HOW is Christianity not cultural appropriation?! There was absolutely no "natural" mixing between the early Christians and the Pagans. It was blatant, violent theft of symbols and traditions. That should be your biggest example. It was more than just assigning new meaning to symbols and adopting traditions, it was also the violent annihilation of culture. THAT should be what we focus on. Not how some people adopt things and incorporate them with new meanings in different cultures, but how the original cultures are swiped away by the wave of big religions and western ideas. Killing off a culture is bad, using a little bit in your own is not.
Silly me. Don't know what planet I went to. That's what I mean by cultural appropriation. Christianity is the biggest example there is as far as I know of. That's also kinda of what majority minority religions I read and come across say is Christian or Muslim influence.
So do you think it's disrespectful when Pagans make offerings to their gods that they think are meaningful, even when it isn't historically what's been given to that god?
This isn't against Pagans. This is just my personal opinion about giving offerings.
Yes, I honestly do. If, for example, Yemaya likes rice and I give her pinto beans, I see that as disrespectful. I also believe in the spirits so if I knew the spirit of Yemaya who was an actual person living person, there are stories that say she can get fisty if not given the right offering.
Disrespectful, wrong, etc are morals and depend on the person and their faith. Nothing objectively says doing one thing is harming the other. It's just something I have a pet peeve about and the article kind of wraps this up fine. It's not a Pagan focused one, though. However, to answer your question, yes.
But you said earlier that buying items from the store is fine. So is it bad when we steal things and use them, or bad when we use them at all? You really can't do anything today without offending someone. Some Pagans find the Satanist use of the pentagram disrespectful, but it is in their faith to use it. This still comes back to one person's faith being more valid than another's. Is it only the creator faith who has the right to something and anyone who adopts it in a way that the creator faith doesn't like is bad? If me and my friend both worship the same god differently and take offense to eachother, who is appropriating who? And if both the Jew and the witch find religious value in the Torah why is it only the Jew who gets to use it without ridicule?
I accidentally contradicted myself. I personally feel it's wrong to use my figurine Yemaya for purposes of worship even though they freely let me purchase it at their store. It means nothing without blood sacrifice. So, it's fine in that sense. Personal preference, I wouldn't do it regardless.
In the article it doesn't talk about the creator faith like Christianity, Judaism, and Muslim. I actually hate reading about things like that because it's bias and it disrespects not only the minority religions who want recognition but the majority who
do have inherants that don't fit what the mold many bias people put blame on.
CA is when a witch uses the Torah in the manner that direspects (goes against the Torah, goes against Jewish practices, insults the Jew, for example) the Jewish faith. Turn that around. Its CA if a Jew takes (I don't know much about pagan sacraments), I don't know, a self-made pentacle and wore it around his neck even though that self-made pentacle is used for X purposes and he is using it for Y.
It's like, good example, if two people of the same culture religiously in their rituals created a chair they deemed sacred. The proper use of this chair is to, well, sit on it and pray.
Then, a Christian comes in and takes the Chair and finds it work best in Mass. So, they use it
instead as a foot stool so the priest can reach the Eucharist.
That is cultural appropriation.
People do it all the time. In my opinion, even though it's done throughout history and today doesn't make it less disrespectful. Some people just don't know. I've seen people use certain signs in American Sign Language that only Deaf individuals feel they have the cultural right to use. New signers don't know until they get to know the culture and what is permitted and what's not. It's not meant to be defensive, it just means that Deaf individuals just as other oppressed cultures would like to keep their traditions within their own community.
It's cultural appropriation rather than religious appropriation. Just the article centers around religion since it has a high rate of people using
personal things (not just rice, but rice made a specific way for a specific purpose) as their own.
See above. Who really owns the symbol? Can't anyone who finds significance in it use it the way they see fit? Religion is so personal after all, who are we to say that someone's use of a
religious item is bad just because other people don't like it.
If I painted something for my grandmother and you used it in worship as a prop for your altar in your religious worship without my permission or respect for the item then thats CA.
If that same painting was at the store, say they made copies. You can use it however you want. It's just
my personal painting once you use it its CA. I find that disrespectful. I disagree with using the painting from the store as well; but, in general, it's fine since it's not technically mine to own.
The Native American culture fascinates me. I've worn beaded moccasins my whole life and I enjoy the beading art. I have a playlist of 33 albums of NA drumming and flutes. I study the culture.
I have native american items too. I bought a watch from a POW WOW. Interesting enough, when we did go to the POW WOW, a Native American was shocked and smiled and said "look minorities" (my family is African American). She was appreciative and happy for lack of better words that the items they sold wasn't just going to "white people" but to people like them that have been oppressed and cultural items stripped. Those native american items at the Pow Wow were not sold because the tribes wanted to but because they needed to. The US doesn't give them that much money to sell their cultural items that I feel they should own not someone they don't trust and/or not a part of their culture.
I'm Cherokee and African American but I feel uncomfortable using religious items in Cherokee ceremonies (not public) because I was not raised nor part of their culture to use those items for
my purposes. If I wanted the item, I'd give it due respect. That's just me. I don't meet many minority cultures that don't mind having their culture stripped from them and used by people who have no respect for the people who made the items to begin with.
