this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2025
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[–] lurklurk 62 points 2 days ago (25 children)

The concept of cultural appropriation seems to be pretty useless in practice.

The cases I've encountered where it makes some bit of sense fit better under the concepts of racism or exploitation. The complaints about cultural appropriation online seem to more often attack innocent behaviour or someone genuinely appreciating another culture.

Drink tea, make tacos, wear a kimono, don't be an asshole

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago (4 children)

A good example I heard once was concerning the tagelharpa. It's an Estonian instrument, historically used in Estonian culture, however if you hear it you'll probably think Vikings. The modern viking/pagan/neofolk music scene uses it prominently, and as it has a much broader reach than Estonian culture, this has lead (through no fault of the musicians I must add) to situations where many people think of it as a "viking" instrument, even though it never was. Thus, a piece of Estonian culture is widely appreciated as belonging to another culture, due to popular media influence.

I don't know if this is really an example of cultural appropriation, but that example helped me grasp the concept (if it is a good example).

[–] lurklurk 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

That's really interesting! Nice sounding instrument

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