If you put your right foot in, you'll step in it

Who knew the Hokey Pokey had "malevolent meaning" in the British isles? "Michael Matheson, a Nationalist member of the Scottish Parliament, also issued a warning about The Hokey Cokey (as it's called in England) in December: "It is important that the police and football clubs are aware of the sinister background to this song..." Read more in the Canada.com article,
Canada’s Hokey Pokey cause of England dust up .

More on cultural misappropriation

Steve Caldwell at Liberal Faith Development has more specific examples of cultural misappropriation to discuss, in the form of video clips of "plastic shamans", Native American reactions, and some study questions. This is a major phenomenon; if you go to a national park such as Mesa Verde, you'll quickly find that every third visitor believes themselves to be the reincarnation of Crazy Horse.

Every religion has their version of a "plastic shaman" selling distorted versions of their heritage to the gullible; Judaism has them selling Kabbalah to Hollywood celebrities; Wicca has Silver Ravenwolf, et al; Asian religions have New Age practitioners making such a hash of them that they now rival cheap hotdogs for filler. The seekers who make these people rich are not the problem; they meant to be respectful of those traditions- why else would they pay so much to learn how to do it right? (Or so they thought when they laid out the cash) The problem isn't even the frauds selling made up spirituality- when a vacuum exists, there will always be schlock ready to fill it.

The problem is that vacuum. It has long been noted that there is a god-shaped hole in the human heart that must be filled with something. (Yes, I know that some of you atheists detest that quote, but even if it isn't true of you personally, it's demonstrably true of the vast majority of mankind) Most people have that hole satisfactorily filled before they're even aware of it by the mainstream culture. Even in nations not known to be particularly religious, it's virtually impossible to avoid primer level education in the "acceptable" religions.

But what if none of those float your boat? Your soul is S.O.L.; there is no generally available education in alternative or world religions, in church or in school. (Yes, there is U.U.R.E., but only for children- and UUs are statistically insignificant) Most of those religions, from Wicca to Native Americans to Taoists and more, do not proselytize; there's no Jack Chick handing out tracts for them. The seeker must truly seek- and what will they find first? The ones who do proselytize- the plastic shamans, the fluffy bunnies, the playgans, the one who buy their way to the top of Google lists. The ones who can afford to advertise because of how much they charge; the ones who alter the faith to make it sell better, the ones who, in the final analysis, all worship the same god: Mammon.

So what can we do about it? Actually do, I mean, as opposed to merely adding new language to our principles and Purposes that few UUs- and certainly no one else- will read and understand? I have recommended before that we, as a nation wide program, publicly offer adult R.E. courses. Recognized ministers from well known churches will be trusted over self-taught gurus; good information will drive out bad.

We are uniquely situated to do this. It cannot be done in the public schools; adding more religion there will result in millions of people throwing up their hands, spinning in circles, and going "Eek!" It cannot be done in most mainstream churches; they only recognize a single path to truth. If any church on Earth could feel bringing spirituality to seekers in need, people who are painfully vulnerable to those who would take advantage of them, a calling, it would be us.

We won't do it, of course- we must spend every spare penny on new fax machines for the Washington Advocacy Office. But I can dream.

Rate the cultural misappropriation

There has been a lot of discussion lately about cultural misappropriation, sparked by new language in the proposed new Principles and Purposes. Much of the discussion has been largely theoretical; the only examples given were a few songs, and several of those didn't even originate in the culture now complaining of misappropriation. Here is an example tailor made for this discussion- a Pagan Seder . This is a perfect case to examine because the link provides the complete text, music, foods served, venue, and biography of the author.

Is this:

Perfectly ok, because he mentions that the original is a Jewish custom.

While not the worst ever, he stills falls short by not providing a lecture or handout explaining the context of the original customs, why they are still observed, and how his situation relates. In fact, it wouldn't have hurt to have invited a rabbi to speak.

An abomination- he mixes music and foods and questionable history and rituals willy-nilly, and some of the music even has multiple levels of misappropriation even before he misused it for his ritual.

I don't know from misappropriation- he served venison; he's a Bambi-killing barbarian!
How do you rate it?

I felt a sense of deja vu reading the blog discussions of cultural misappropriation,

and I've finally realized why; I'd heard the same arguments from one of my brothers:

He: It's not their ritual; they have no right to it. It can't possibly have the same meaning for them.

Me: They draw their own meaning from it. And anyway, what skin is it off your nose? It doesn't affect your use of it.

He: But it does! It distorts the whole concept, makes it meaningless!

The only difference is that my brother was referring to gay marriage.

My thoughts on "cultural misappropriation"

Many bloggers have written about this, but my thoughts were sparked by Kim Hampton , who wrote about it passionately, and CC , who wrote more pensively.

A creative writing teacher once told me that the more intensely personal my story was, the more universal it would be. CC demonstrates that principle with an anecdote about a black friend who was offended by a white man singing "Old Man River". "But at the same time, I knew how deeply the words "Tired of living and scared of dying" resonated with me, and the idea that no matter what, the river just kept rolling along." Actually, it was doubly demonstrated- the lyrics resonated so well with her black friend that he was unaware it was actually written by a white man. Interestingly enough, the same phenomenon was brought up by Rev. Fred L Hammond , who spoke of the song "This Little Light of Mine"; "The original composers sung it in defiance of the slavery and the cruelty they faced by their task masters. No amount of abusive infliction of pain and suffering was going to take away from them their integrity and dignity as humans. “This Little Light of Mine” no longer sounds like a cutesy children’s song, does it?" But in a postscript, he adds, "I just read in Wikipedia that “This Little Light of Mine” while long considered to be an African American Spiritual, it is in fact not. It was written in the 1920’s by Harry Dixon Loes. It was however ‘appropriated’ as an anthem of the civil rights movement in the 1950’s and 1960’s, so my point above is still valid in more ways than one."

If words are true, does it matter if they were first spoken by Aristotle, Rabbi Hillel, or Langston Hughes? No culture is so pure that it was not influenced by all cultures that came before, and surround it today. Wiccans know full well that their practices are an amalgam of folk culture and bits taken from the Freemasons and the Golden Dawn, others. All Christian practices are taken from those who came before- Jesus gave no instructions on how to perform a mass. There is nothing new under the sun- including that quote.

Cultures don't just spring into being; they evolve, just like bodies do. I have a vivid mental image of a Neanderthal telling a Cro-Magnon, "You can't sing that song- it's ours"... and an orangutan telling that Neanderthal, "You can't use handprints in your cave drawings- hands are our thing!" I understand why the cries of "cultural misappropriation"- it's the pride of possession. But excessive pride becomes a deadly sin, and most religions have warnings about becoming too deeply attached to possessions.

Merriam Webster online defines "misappropriation" as ": to appropriate wrongly (as by theft or embezzlement)" But misappropriation is a crime because it denies the original owner the possession and use of the thing stolen- "cultural misappropriation" does not do this. Words, truths, wisdoms, are the one class of possessions that can be taken without depriving the creator of it's use. When the civil Rights movement appropriated "This Little Light of Mine", they did not deprive anyone else of the meaning they drew from the song. If a UU congregation performs a Seder, or a Samhain ritual- with or without a dissertation on the origins and a FAQ on the back of the program- they have harmed no Jews or Wiccans in the process. It's hard enough to draw meaning from this confusing world even without someone saying "No, you can't have that symbol; it's mine." Writing a preemptive "Thou shalt not" into our PPs just on general principles is a burden we don't need.