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The White Hindu has moved! This blog is no longer updated, but Ambaa is still writing The White Hindu every weekday at Patheos.com.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

The Conversation on Cultural Appropriation

The conversation around cultural appropriation continues all around me. It isn't something that I want to just dismiss as irrelevant. I am confident in my choice to follow the culture that I feel at home with, but I also want to continue to refresh and renew my understanding and the understanding of the society around me about what the real implications of my choice are.

I was poking around on the Internet like I do and I found a discussion about Native American Shaminism. This discussion, actually, was less about the culture and practices themselves, and more about whether people who are not Native Americans could choose to incorporate aspects of it into their spiritual practice.

These discussions often come back to this idea of "white privilege." This is something that I know nothing about. I have never really studied sociology or anything like that. Sadly, not hearing about it doesn't make me not a part of it. Even though I don't feel any loyalty or connection to my literal ancestry or to my skin color, I am still automatically in a privileged position, according to what I've been reading.

I can't know what it is like to be not white. I have been in situations where I am the minority, but in most of my life, I am in the majority. If I do non-mainstream things, those are a choice. Because of my looks, I have the choice to fit in more than I do. People with other skin tones often face discrimination and prejudice and there is nothing they could do to change that (aside from educating the ignorant people who are discriminating against them, I guess).

What saddens me in this is that, as white people, we are expected to bear a lot of blame and guilt for the way our ancestors may have treated people (I have a hard time believing that my Irish ancestors were out there oppressing anyone!). I don't know if that is right or wrong.

I am going to paraphrase some of the points and ideas that were brought up in this discussion. There were some things that I haven't thought about before:

On Facebook, a group called Speaking of Faith posted a question: “What can we learn from Native American shamanism?” The poster on this forum said she was surprised by some of the reactions to that post, that went from "everything" to "leave it alone, it's not yours to experience."

She asked if involving oneself in another culture's spiritual practice is dishonoring or invading them in inappropriate ways.

Why, she asks, would it be bad to encourage people to experience cultures different from their own?


Here are the basic points that were brought up, on both sides of the issue:
-it's a fad
-we have a varied ethnic make up, why not draw from all of them?
-turning it into something it isn't
-white people expect to be able to do whatever they want and take whatever they want without consequence
-cherry picking religion (still plan to do a post on this based on Eat Pray Love)
-people whose ancestors tried to wipe our your religion are now practicing it
-white people erroneously seeing indigenous people as "pure"
-is it still the same religion if it is modified by people not totally understanding it practicing it or "making it their own"?

One person made the statement that it was up to the native members of that culture to choose whether or not to accept an outsider in their practices. I thought that was a grand idea, but impossible in practice. I pointed out that most religions do not have one central person who can declare who is in and who is out. This is what I wrote in response:

"One of the troubles with this is that there isn’t always one authority in a religion or culture. If you are welcomed by one spiritual community, but then someone else from another town sees you practicing her religion and is offended, what do you do? Do you say, 'Ask my priest (or whatever), I got permission from him'? Do you need to carry a signed statement around to say that someone culturally from this religion approved you?"

To which I have not had a response as of yet.

Whose approval is it that we need and why? I'm working now on the idea that I only need my own approval, but I don't want to be insensitive these issues, so I continue to learn about them.

Here are some paraphrased responses to the post on Shaminism:

This seems similar to Messianic Judaism, which combines Judaism and Christianity in a way that offends many Jews. They feel that their religion is being co-opted and turned into something it is not, combining the sacred with something they find profane.

In terms of Native American stuff, I have some Native American heritage as well as a lot of European. I wonder if we need to just be aware and careful when taking these things on. That's why I was reluctant to jump into Celtic paganism because I wanted to make sure it was my path and not just me following a fad. I didn't want my interest to fade and to move onto something else, but now that I'm following that path, I'm trying to be respectful and sit back and learn instead of acting like I'm an expert. And it's frustrating when you've been doing something and it suddenly becomes "cool."

***
I see a couple of things going on with Native American religious practices. First is the history. White people perpetrated cultural genocide against Native Americans and it must be hard to see your religious practices adopted by people who don't look at the realities of that history on a daily basis. There is also systemic racism in this country and it must be hard to see your practices adopted by people who seem unaware of the unearned privilege that their race gives them. People whose ancestors worked hard to eradicate your culture can now choose to practice it without any negative consequences.

***
Cafeteria spiritualism that takes just the convenient bits of practices around the world really bothers me.

*****
Involving oneself in another culture's spiritual practice can be dishonoring or invading. There are churches that do not welcome everyone to communion. Non-Mormons are not allowed in certain parts of Mormon sanctuaries. I would not expect to be invited to a friend's celebrations of Passover. If it is not ok for me to walk into a Catholic monastery and explore, why should it be ok for me to go to other sacred places like a sweat lodge? Why do Westeners think they can barge right into practices that are "indigenous" and "close to the earth" without asking?

I see a lot of racial distinctions in what traditions are considered fair game to adapt. Partly this is because of the misguided idea of indigenous people as pure and unsullied by everything that is wrong with Western culture. The avoids the nuances and subtleties of a challenging situation and is naive.

***
The way people are talking about it, no one outside the culture has a right to even study it, let alone take it on. If there is a non-indigenous person who really is seeking to learn about it and is respectful, why would that not be allowed?


******
Certainly barding into someone's sacred space and expecting a welcome is a problem and the people who operate that space have the right to decide who is allowed, what if the people are setting up their own versions of something sacred from that culture in their own space? Like if a UU church is teaching kids about dream catchers. Is it inappropriate appropraition from the children to make dream catchers at their church?


******
A comment on the cafeteria spirituality. This idea that picking and choosing from different traditions is wrong is a Western prejudice and not shared by all cultures. For example, in Japan rituals from Shinto, Christian, and Buddhist traditions are often used throughout a person's life. There's nothing wrong with that unless you adhere to the Western dualism that says you ahve to be this or that, not something in between. We in the West can be very rigid in our thinking, particularly when it comes to spirituality.


****
Some people say that you should worship in the religion that is most predominate in your own culture because you are born into that culture to learn something specific within that framework. To go outside of the culture you're born into is disrespectful to the gods. I thought it was an interesting concept, though I don't agree with it.

*****
I was on vacation recently and was looking at Native American jewelry. I avoid purchasing jewelry that has symbolic Native American designs just like I avoid wearing African styles of clothes, even though I think the fabrics are really beautiful. It feels as if I am taking something that isn't mine. I asked the woman I was buying jewelry from about this and she looked at me like she had never thought of it like that. I am protective of symbols. If a non-Jew put up a mezzuzah [a container for a sacred scroll that Jews attach to the sides of their front doors], I woudl feel infringed on, like if you are not willing to take on the commitment, why are you taking the symbol. I feel that way also about people I know are not Christian who wear crosses because they are in style.


******
It's true about the messianic Judaism. I looked at their source texts against the original Hebrew and not one verse means what they say it means. At some point you have to say, this is not Judaism. Dressing like a Jew and sprinkling in some Hebrew is not the equivalent of being Jewish.

****
And lastly, an interesting article written by a young woman who is both Black and Jewish (and born Jewish, not a convert) and her feelings of being not welcomed by Judaism:
http://www.racialicious.com/2010/09/07/off-and-running-toward-my-own-identity-racialigious/

15 comments:

  1. "They feel that their religion is being co-opted and turned into something it is not, combining the sacred with something they find profane."
    I feel the exact same way about Indian Agnostics and Atheists. They use their Hindu ethnicity to misrepresent our faith as some uber-liberal-anything-goes-not-really-a-religion thing. I think bringing Gods/Saints/Prophets from other religions is part of this need for validation. They don't really care about actual Hinduism because it doesn't offer them anything.

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  2. That's interesting, Satish. Hinduism spans so many beliefs, it does seem that atheism is a possible part of it, which is kind of odd.

    Judaism has the same issue, where there are people who are culturally and ethnically Jewish, but don't believe in God.

    When a religion's label covers so many extremely different beliefs, that's when people start arguing over who has it right.

    Very interesting stuff indeed...

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  3. Aamba,

    I mean this with the up most respect... but are you over thinking things, making them more difficult than they really are? You speak of this internal struggle to reconcile the two cultures but as you state you grew up with it.

    I just find it odd you need to rationalise something that doesn't need to be rationalised. Try looking at things for face value. Sometimes the simple answer is the best. When I attended uni for Archaeology my lecturer wanted us to all read "Motel of the Mysteries" which really put things into perspective as everything we dig up may have a simpler explanation.

    Perhaps this is the most simple way of looking at it, at least from my perspective, which is all we really have right? Perception of illusion :)

    You Aamba are who you are, nothing more and nothing less, you are a Hindu in the western world. No reason to cherry pick or try to rationalize. Be who you are :)

    K

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  4. It seems to me that in a way religion is individual. The Himalayan Academy make a point that Hinduism is not congregational in the sense that Christianity is. Even in a community event, the main focus is on you and God, and the expanding series of groups (family, community, mampara, sampradaya, sect, religion, humanity) are there to enhance and facilitate this. My experience of Hinduism as a Westerner is different from that of yours as a Westerner, and of Westerners of Indian origin, and of Indians. I don't think that matters. One thing we as Westerners can forget is that even Hindus born in India can feel different at times.

    There is a retired doctor who frequently talks to me at our local Mandir. He told me that he enjoyed having me to talk to because both of us spoke English much better than Hindi. He is Bengali, and speaks impeccable English but never formally learned Hindi. The community around our Mandir are mostly native Hindi speakers from Punjab (some are Punjabi speakers who grew up with Hindi as a widely used second language).

    This is a bit of a meandering response, I am thinking as I write,m but the point is that I don't think it matters if our experience of Hinduism is different to someone elses, the core concepts and beliefs are strong enough to stand that. A religion that has survived from the bronze age (or earlier) to present day will have spanned greater cultural divides than those between East and West at present.

    Aum Shivaya

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  5. Thanks, K! I figure that my over analyzing comes with being a girl! :)

    I'm not as worried about it now as I once was, but sometimes people say things to me about how I'm being offensive or wrong and so I want to explain and understand.

    I hope in this blog to represent some different points of view and I want to acknowledge these ideas, even though at this point I'm already dead set on continuing to do what I do!

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  6. Good point, Tandava. Each one of us has our own individual religion and understanding that isn't like anyone else's!

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  7. @Aamba
    I probably used the wrong word in atheist or agnostic. Just to clarify I did not deny the theological diversity within Hinduism nor did I intend to be hostile towards their points of view. I regret if it came off that way.

    Let me try again:
    There are some people who define Hindu to be born one but do little else. Ethnic Jewish people usually call themselves "non-practising" in this case but ethnic Hindus seem to twist and mould the religion itself to define themselves as "practising". I don't have a problem with this either. But then they go further in that they present their perspective as all there is to being Hindu and everything else is dismissed as baggage.
    Respect and recognition should work both ways. Incidentally with this weaker definition they include many things, which I would not consider to be Hindu, like figures from other faiths. I don't consider Hinduism to be an infinite rubber band with room for everything under the sun.

    I hope it doesn't sound like an overreaction to you, but some of my friends are like that.

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  8. I see what you mean, Satish. There is a problem with people expecting you to be respectful of their viewpoint, but then refusing to be respectful of yours!

    There are those who say that the ritual and tradition in Hinduism is a burden to it and should be gotten rid of, instead of respecting that those traditions are helpful to some people and an important part of their spiritual life.

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  9. @satish
    I agree with you. I hate it when people say well Christ & Krishna said the same things & Jesus is an avatar(there are some psychos that do say that).It feels so disgusting. We should acknowledge that their are different religions and each is unique and deserves respect, but to link up like this is just outrageous.
    Atheism has and will be a part of Hinduism and I don't think that a few atheists bashing is going to affect the masses. In fact constructive criticism may be beneficial.They may encourage people to actually read the vedas for once.!!!!!
    I believe that Hinduism IS all about personalizing your relation to god and hence very Appropriative, but then it just may be my appropriation.

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  10. There's an new book out that I'm very interested to read called "God is not One." It's about that very subject, how we need to acknowledge the differences between the major world religions and see that they are guiding people in very different ways. I haven't read it yet, but it sounds really fascinating.

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  11. First of all Nice Post...You have to realize Religion/Sprituality is basically your relationship with The Almighty/Ultimate Divinity .Spirituality is when you continue/maintain that relationship alone and religion is when you maintain that relationship out in the open with other people...Am I right? Two basic flaws in potrayal of Hinduism,Judaism or to some extent Islam(I will come to that in a moment) is that they are projected as national or ethnic in character...Judaism is seen as the religion of a certain/nationality even though a huge chunk of that ethnicity/nationality/cultural maynot adhere to its religious precepts and doctrines at all....Hinduism has failed to shed the tag of "Indian spirituality" and become one of the main strands of global thought strands...This may have aided the cause of Hindu revivalism/national vitality in India but has severely limited the appeal of true Hinduism outside of India...You may be surprised why I have included an out and out missionary religion of Islam in the mix...precisely because the nature it has taken over in the subcontinent...In India, Pakistan, Bangladesh it is more important for a Muslim to assert whether they can trace their roots back to the invading armies from Central Asia,Afghanistan,Iran, Arabia rather than whther they are followers of Mohammed#s teching...Almost all Muslims in Pakistan(especially the richer ones) would like to believe that they are descendants of invading armies rather than local converts from Hinduism and Buddhism..This is important as precisely this reason led to the genocide of Bengali Muslims (as well as Hindus--in all total 3 Million and 300,00 Bengali women raped) at the hands of Pakistani army..Since it was well known Bengali Muslims(beng cutoff from Muslim contiguity that stretches from Morocco till Pakistan) were basically converts from Hindus they were never treated as "real" Muslims (read: martial Muslims) by the Pakistani Army which led to their widespread massacre...

    Well I digressed a lot coming back more to your theme...I myself was a born non-spiritual Hindu..A few years back I discovered Christ and was convinced of the Truth..This happened without the outside influence of any missionaries whatsoever..As I started to go more and more to churches and visibly came out in the open with my belief I was mocked and ridiculed to the point of me almost giving up on my faith...But because of certain things that happened in my life I always new what was the truth and slowly reactivated my spirituality after roaming around a couple of years as an agnostic..This time around I am extremely careful of sharing my faith with people who will not be baffled by it....Almost nobody around me knows I am a Christian (I changed cities after that as I had to goto study at a different place) and although I would like to have Bible study and communion with other Christians and goto Church every Sunday I donot consciously do that to postpone my dicovery among my friends and family after I become a rocksolid natural fit in Christ..Is that hard? Yes Do I miss out on a lot of Christian life? Of course How do I carry on? By inculcating a lot more discipline with God's help than an average Christian who might have been born into a Christian family or at least in a culture where Christianity is the dominant religion

    Maybe your experience as a "white" Hindu is also the same May be we can exchange "survival tactics" from eacother..anyways Best of Luck and Goodbye-Shaswata

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  12. First of all Nice Post...You have to realize Religion/Sprituality is basically your relationship with The Almighty/Ultimate Divinity .Spirituality is when you continue/maintain that relationship alone and religion is when you maintain that relationship out in the open with other people...Am I right? Two basic flaws in potrayal of Hinduism,Judaism or to some extent Islam(I will come to that in a moment) is that they are projected as national or ethnic in character...Judaism is seen as the religion of a certain/nationality even though a huge chunk of that ethnicity/nationality/cultural maynot adhere to its religious precepts and doctrines at all....Hinduism has failed to shed the tag of "Indian spirituality" and become one of the main strands of global thought strands...This may have aided the cause of Hindu revivalism/national vitality in India but has severely limited the appeal of true Hinduism outside of India...You may be surprised why I have included an out and out missionary religion of Islam in the mix...precisely because the nature it has taken over in the subcontinent...In India, Pakistan, Bangladesh it is more important for a Muslim to assert whether they can trace their roots back to the invading armies from Central Asia,Afghanistan,Iran, Arabia rather than whther they are followers of Mohammed#s teching...Almost all Muslims in Pakistan(especially the richer ones) would like to believe that they are descendants of invading armies rather than local converts from Hinduism and Buddhism..This is important as precisely this reason led to the genocide of Bengali Muslims (as well as Hindus--in all total 3 Million and 300,00 Bengali women raped) at the hands of Pakistani army..Since it was well known Bengali Muslims(beng cutoff from Muslim contiguity that stretches from Morocco till Pakistan) were basically converts from Hindus they were never treated as "real" Muslims (read: martial Muslims) by the Pakistani Army which led to their widespread massacre...

    Second part to follow (Shaswata Panja)

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  13. Ambaa,
    Why call yourself a "white" Hindu? Why is skin color so important as a means of identifying yourself? Sanatana Dharma is about unity, not separateness. Its not about the externalization of God, but the recognition of universal and internalized divinity. Its great that you want to identify yourself as a "Hindu" (whatever that means), but please do not insult our core religious beliefs by bringing confused notions of race and skin color into the mix.

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  14. Well, Svaha, the reason I named the blog White Hindu is because at the time I felt that it was my skin color that was keeping me from being accepted as fully Hindu. It was extremely frustrating to me, so this was a way of taking back that word, taking control over how people see me.

    However, in the year since I've kept the blog, I have become more and more entrenched in Hinduism and have found the acceptance I was looking for. I now rarely feel kept back and taken less seriously because of my skin color, though it does still sometimes happen.

    The other reason to put race into it is that this is not a blog about the definition of Hinduism, it is a blog about the intersection of culture and religion and ethnicity. That is the issue I am interested in exploring.

    How are religion and ethnicity related? How do people perceive them? How does one move into a religion that was not given to him or her by ethnicity?

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  15. Thank you for sharing your story and thoughts, Shaswata Panja.

    I really like this way of looking:

    "Spirituality is when you continue/maintain that relationship alone and religion is when you maintain that relationship out in the open with other people."

    I'm sorry that being a Christian has been so challenging for you. I don't understand why people ridicule other people's spiritual choices. It seems so strange to me! Whatever works for you is great.

    Good luck as you continue on your journey!

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