james_nicoll

Your IQ may drop by reading it so here's a guard:



Is it possible to commit cultural appropriation against one's own ancestors?

The chain of thought that led to this:

Someone expressed a desire online for white people to stick to their own gods. I immediately thought "hard to do in practice, because most of the indigenous religions in Europe got utterly crushed by an import from the Middle East, which has been then adapted by the locals to suit their needs". Then I thought about attempts to revive some of those dead religions, attempts that have not always been as thoroughly researched as they could have been and whose products perhaps would appear not entirely authentic to people from the cultures that originally came practiced those religions. That looks to me like this bit from wikipedia:

Cultural appropriation is the adoption of some specific elements of one culture by a different cultural group. It denotes acculturation or assimilation, but often connotes a negative view towards acculturation from a minority culture by a dominant culture. It can include the introduction of forms of dress or personal adornment, music and art, religion, language, or social behavior. These elements, once removed from their indigenous cultural contexts, may take on meanings that are significantly divergent from, or merely less nuanced than, those they originally held.

Particularly that last sentence. I mean, imagine the Druids of old meeting some bunnies'n'light modern pagans who call themselves Druids. I think at the very minimum harsh words would be exchanged. On the other hand, it's completely impossible for them to meet and that probably makes the difference. I don't think "extinct" falls within the set of "minority". Therefore I'd lean towards "no, not in a meaningful sense of the term."