Your view on cultural borrowing?

Question

What do you think of the idea of borrowing cultural elements from other race, other country, etc? Why is it that some people stigmatize cultural borrowing, like Presley accused of stealing black music?

Answer 1

cultural borrowing is a good thing....its promotes diversity which inturn promotes understanding and the more we understand each other...the less we dwell on stereotypes,suspisions and ever war. Elvis did steal black music but the historical context is what blacks are bitter about...it was a time when white people degraded and dehumanized blacks and said they were inferior as a race but then stole their creativity and used it to jam out and feed their souls.....its sad but no one is complaining today about how the whole world has embraced hip hop...people rap in many different languages but it all started in brooklyn USA....you cant claim i'm inferior to you in every way and you're the master race and then steal my s***t. if however its a true desire to share and understand each other then there's no problem...

Answer 2

The more we mix our cultures and differences with each other the stronger we become.

Answer 3

It's almost inevitable where you have a meeting of cultures.  

The Roman empire, for example, was more or less a two-way system of exchanging and adopting cultural elements.  Fashion, food, jewelry and styles of warfare were traded among Romans and their subjects.  (For instance, at the beginning of the empire, the Romans had few archers and not much cavalry; in the later annexations, they came to rely heavily on horse archers from other nations.)

So people can argue for the "purity" of cultural traditions. But ever since humans began developing tribes and traveling, there's been an exchange of ideas and traits.

Answer 4

I think It is called "transculturation". Google it. I don't think the Presley accusation matters much as an example of the larger Q you asked.  It could be racist or merely factual depending on the context of an interpretation. It is not possible to state whether or not a particular situation or example like that means anything anthropologically. Borrowing from another culture begins on contact and with the sexual and social interaction between members of the different cultures. see the term.

sidenote: I like to see a person who asks interesting Q's like yours. I saw that you have quite alot of Q's under your belt when I went to your homepage.

Answer 5

to answer your question about Elvis, it's because European society tried to act like he didn't "borrow" his style from Africans. it is not as much a problem if the borrower acknowledges his borrowing ways. another thing that makes it bad is when either the culture or the element is denigrated prior to extensive borrowing. although this has happened often in European history, it seems to go unmentioned in many cases. this is rather offensive to people who originally embraced the culture or element. hip hop music is another great example of such borrowing. look at all the commercials that make use of some aspect of this "fad" from the "hood" of the late '70's & early 80's. no one really likes a hypocrite...

borrowing is okay when the original culture is openly and appropriately recognized.

think cultural plagarism...

Answer 6

Uhn, i think that saying you cant is only creating segregation. Culture should be shared.