All cultures steal
Culture has been appropriated, adapted, and transformed without any need for permission, as it should be. Open societies don’t ask for permission.
Concerns around cultural appropriation risk missing the point of that. The idea we should keep cultures to their own unless explicit permission is granted by someone conflicts with the idea of multiculturalism, which is paradoxically a considerable part of the Western cultural identity.
Let us remember that countless traditions presently marked were appropriated in some form or another. That’s how we got the once-Pagan festival that is Christmas in its modern form, now celebrated worldwide by Christians as well as non-Christians, all of whom cherish its message of goodwill.
Tea is quaint example. Invented in Asia, it was exported to Europe where it was tinkered with and milk was added. Served with milk, it is now a quintessential part of British culture, whereas without milk, it remains popular in China and elsewhere in Asia. In present-day Hong Kong, it is served both with and without milk.
All because of a practice that might crudely be called theft. That is not what we should call it when people take what others have made and make it into something else.
If something is in poor taste, the best one can do is not partake in it or, if it is so severe, to express opposition to it. Certainly, however, this does not require condemnation of the principle of cultures mixing without any need for permission to be granted. Regardless, there is no entity to grant permission. There’s only people deciding what to partake in for themselves.
For the reason that each person can partake in and promote whatever they desire, the intermixing of cultures and the preservation of cultural practices in their most traditional forms are not mutually exclusive acts.
The argument can be made that the intermixing of cultures or aspects of them causes their loss. If they’re close to extinction, however, perhaps only mixing can save them. Take the American Indians. Though Hollywood got plenty wrong about their culture, it served to make them world famous. Sometimes, it’s a choice between a culture dying or intermixing with other cultures.
Of course, if something is in poor taste, that’s a different matter.
