Creative globalization or cultural thievery?

June 11, 2021

50 minutes ago, txomsy said:

If maori tattoos become in fashion, every Joe or Jane will want one. And very soon everybody will see it as "normal" in their given cultural moment.

I hope they will be as funny and telling as ‘Chinese’ character tattoos that supposedly spell out a person's not-Chinese name, or a word in English, etc. :headsmack: For sheer entertainment value, I'm kinda glad so many fools were not deterred by qualms about cultural (mis)appropriation from permanently marking themselves that way for everyone to see. :lticaptd:

I haven't heard of too many Chinese-reading Chinese folk being truly incensed by the questionable practice.

June 12, 2021

13 hours ago, MoriartyR said:

Ok, there is no such crime as cultural appropriation (though I still think I would look silly if I went out dressed as a Maasai warrior or a Samurai). Nevertheless, I think we must agree there are different conventions in different societies and these affect our tastes and norms.

If you dressed as a Samurai at an SCA event, people would say "Hey are you part of Yama-kaminari Household? And is the fertility festival at Pennsic happening this year?" (shrug). I've seen blonde samurai and African-American Vikings at events and nobody bats an eye as long as they're playing the SCA game, and making an attempt at being "in persona". Oh, and some guy who I think is from Ohio glued fake leopard fur to his armor and is known as "the Jaguar knight" -- because while New World, there was late-period contact the the Aztecs (I think he does Aztec) with Spain.

I did think the woman I saw one year at Pennsic dressed in ancient Egyptian was a little odd, but since she was, IIRC Queen of one of the other kingdoms at the time, I wasn't gonna argue....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

edited due to some sort of glitch which cut me off mid-sentence....

August 9, 2021

Idea's are nobody's monopoly, it is the processes that may be copyrighted.

The world has evolved into a cultural melting pot, nothing stops a Kenyan from developing a penchant for sushi or a Czech enjoying Cuban cigars or a Thai making Scotch his favorite poison.

Everybody is influenced in some way or the other by another culture/habit/style.

IMO, if the end result looks/feels right then it is a successful fusion irrespective of the borrowed cultural influences.

Interesting products are a result of successful fusions/influences.

Everybody is free to rummage through the 'cultural basket' and come up with their own interpretation/vision.

It is the end product and the care taken to carefully weave the different cultures, that ultimately define the success/failure of your thought process/idea.

Why single out Pelikan, Lamy too has jumped on the Urushi bandwagon with the Dialog 3 at almost $10K.