Aloha,
On 12/4/2005 at 6:10 PM Sabina Magliocco wrote:
>The trouble with words like "appropriation" is that they
>assume a commodified view of culture as an object that can
>be owned, stolen, etc., while what we know about many
>cultural traits is that they are fluid, adaptable and not
>exclusive to one group.
I think that in modern circumstances *culture* probably has
much more to do with identity and identification that with
collective lifeways. Most people, no matter where they are
in the world, probably must make decisions among cultures
that people a century or two ago did not have to make--or
even imagine making.
>It's also important not to presume
>that groups -- whether ethnic, national or cultural -- are
>fixed and stable, and have always had the same cultural
>traits we associate with them today. Identity is always
>negotiated and constructed in relation to a cultural Other.
Yes. And these days, this construction, with or without much
negotiation, is often deliberate, methodical, and motivated by
pursuit of economic advantage, political power, or both.
I don't mean to suggest that such construction did not occur
in earlier times, but what we encounter today is cultural
construction applying an industrial model.
I think that a telling dimension of this cultural construction
involves the acceleration of the change cycle. In some
respects, at least, culture gets constructed, deconstructed, and
replaced by something different at a faster and faster pace.
For most, this change cycle probably outstrips the adaptation
cycle.
Musing Everything I Am, Know & Imagine Is So Yesterday! Rose,
Pitch
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