Cultural appropriation: homage or theft?

Saturday 22 October, 10.00 - 11.30 , Conservatory Culture Wars

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From rows over repatriating artefacts in Western museum collections to controversies over alleged ‘cultural appropriation’ at college parties and music festivals of garb such as sombreros and native American headdresses, the argument over who owns culture has become louder of late. There are growing demands for Western cultural institutions to repatriate art and artefacts that ended up in museums during the colonial era, to their countries of origin. There have long been demands for the repatriation of artefacts such as the Elgin marbles which were taken in dubious circumstances or the Benin bronzes which were carried off as war booty, but demands have now widened to calls for the return of pieces which were given as gifts such as the Nefertiti Bust in Berlin’s Neues Museum, or bought such as the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus at the British Museum. Should museums acquiesce to these demands or would that undermine their universalist mission as repositories of world history? Some argue such artifacts belong to all of humanity and not just those in the geographical area where they were created, but is this just a convenient excuse for holding onto cultural booty?

And while Minstrel performers in blackface have long been considered beyond the pale in entertainment, recently the scope of what is considered offensive mimicry of other cultures has grown wider. Ire is directed at the fashion choices of popstars, such as Justin Bieber for sporting dreadlocks and Beyoncé for wearing a sari and henna tattoos. Meanwhile yoga classes at the University of Ottawa in Canada were cancelled late last year after they were accused of perpetuating ‘oppression, cultural genocide … colonialism and western supremacy’ over Indian culture.  While the Museum of Fine Arts Boston was branded ‘racist and imperialist’ and sparked protests when it allowed visitors to try on replicas of 19th century Japanese kimonos. A welcome new sensitivity to cultural difference, or political correctness gone mad?

More generally, are assertions of cultural ownership of certain practices, dress and historical artefacts a way of addressing historical wrongs perpetrated by the West on colonised peoples? Or do such demands seek to define us into neat cultural boxes whose borders can never be crossed and hence divide us move than bring us together?