Introduction
Cultural appropriation occurs when another culture copies the cultural elements without seeking authority from the source culture. In simple terms, cultural appropriation involves using images, ideas, symbols, and objects between two different cultures. It is direct duplication, incorporation, or copying of an image presented by an artist in a different context hence altering the meaning of the original culture/ content. Cultural appropriation is a wide topic that has its negative and positive impacts. It is viewed by people from different perspectives based on their motives. Some people believe that the minority is undermined when the culture is copied from another background (Kellner 8). However, cultural appropriation may also involve respectful borrowing of an idea from another culture with an objective of self-diversification. With the above background, the researcher focuses on analyzing and evaluating the concept of cultural appropriation in the community. It is realized that, with the digital society, people are able to copy other communities’ behaviors through the internet and social media platforms (Kellner 12). The researcher further evaluated different ways in which culture can be shared between communities which include songs and copping of the written materials like the case with Shakespeare (Han 5).
Cultural Appropriation in the Digital Society
In the history of art, appropriation is considered significant for promoting cultural diversity. In the current digital era, cultural appropriation is influenced by social media. Digital society ensures that cultural ideas, visual images, and values are taught and communicated to different generations. Through social media, members of a given culture get to understand their culture, promoting the continuation of culture in society. In the present digital visual multiculturalism, people from a given background can determine their identity as much as cultural values. Media stories promote cultural appropriation by sharing values, images, myths, and symbols of a given culture with society (Kellner 12). Images are crucial in today’s internet-based culture as they carry a large content that presents the behaviors of a given culture in the society.
The types of images posted on social media may change the perspective of people regarding a certain culture. Cultural appropriation is unavoidable in society as people try to copy values, images, and ideas of other cultures. In most cases, cultural appropriation takes place when a dominant culture makes use of objects from another culture ignorantly and by not researching to know how the culture operates (Han 4). Social media users may have less attention to cultural appropriation, especially when they are not aware of the intensity and impact of their shared stories. The main items which are targeted in cultural appropriation comprise intellectual property, dance, music, food, religious symbols, language, and clothing/fashion. The culture of a given community can be transferred physically in terms of clothing, food, and other imagery things (Han 4). People from one culture may copy the other culture on their clothing hence leading to appropriation in fashion and design.
Ways in which Culture is Appropriated
Culture can be appropriated through songs sung by different generations and communities. An artist presents a song/poem that another artist originally did by altering the initial content. Therefore, any musician who sings songs from another culture is said to have participated in content appropriation. For example, Akira Kurosawa’s use of Shakespeare’s content in his films presents an outlook of content appropriation. Content appropriation is common in society because artists will have to use some content from a given culture to present their musical and poetry content. Artists can also present their own experiences with a certain culture hence promoting cultural appropriation (Han 5). Oher people can understand the values and norms of a given culture when the artist has well represented it. However, some artists may misrepresent the norms and values in a given culture in an offensive or harmful manner. Artists may include immoral content in the presented culture, which may negatively affect the original values of the culture.
Subject appropriation is considered as the type of cultural appropriation which involves the form of taking ideas from other cultures. An outsider can represent the subject matter that is meant for the insiders of a given culture, and this leads to stereotyping. For instance, an outsider may present a religious ceremony or any other cultural event to the public, and yet the insiders do not want exposition of such culture (Bicskei 3). In this case, the outsiders are considered to have stollen, misappropriated, and misrepresented other people’s cultures. Therefore, artists should analyze the content before presenting it may involve secrets of a given culture that should not be exposed.
Disadvantages and Advantages of Cultural Appropriation
Copying other people’s culture has its consequences, and this can be positive or negative. People may object to cultural appropriation based on moral or aesthetic grounds. Individuals from one culture can appropriate values from another culture which can cause harm to their people. For instance, in the clothing and fashion industry, the design of certain clothes may be duplicated to another culture and perceived negatively based on the underlying cultural values (Bicskei 6). People have a different perspective on culture; hence appropriation may lead to misunderstanding. Immoral culture appropriation may be objected to in society. People may copy immoral values from a given culture which can negatively influence their values. An example of immoral cultural appropriation can be presented by the case of Zuni War God figurines. Zuni people left their figurines exposed in the wilderness on the religious background, and anthropologists took them to the museum, which was wrong (Bicskei 10).
Cultural appropriation can be good when the participants copy the right content and ideas. Many studies have criticized cultural appropriation due to its immoral content that can harm the insiders. As a result of sharing ideas and values between two cultures results in the creation of superb content which is acceptable. For example, different musical styles like jazz and the blues can be blended to create outstanding content acceptable to a different audience. Fashion designers merge different cultures to create the best clothes designs (Wang 16). Therefore, cultural appropriation can be beautiful because blending clothes designs from different cultures leads to a perfect outfit.
Conclusion
The aspect of people copying other people’s cultures is dominant in the current world. Technology has largely boosted the aspect of cultural appropriation as the content from one culture to another can be shared through the internet. Through this, social media has dominated the aspect of sharing culture between different communities. One of the negative impacts of cultural appropriation is copying immoral content from the other culture. Arguably, creative ideas copied from other cultures, such as fashion and clothing, lead to a positive culture in society.
Works Cited
Bicskei, Marianna. “James O. Young: Cultural Appropriation and the Arts.” Journal of Cultural Economics, vol. 35, no. 3, 2011, pp. 233–36, Web.
Han, Hsiao-Cheng (Sandrine). “Moving from Cultural Appropriation to Cultural Appreciation.” Art Education, vol. 72, no. 2, 2019, pp. 8–13, Web.
Kellner, “Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, and Media Culture by Douglas Kellner.” Ucla.edu, 2019,
Wang. “Opinion | Finding the Beauty in Cultural Appropriation.” The New York Times, 2019, Web.