Does it exist? At what point does borrowing from a culture become stealing from it? Can we borrow from a culture without taking something away from it? Does culture even belong to any person or group of people?

Disgus.

um...

I don't really think you can steal culture. I don't think that two cultures can come into long-term contact with each other without borrowing from each other and being altered over time. I don't think that culture is particularly static...it is changing all the time.

I would call it cultural appropriation. And I think these are questions that have to be examined contextually and in terms of hierarchy. You can "borrow" from American culture without doing much damage, because it's dominant and wants to impose its way of being on others anyway. But I think use of indigenous agricultural and environmental knowledge is an example of very problematic cultural appropriation. It exists on the same continuum as colonialism, because you are effectively saying that the culture's only or most important purpose is to serve your more dominant culture.

I think that pretty much every time something is qualified as "exotic" a cultural appropriation is happening. Western culture objectifies cultural practices it doesn't understand, and puts them on display in order to simultaneously Other and appropriate. Think of every museum you've ever been to.

I second what Lawyer said. That's it.

I think it's intriguing how the United States have "forced" their culture in almost every country in the world. It's almost like all of us are americans. I have perfect understanding of American culture and I'm not american. It's weird. Lets discuss that.

Yeah, I definately agree with this - we call ideas exotic all the time, and use it as a way of making the Other, non-Self culture seem different and therefore lesser.

I think we do steal cultural ideas though - the way we use religious symbols or phrases as things like tattoos often offends people - we not only make it ours but make it tacky.

Sure... I mean, I think theft and appropriation are similar ideas. Except that what happens is not so much that we remove it wholesale, but that we objectify and degrade it's meaning by using it.

dreadlocks were originally jewish. the ethiopian jews passed them on through haile salase to the rastafarians. now how do i feel about seeing goyim wearing dreads? i couldn't give a shit really, smelly bastards.

i like the way the japanese have a word for annoying japanophiles.

what is it?

It looks like, from your screen name, that you have stolen your own bit of the American culture.

There are cultural aspects to where I live that do not fit the box titled "American cultural dominance". Support what cultural values you like.



"You are what you support"
~~carefulcarpenter

i can't remember it off the top of my head.
but i am glad it is there, nonetheless.

There's nothing wrong with borrowing from other cultures, as long as your own doesn't get lost in the process. From the way things are going Irish trad will be lost forever by 2100 and we'll all be shakin' our ghetto booty to Jay Z rappin' on a zimmer frame.

having spent a lot of time in america, i found that the american culture exported (or 'forced' in your words) upon us isn't actually anything like the real america.

do you think all those movies set in high school or college are anything like the real experience of being in one? i don't.

hollywood doesn't tend to reflect much of the real american culture at all.

see Canada trying to be US. it's almost pathetic. they're even talking about adopting their voting ways

Of course, after all, we all know that the US is the only country in the world to use that type of voting system.

who else does?

It's a presidential republic. Virtually every South American country, many African countries, as well as some of the Balkans and former Soviet-owned countries.

Canada's not going to change to a presidential republic, the only thing they're considering is implementing more power to Senate, which again, many countries also use.

To me that's kind of like saying it's OK for a once-battered woman to enjoy being hit, but an abusive guy better not like being violent.

As many problems as I see with American cultural exportation--and they are many--the countries who respond happily to Celine Dion or McDonald's will have to deal with it eventually. I see it as the problem of a global citizen, at this point. And a lot of what we're learning now is that convenience is not God, and we have to sort through the utter SHIT that glossy technology is bringing us.
The Internet is a pretty prime example, I should think.

I wish I was japanese.

what is that supposed to mean??? I'm not stealing ANYTHING. American culture has permeated almost every country in the world, so even if english is not my native language, it IS my language too and I grew up with, and I've been stydying it since I was in kindergarden and it feels natural to me just like spanish feels natural to me. I'm not stealing anything. I was fucked with american culture and now it's a part of me.