{"id":1221,"date":"2009-10-11T19:53:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-11T19:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1221"},"modified":"2009-10-11T19:53:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-11T19:53:00","slug":"cultural-appropriation-is-not-a-religious-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1221","title":{"rendered":"‘Cultural Appropriation’ is not a Religious Issue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part One here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Arguments about “cultural appropriation” are usually dishonest.<\/p>\n

Although they often take place in venues devoted to religion, spirituality, and magic, they are not about<\/em> religion, spirituality, or magic.<\/p>\n

Instead, they are political arguments about cultural survival, usually taking the form, “We\/You took everything from them\/us, and now we\/you want to take their\/our spirituality too!”<\/p>\n

Let me propose a hypothetical bit of “cultural appropriation.”<\/p>\n

I fetch the old Catholic missal<\/a> off the shelf, blow the dust off (Colorado is dusty), and open it to the ritual for the Eucharist.<\/p>\n

I find items to serve as chalice, platen, and all the other necessaries, make myself some cheat cards for the Latin, set up my altar, and proceed to celebrate the Tridentine Mass<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cultural appropriation? I doubt that the Vatican will be too disturbed, and I will not need to watch out for albino assassin monks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Is it not “cultural appropriation” when the so-called victim is large and powerful? If so, that makes me think that all talk about appropriation is merely politics.<\/p>\n

So what are the consequences of my unsanctioned Mass? From the Catholic Church’s viewpoint, Aquila non capit muscas<\/span><\/a>, I suspect. Any other consequences?<\/p>\n

Now<\/span> you can discuss the religious, spiritual, or magical issues.<\/p>\n

Postscript: <\/span>This post is somewhat based on a dream I had months ago, in which I was called up to baptize someone in some Protestant denomination, and of course I was thinking (a) what baptismal ritual do these people use and (b) since I am a Pagan, will it be “valid”?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part One here. Arguments about “cultural appropriation” are usually dishonest. Although they often take place in venues devoted to religion, spirituality, and magic, they are not about religion, spirituality, or magic. Instead, they are political arguments about cultural survival, usually taking the form, “We\/You took everything from them\/us, and now we\/you want to take their\/our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-1221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-american-religion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-jH","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1121,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1121","url_meta":{"origin":1221,"position":0},"title":"Handbook of Contemporary Paganism in Print","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"My contributor copy of the new Handbook of Contemporary Paganism from Brill arrived. (You can tell from the price that it is intended primarily for the institutional market.) Here is the table of contents:\"The Modern Magical Revival,\" Nevill Drury\"The Influence of Aleister Crowley on Gerald Gardner and the Early Witchcraft\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1219,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1219","url_meta":{"origin":1221,"position":1},"title":"Who Cares about ‘Cultural Appropriation’?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Some of the reaction in the Pagan blogosphere to the \"shamanic\" casualties in Sedona have trotted out that old horse named Cultural Appropriation.A couple of months ago, one of the Pagan lists in which I participate had a whole discussion of \"cultural appropriation.\" Cultural Appropriation was led by the halter\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chascli-20&l=as2&o=1&a=190571324X","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1259,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1259","url_meta":{"origin":1221,"position":2},"title":"Blog It and They Will Come. But Why?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Real search-engine queries that brought Web visitors to this blog:Is Depeche Mode synonymous with homosexuality? [I don't know; I missed the 80s.]Booty shaking videos of Muslim womenArvol Looking Horse fraud youtube [he is an American Indian activist on the \"cultural appropriation\" issue]make shinto priest hatfood placed in creek for religion[I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"blogging\"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=133","url_meta":{"origin":1221,"position":3},"title":"Estonian shamanism site With thanks\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 2, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Estonian shamanism site With thanks to the dashing Odious and Peculiar, a link to a site on Estonian shamanism created by Aado Lintrop. Most of the links are in English, some in Estonian. But Lintrop links to the dreaded Michael Harner's site. Quick, call the Culture Police! (No, not them;\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6828,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6828","url_meta":{"origin":1221,"position":4},"title":"OMG, Cultural Appropriation of Hallowe’en by Capitalists","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 31, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Actress Dorothy Lamour, a Hollywood star of the 1940s and early 1950s (who made a comeback in the 1970s.) She appeared in several movies set in the South Pacific and is often remembered for the publicity photos of herself wearing a sarong, making her the \"number 1 pinup girl of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Halloween\"","block_context":{"text":"Halloween","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=halloween"},"img":{"alt_text":"chesterfield-halloween","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/chesterfield-halloween.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6297,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6297","url_meta":{"origin":1221,"position":5},"title":"Cross-Cultural Collection on Popular Religion Includes Paganism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The edited collection Religion, Tradition and the Popular examines \"experiences of spirituality in combination with commercialization and expressive performative practices as well as everyday politics of identity. Based on innovative theoretical reflections, the essays take into consideration what the transcultural negotiation of religion, tradition and the popular signifies in different\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.transcript-verlag.de\/media\/image\/thumbnail\/9783837626131_720x720.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}