Cultural Appropriation?

[Burgoo]

I've just stumbled across a few articles that make reference to mindfulness/medication and yoga.

Both articles argue that the Westernisation of both activities is "cultural appropriation" and that white folk in the West should think about how they are using these activities in every-day life. The key themes seem to be:

1. We need to acknowledge the concepts and where they originated
2. We must bring attention to the oppression that has been meted out onto minorities and other cultures if we are to use "their" concepts/activities
3. We should never benefit financially from activities that are stolen from other cultures (e.g. white-middle-class women shouldn't teach yoga if they are getting money from it because it is stolen from another culture)
4. We shouldn't just take the bits that are "relevant" to our culture - for example, using yoga for physical exercise and ignore the spiritual aspects of yoga.

So... what are people's thoughts on this?

TABU (they are being unreasonable, people who argue this)
TANBU (they aren't being unreasonable, we need to stop taking aspects of other people's cultures and respect all aspects of them)

I say they because I am undecided and wonder if I am missing something!

People have always adopted aspects from other cultures. Things change and develop and become part of life for others. I don't see what's wrong with that as long as you're respectful and don't do offensive things like wear an indigenous American costume to a party or something.

I expect I'll be told I'm wrong though 🤷

Nope. Not in the slightest. It's just meditation and yoga. Worlds gone mad.

Im white. I have extremely curly/coily hair. I wear my hair up with a silk scarf around half of it at home to keep the frizz at bay. A colleague saw a photo of me like that and told me I was appropriating black culture. Fuck off.

I think when practicing yoga there should be attention paid to the spiritual aspect.

Cries of appropriation are rarely made by those who actually invented/discovered the thing, ime. As long as, like PP said, the use of it is respectful and not mocking of a culture then I see it as appreciation and sharing of beneficial experiences.

Or alternatively, I'll tell my high school age nephew that he doesn't have to do his algebra any more as he is in no way Babylonian and it would be disrespectful. He'll be thrilled. 😉

There's no actual appropriation taking place, which is where the argument falls down. Noone pretends that yoga didn't come from eastern countries or that it isn't to do with spirituality etc.

Unfortunately there are some quite unintelligent people who don't understand what appropriating something means, and certainly don't understand how it would impact them if we were to fiercely protect cultures - I mean, we may as well go back to segregation (which I actually think is something those on the far side of both arguments actually agree!).

I'll use your yoga example. Just because someone is brown and from say India does not make yoga 'their' culture - if they were from a small Himalayan remote village known for its meditation practises then yes, but the average family from Mumbai may have absolutely nothing to do with that as 'their culture'. It's the same with anything really and actually a counter productive argument which essentially says that all people from xxx are the same and have the same culture.

Feels a little Racist and stereotypy no?

Yoga is completely global and has been for a very long time. This is not a million miles from saying building sanitation systems is cultural appropriation of the Romans/ Greeks.

I think it is rude to say it's just yoga. That tells me you don't understand that this is a spiritual process as important as prayer to Hindus as confession is to Catholicism.

Commodifying religious practices is a bit off, if it was Christian practices people might find it offensive.

But also appreciating mindfulness has its roots in Buddhist zen and yoga in Hindi practices would be better than saying oh it's a fad etc.

I don't think anyone has said yoga is Indian but there is a majority Hindu population there.

I don’t like cultural appropriation as a tool to shut down debate but in this case I think it’s a framework which encourages thoughtful interrogation.

This is just silly - mindfulness and meditation are as western in origin as they are anything else, and Yoga is a practice that many avoid because it has religious connotations.

And we all influence each other all the time, and it would be impossible not to, being human and all that

Yes! I have long curly hair and I told my colleague I got a new silk bonnet for Christmas. I wear it to bed so my curls don’t go crazy and frizzy over night. They said that silk bonnets were for black hair and that I shouldn’t use one 🙄

What will be next, we shouldn't go to an Indian/Chinese/Carribbean/Italian restaurant lest we be accused of "stealing their culture" ?
I'm sure those who run these establishments wouldn't be too keen on a bunch of virtue signallers putting them out of business!

I am a little unusual in that I live in the Uk and am white but was raised in a religion that is from the East.

I do think there are very odd practices here that show lack of understanding such as the use of Buddhas as interior design. Bleugh.

However, from my viewpoint (which I know is still a white person in the UK) all of the the many leaders I have spoken to want a world where more people practise meditation/ spirituality etc.

The whole point is to free your own mind and free all of the world. There is a strong belief in group karma and it is to everyone’s benefit.

I agree it provides a framework in which to interrogate one's choices and so forth but as a general rule it does get very tedious for people who aren't white seeing elements of their culture co-opted by white people for financial or other gain.

Pre DC I had a really good yoga teacher. He was from India and didn't seem to mind teaching a class of westerners.

Cultures have always been influenced by and influenced other cultures since the dawn of time.
Look at food for instance.

Life would be very boring if we all stayed in our own cultural boxes.

I think people aren’t as stupid as people writing articles like this think. Like most I’m aware yoga isn’t a western creation but also aware that aspects have likely been adapted and changed to suit the people taking the class. It’s like lots of things and isn’t unique to yoga.

The whole notion of cultural appropriation is nonsense. Different cultures have always borrowed from each other.

This came up on a thread a while back where a poster said her local sports centre had renamed their yoga class as 'stretching' because they thought it was cultural appropriation.I looked into it - there is a lot of discussion online in YouTube vids, including from an Indian woman who said that as long as you stay true to the original yoga styles and acknowledge them as originally being from India, then it's fine. She did have a beef with some of the faddy LA-type new yoga teachings, saying they're not really yoga.

What would really help is links to the articles.

I agree with it re yoga. Its always felt odd to me that the teaching of it in general group classes is so removed from its origins.

Mediation, no, as its not a practise exclusive to any one culture.

Okay enough with this shit now lol 🤦‍♀️ this planet is broken

Yt people ? Really ??? Racist much !!

It's getting a bit tedious can't plat my hair because "braiding," is cultural appropriation but I'm part Dutch so Dutch braids are OK? Apparently not why? Because it's appropriation but other cultures braid? that doesn't MATTER YOUR BEING RACIST ok crazy Internet fiend then there was the whole potato thing I got told to "go eat fish and chips" I pointed out we appropriated the potato and I wouldn't want to "offend" anyone at this point I blocked them they did try to contact me but strangely I chose not to respond 😅

If no-one ever took on board anyone else's ideas culture etc we would live a very short limited life