Cultural Appropriation and Exploitation

I chose the video on Buddhism and the African legacy of oppression.

I chose the two videos because as a Sociologist, they are descriptive of social institutions of both mechanical and organic societies (Durkheim)

For Buddhism, there wasn’t much that I didn’t already understand in my studies of social institutions. I did however, not know the history of the schism that exists within Buddhism. And while I understood that asceticism was a mainstay in Buddhism, such as Max Weber’s analysis of Capitalism in asceticism within Christianity, what I did not know is that Buddhism sought to balance asceticism with desire.

For African Art, I find several similarities to Native American Art, which I am sensitive to and familiar with. There are 562 Native American tribes in North America, each with their distinctive cultures, and not a single one of them ever created “art” for aesthetics. African art wasn’t considered “art” until someone was willing to pay for it. The same holds true for Native American “art” as deifned by western European culture.

Also noteworthy in the film, is that much of Africa suffered a holocaust as a direct result of colonization. This is not ever acknowledged within the art world, because consumers of art often do not think about why another culture would create something. The same hold true for Native America. Native America also suffered a holocaust that not only isn’t acknowledged by the art world, but also not acknowledged by most governments. Anthropologists estimate that by 1492, when Columbus “discovered” a land that was already populated, that there were 30 million Native Americans in North America. According to the 1930 Census, there were less than 200,000. Populations have picked up to just under a million by 2012.

This is the backdrop under which cultural appropriation occurs. Cultural appropriation happens when one group take cultural objects from others, and appropriate them for their own purpose – be it museums or laboratories. Most Social Sciences now forbid cultural appropriation – returning artifacts found to the original people. The Art world, including Art departments on college campuses, still engage in cultural appropriation and see nothing wrong with exploiting other cultures.

It’s frustratingly comforting to see that both Africans and Native Americans are being exploited by their colonists, in the sense that at least Americans and Europeans are equal opportunity exploiters.