The Dance of Culture and Spirit

[madfedor]

I apologize for the lack of explicitly pagan context in this. It's topical for me, personally: When I dance, it is always spiritual. Others may disagree, and if our moderators decide this is not appropriate here, I already have a copy of it. ;-)

Some disclosure about intent: During chasingtides' recent thread, I had the thought that "cultural" is a

Comments

[misslynx]

Definitely some interesting questions there. I'm not sure what I have to add - I failed the folk dancing unit in grade 9 phys ed, which was pretty much my last encounter with it. :-)

But I'm definitely drawn to music from all kinds of different cultures, and while I don't dance professionally in any capacity, I do enjoy dancing just recreationally, and find that some of the music I most enjoy dancing to does in fact come from cultures I have no direct personal connection to. For example, I loved FunkAsia while it was happening regularly, enough that I did their web site for free in return for a permanent spot on the guest list, and I have no South Asian ancestry that I know of, nor have ever even been to that part of the world. So I can relate to some extent.

I do think that the point ulfrslady made is valid, that cultures have always had permeable boundaries, and tended to influence and be influenced by others they come in contact with. So to some extent, what we now call cultural appropriation has always been with us and is probably inevitable. But at the same time, the ease of international travel and communication today means it's happening a lot more widely and quickly than at at time before, and the extreme differences in political, economic and communicative power mean that exchanges between cultures aren't always taking place on anything resembling a level playing field, and that's what makes it problematic.

I don't really think that my enjoyment of dancing to bhangra and Bollywood music, for example, is hugely problematic politically, or at least none of the South Asian regulars at the events I've gone to seemed to find my presence a problem as far as I've been able to tell. But there are other contexts where someone from a more-powerful culture adopting elements from a less-powerful culture may be more damaging, and I really don't know where the line is drawn, or even if it makes sense to talk about drawing some kind of definitive line at all.

[ulfrslady]

I don't think we can draw a hard line. I think we have to look at everything on a case-by-case basis and remember that usually the perpetrator does not know they're doing something wrong so be gentle in your explanation.