scholarly journals The Citadel of Jerusalem: A Case Study in the Cultural Appropriation of Archaeology in Palestine

Present Pasts ◽  
10.5334/pp.25 ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahmoud Hawari
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Appropriation

Decolonial Information Practices: Repatriating and Stewarding the Popol Vuh Online

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 107-119
Author(s):  
Pamela Espinosa de los Monteros
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Digital Library ◽  
Knowledge Society ◽  
Knowledge Work ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
Digital Environment ◽  
Popol Vuh

AbstractThe digitization and online dissemination of the Popol Vuh, a historical indigenous knowledge work, poses distinct ethical, legal, intellectual, and technological concerns for humanities researchers and information practitioners seeking to study and digitally curate works through a decolonized consciousness. Ongoing debates on data sovereignty, the repatriation of cultural artifacts, and cultural appropriation question the ability of researchers and information practitioners to effectively steward indigenous knowledge works in a digital environment. While consensus on best practices for the postcolonial digital library or archive remain to be established, information inequity continues to persist, effacing indigenous knowledge, languages, and content from the knowledge society. The following case study will discuss the results of a 10-year multi-institutional initiative to curate, repatriate, and steward the reproduction of an indigenous knowledge work online. From the vantage point of the library, the case study will explore the project’s successes, failures, and the work left to be done.

scholarly journals ‘Gaijin Mangaka’: The boundary-violating impulse of Japanized “art comics”

2019 ◽  
pp. 3-26
Author(s):  
Ana Matilde de Sousa
Keyword(s):  
Coming Of Age ◽  
Pop Culture ◽  
First Century ◽  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
Visual Artists ◽  
Culture Industries ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Graphic Narratives ◽  
Negative Identity

This paper investigates the artistic strategies of Japanised visual artists by examining the emerging movement of manga-influenced international “art comics”—an umbrella term for avant-garde/experimental graphic narratives. As a case study, I take the special issue of the anthology š! #25 ‘Gaijin Mangaka’ (July 2016), published by Latvian comics publisher kuš! and co-edited by Berliac, an Argentinian neo-gekiga comics artist. I begin by analysing four contributions in ‘Gaijin Mangaka’ to exemplify the diversity of approaches in the book, influenced by a variety of manga genres like gekiga, shōjo, and josei manga. This analysis serves as a primer for a more general discussion regarding the Japanisation of twenty-first-century art, resulting from the coming of age of millennials who grew up consuming pop culture “made in Japan”. I address the issue of cultural appropriation regarding Japanised art, which comes up even on the margins of hegemonic culture industries, as well as Berliac’s view of ‘Gaijin Mangaka’ as a transcultural phenomenon. I also insert ‘Gaijin Mangaka’ within a broader contemporary tendency for using “mangaesque” elements in Western “high art”, starting with Pierre Huyghe and Philippe Parreno’s No Ghost Just a Shell. The fact that the link to Japanese pop culture in ‘Gaijin Mangaka’ and other Japanised “art comics” is often more residual, cryptic, and less programmatic than some other cases of global manga articulates a sense of internalised foreignness, embedding their stylistic struggles in an arena of clashing definitions of “high” and “low,” “modern,” “postmodern”, and “non-modern”, subcultures and negative identity.

scholarly journals Becoming-Black: Patterns and Politics of West-German ‘Afro-Americanophilia’ in the Late 1960s

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Moritz Ege
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
American Culture ◽  
Political Action ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Pop Culture ◽  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
Race And Racism ◽  
African American Culture ◽  
Soul Music

In the late 1960s, African American culture and politics provided ‘lines of flight’ (Deleuze and Guattari) from outdated modes of subjectivity for many ‘white’ Germans; appropriating culture politics, and experimenting with forms of symbolically ‘becoming black’ represented a major cultural theme of the time. These tendencies resonated with: radical, anti-imperialist politics; countercultural sensibilities, where African American culture provided a radically contemporary critique of European modernity; the racialized, erotically charged logics of primitivism and romanticism in which ‘the repressed’ was to be brought back to the surface; and with a consumer-based economy and pop culture that supported the incorporation, domestication and aestheticisation of difference, desire and conflict.  This article sketches the patterns, forms and politics of the cultural theme of Afro-Americanophilia in Germany at the time, stressing the links between politics and corporeality.  In doing so, it illustrates that questions of race and racism were crucial for the 1968 conjuncture in Germany and it critically reviews the assumptions and implications of a specific form of hedonistic anti-racism in which ‘white’ European protagonists claimed ‘chains of equivalence’ (Laclau and Mouffe) between their position and that of people oppressed by racism and white supremacy.  Two case studies illustrate different forms and common patterns.  The first concerns a West Berlin network of radical-left groups that called itself ‘The Blues’ and combined militant political action (partly modelled on the activities of the Black Panther Party, according to some of its participants) with a countercultural sensibility. This included a felt connection to African American culture and stylistic practices. The second case study reviews the reception of soul music in the German music press and in countercultural circles, contrasting different readings of the supposedly ‘authentic.’  Overall, the article reconstructs practices of Afro-Americanophilia as ambiguous phenomena that foreshadow later forms of fetishistic cultural appropriation, but where, in some cases, the selective, erotically charged exoticism also led to tangible solidarity and strong connections. 

scholarly journals Māori Intellectual Property Rights and the Formation of Ethnic Boundaries

2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toon van Meijl
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Intellectual Property Rights ◽  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
Native Flora ◽  
Ethnic Boundaries ◽  
Waitangi Tribunal

AbstractThis article questions and contextualizes the emergence of a discourse of intellectual property rights in Māori society. It is argued that Māori claims regarding intellectual property function primarily to demarcate ethnic boundaries between Māori and non-Māori. Māori consider the reinforcement of ethnic boundaries necessary since they experience their society and distinctive way of life as endangered both by the foreign consumption or misappropriation of aspects of their authentic cultural forms and by the intrusion of foreign cultural elements. Following Simon Harrison (1999) it is argued that the first threat is often represented as an undesired form of cultural appropriation, piracy or theft, while the second threat is viewed as a form of cultural pollution. This argument is elaborated with a case-study of each so-called danger, namely a claim regarding native flora and fauna submitted to the Waitangi Tribunal, which is considered as an example of resistance against cultural appropriation, and the increasing hostility of Māori to foreign interest and research in Māori culture and society, which is analysed as an example of opposition to putative pollution.

scholarly journals Transnational resistance or cultural exotica? : interrogating the multicultural accommodation of the Kufiya

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nashwa Salem
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationships ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
Political Practice ◽  
Transnational Identities ◽  
Cultural Productions

The paper focuses on the incorporation of kufiya in Canada as a case study to argue that the coded aesthetics of dress is a salient non-verbal political signifier that marks transnational identities of resistance. However, its resistive communication is ruptured and dehistoricized by its incorporation into the hegemonic zone of multicultural Canada. Paradoxically, multiculturalism's disembodied production of the kufiya is further appropriated and commodified by mainstream countercultures as exotic chic through an Orientalist frame. The paper analyzes the cultural appropriation of the kufiya as a political practice whereby it concurrently operates within and naturalizes unequal power and social relationships. The processes that enable dominant groups to access, possess and (re)define cultural productions of marginal social groups are interrogated. This examination is extended to assessing the implications cultural appropriation has on the kufiya as well as appropriated communities of resistance.

Kicking the Crusaders out of the Caucasus: Deconstructing the 200-Year-Old Meme that the Khevsurs Descended from a Lost Band of Medieval Knights

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Ryan Michael Sherman
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
Tourist Destination ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
Early 19Th Century ◽  
Internet Discussion ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Newspaper Articles

Abstract The region of Khevsureti in Georgia is the historic home of a group of Kartvelian highlanders known as Khevsurs. As Khevsureti’s popularity as a mountain tourist destination has grown, so too has the popularity of an old story that asserts the Khevsurs are the descendants of a lost band of Crusaders. For 200 years, this meme has manifested itself in books about the region, newspaper articles, the work of a few scholars, and now much Internet discussion. The growing collection of cases has created the illusion of an unconsolidated quantity of evidence and many commentators have since taken the story to be a credible theory or actual legend. A systematic deconstruction and analysis of this story shows how this set of details initially formed, grew, and spread based on a few unreliable accounts in circulation beginning in the early 19th century. This article offers a case study of how such memes form and propagate; it provides an additional example of a Western tendency to romanticize and project elements of their own ethnicities into the Caucasus; and it examines this false history in terms of cultural appropriation and the relationship between ethnicity and narrative, adding to the literature on invented histories and pseudoarchaeology. Finally, this careful deconstruction and repudiation will help remove this story from serious discussions of cultural heritage in Khevsureti and show how historical memes and popular examples of pseudoarcheology spread and capture imaginations.

scholarly journals How the Waltz was Won: Transmutations and the Acquisition of Style in Early English Modern Ballroom Dancing. Part Two: The Waltz Regained

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 138-172
Author(s):  
Theresa Jill Buckland
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
World War ◽  
World War One ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
Ballroom Dancing ◽  
Social Dancing ◽  
Agents Of Change ◽  
Early English

Part One of this study on the transmutation of the Victorian waltz into the modern English waltz of the early 1920s examined the labile social and choreographic climate of social dancing in London's fashionable ballrooms before, during and just after World War One. The article ended with the teachers’ unsatisfactory effort to characterise the features of a distinctively modern waltz style in response to a widespread discourse to recover and adapt the dance for the contemporary English ballroom. Part Two investigates the role of club and national competitions and exhibition dancers in changing and stabilising a waltz form and style that integrated preferred aspects of both old and new techniques, as advocated by leading waltz advocate and judge, Philip Richardson. This article brings into critical focus not only choreographic contributions by Victor Silvester and Josephine Bradley but also those of models such as Maurice Mouvet, G. K. Anderson, Georges Fontana, and Marjorie Moss whose direct influence in England outweighed that of the more famous American couple Irene and Vernon Castle. The dance backgrounds, training and inter-connections of these individuals are examined in identifying choreological and aesthetic continuities that relate to prevalent and inter-related notions of style, Englishness, art and modernity as expressed through the dancing. Taken as a whole, the two parts provide a case study of innovative shifts in popular dancing and meaning that are led through imitation and improvisation by practitioners principally from the middle class. The study also contributes to dance scholarship on cultural appropriation through concentrating on an unusual example of competition in dance being used to promote simplicity rather than virtuosity. In conclusion, greater understanding of creativity and transmission in popular social dancing may arise from identifying and interrogating the practice of agents of change and their relationships within and across their choreographic and socio-cultural contexts.

scholarly journals TIKTOK’S ‘FOX EYE’ TREND AND EVERYDAY ACTIVISM: GEN Z AGENCY IN AN AUDIOVISUAL NARRATIVE CASE STUDY

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinyu Andy Zhao ◽  
Crystal Abidin
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
Digital Activism ◽  
Rhetorical Devices ◽  
Narrative Structures ◽  
Narrative Case Study ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Narrative Agency ◽  
Speak Up

This paper examines TikTok as an emerging activist space for Gen Z. It uses the ‘fox eye’ trend as a case study to illustrate how TikTok allows young people – Asian diasporic communities in particular – to create audiovisual narratives of personal experiences and stories to speak up against anti-Asian racism. Through a qualitative content analysis of 30 relevant TikTok posts, the paper argues for the platform’s distinct audiovisual features in enhancing users’ capacity for civic engagement. This paper generates three related findings. First, young Asian users have created TikTok videos featuring a variety of themes in relation to the fox eye trend. Some notable examples include historical popular representation of Asians, personal experiences of racism, impossible beauty standards, jokingly advocating for countertrends, among others. Collectively, these videos aim to emphasize the ‘problems’ associated with the trend – that is, it is racially insensitive and builds on cultural appropriation. The second finding suggests three main types of narratives constructed through the videos – historical, educational and affective. Each type is characterized by distinct narrative structures and strategies. Finally, the audiovisual functions of the platform in creating and amplifying the narratives. That is, the narratives on TikTok are powerful not only because of the rhetorical devices used, but also due to their audiovisual elements such as visual filters, audio memes, image and video compilations and non-verbal performance. Through these discussions of findings, we propose and explain the concept of ‘audiovisual narrative agency’ as an emerging lens to understand contemporary digital activism.

scholarly journals Transnational resistance or cultural exotica? : interrogating the multicultural accommodation of the Kufiya

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nashwa Salem
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationships ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
Political Practice ◽  
Transnational Identities ◽  
Cultural Productions

The paper focuses on the incorporation of kufiya in Canada as a case study to argue that the coded aesthetics of dress is a salient non-verbal political signifier that marks transnational identities of resistance. However, its resistive communication is ruptured and dehistoricized by its incorporation into the hegemonic zone of multicultural Canada. Paradoxically, multiculturalism's disembodied production of the kufiya is further appropriated and commodified by mainstream countercultures as exotic chic through an Orientalist frame. The paper analyzes the cultural appropriation of the kufiya as a political practice whereby it concurrently operates within and naturalizes unequal power and social relationships. The processes that enable dominant groups to access, possess and (re)define cultural productions of marginal social groups are interrogated. This examination is extended to assessing the implications cultural appropriation has on the kufiya as well as appropriated communities of resistance.

scholarly journals Intercultural Music in Media

Spectrum ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Vuong
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Influences ◽  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
Ideal Model ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Future Narratives ◽  
Intercultural Music ◽  
Live Action ◽  
Western Media

Through a case study on “The Legend of Korra” and “Reflection,” the representative musical pieces within Nickelodeon’s The Legend of Korra (henceforth Korra) (2012-2014) and Disney’s Mulan (1998) respectively, I examine how different cultural traditions are combined to create a piece of intercultural media. In particular, I explore how Orientalism has persisted in Western media through its superficial inclusion of other cultural traditions. Contrasting these strains of Orientalist thought, Korra especially stands out as an example of interculturalism through its music. This is primarily because it draws on the nuanced level of cohesion established between Korra’s narrative elements such as world building and plot, as well as its cultural influences. Consequently, I argue that Korra stands as an ideal model for how to incorporate both Western and non-Western elements in meaningful ways, and can serve to inform future narratives on the pressing issues of cultural appropriation and representation. With the recent release of the live-action remake of Disney’s Mulan, it is imperative to address the cultural shortcomings of modern Western media, and by what standard we should be judging when assessing its incorporation of other cultures.

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