controversial topic, especially in today’s world, that finds its way into the media landscape again and again. For example, a U.S. site reports on „11 celebrities who have been accused of cultural appropriation“ (Seventeen). However, ZEIT 2020 noted that it is about more than being guilty. The debate is about „vulnerability and desire (…), the complex of cultural identification with the dimension of ownership“ (ZEIT) and about „the racist structure of stereotyping decontextualization“ (ZEIT). This negative assessment is partially supported by science. In 1998, for example, Denise Cuthbert describes cultural appropriation as theft and shows a destruction of indigenous cultures through forced cultural appropriation (cf. Cuthbert 1998, 257). Deborah Krieg says that the „motivations behind forms of cultural appropriation (…) are likely as heterogeneous [as] the individuals who engage in them“ (Krieg 2019, 111). The question of motivation, in particular, is therefore a recurring point of contention in the debate.

Literature

Cuthbert, Denise (1998): Beg, borrow or steal: The politics of cultural appropriation. In: Postcolonial Studies, vol. 1 (2). London, Routledge.

Hahn, Hans Peter (2011): Antinomies of cultural appropriation: introduction. In: Journal of Ethnology, vol. 136. Berlin, Dietrich Reimer Verlag.

Krieg, Deborah (2019): All just stolen. WTF is Cultural Appropriation, actually, in: Bendersen, Eva et al. (eds.): Trigger Warning. Identitätspolitik zwischen Abwehr, Abschottung und Allianzen, Berlin, 2019 (pp.105-114), Verbrecher Verlag.

Seventeen: https://www.seventeen.com/celebrity/g22363821/cultural-appropriation-examples-celebrities/ (last viewed 19.09.2020).

Time: https://www.zeit.de/kultur/2020-05/kulturelle-aneignung-popkultur-stereotyp-imitation-postkolonialismus (last viewed 19.09.2020).

Time: https://www.zeit.de/kultur/2020-05/kulturelle-aneignung-popkultur-stereotyp-imitation-postkolonialismus/seite-3 (last viewed 19.09.2020).