Putting the Appropriator Back in Cultural Appropriation

Tuvel, Rebecca

doi:10.1093/aesthj/ayab010

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…What about a Jewish Israeli serving Arab hummus to her guests (Hirsch 2011)? Scholars have elaborated on this definition, often conditioning appropriation on the power relations between the groups involved (Ziff and Rao 1997), the harm generated by cultural taking (Lalonde 2021; Matthes 2016; Tuvel 2021), or the social and historical context in which this taking occurs (Schneider 2003).…”

Section: Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Departing from conventional approaches, which seek to objectively distinguish appropriation from other forms of cultural boundary-crossing, our definition hinges on an observer’s perception: an act of boundary-crossing is appropriative if observers generally perceive it as such (even if they do not use the language of appropriation to describe it). As various scholars have pointed out (e.g., Büyükokutan 2011; Tuvel 2021), discussions of cultural appropriation often conflate analytic and normative definitions, with the term sometimes used to neutrally connote boundary-crossing in general and other times to connote wrongful instances of cultural exchange. Our nomenclature obviates this confusion.…”

Section: Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Devaluation occurs because the act of boundary-crossing portrays the target as inferior. This happens when a boundary-crossing act is seen as disrespectful toward the target culture (Tuvel 2021). As Lamont and colleagues (2016) demonstrate, acts of disrespect are perceived as symbolic assaults on the target’s worth.…”

Section: Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cultural Tariffing: Appropriation and the Right to Cross Cultural Boundaries

Oshotse,

Berda,

Goldberg

2024

Am Sociol Rev

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Why are some acts of cultural boundary-crossing considered permissible whereas others are repudiated as cultural appropriation? We argue that perceptions of cultural appropriation formed in response to the emergence of cultural omnivorousness as a dominant form of high-status consumption, making boundary-crossing a source of cultural capital. Consequently, the right to adopt a practice from a culture that is not one’s own is determined on the basis of the costs and benefits one is presumed to accrue. People express disapproval at boundary-crossing if they believe it devalues or extracts value at the expense of the target culture. We call this process cultural tariffing. We test our theory in a between-subject experimental design, demonstrating that individuals who enjoy a privileged social position, as inferred from their social identity or socioeconomic status, have less normative latitude to cross cultural boundaries. This is explained by perceptions that these actors are either devaluing or exploiting the target culture. While symbolic boundaries and cultural distinction theories are inconsistent with our results, we find that Americans who are disenchanted about group-based social mobility are the most likely to be outraged by cultural boundary-crossing. Cultural tariffing, we therefore posit, is a form of symbolic redistribution.

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Section: Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cultural Tariffing: Appropriation and the Right to Cross Cultural Boundaries

Oshotse,

Berda,

Goldberg

2024

Am Sociol Rev

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Group Ownership, Group Interests, and the Ethics of Cultural Exchange

Ferracioli,

Shpall

2024

J Ethics

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In this essay, we address an important problem in the ethics of cultural engagement: the problem of giving a systematic account of when and why outsider use of insider cultural material is permissible or impermissible. We argue that many scholars rely on a problematic notion of collective ownership even when they claim to be disavowing it. After making this case, we motivate an alternative framework for thinking about cultural exchange, which we call the core interests framework. We conclude with some reflections on how this framework helps to raise interesting questions about the most promising accounts of wrongful cultural appropriation.

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Writing the Other: The Ethics of Out-Group Representation in Art

Holtug

2024

Moral Philosophy and Politics

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Recently, there have been cases in which out-group representation in art has faced severe criticism. Out-group representation occurs when an artist in her work engages with people, characters, or subject matters that do not fall within her own identity group. This is exemplified by the case of finding a translator for Amanda Gorman’s The Hill We Climb in the Netherlands, where the original choice was criticized because, unlike Gorman, the translator was not Black, and by the case of Dana Schutz’s painting of Emmett Till in his casket at the Whitney Museum in New York, which was criticized for being painted by a White person who could not understand the suffering Emmett Till and his mother had gone through. A number of objections to out-group representation are identified in the debate, namely, an objection from authenticity, an objection from equality of opportunity, and the suggestion that out-group representation is disrespectful and/or harmful. It is argued that none of these objections establishes that it is morally problematic to engage in out-group representation in art per se, although, importantly, there are a number of moral concerns that those who thus engage should be sensitive to.

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Putting the Appropriator Back in Cultural Appropriation

Cited by 3 publications

References 10 publications

Cultural Tariffing: Appropriation and the Right to Cross Cultural Boundaries

Cultural Tariffing: Appropriation and the Right to Cross Cultural Boundaries

Group Ownership, Group Interests, and the Ethics of Cultural Exchange

Writing the Other: The Ethics of Out-Group Representation in Art

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