Comments | oursin: Not sure what I think about this

oursin

Not sure what I think about this

Feb 18, 2009 13:35

There was a piece in the most recent Time Out (London edition, not yet online) concerning Peter Manseau, who, though not himself Jewish (agnostic offspring of a former Catholic priest and a nun), won the National Jewish Book Award. (Interview here and guestblogging here). Which, given the debates on cultural appropriation... gave me to ponder.

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race, appropriation, hierarchy, expectations, cultural imperialism, preconceptions, archives, religion, india, libraries, class

Comments 10

gillo February 18 2009, 14:12:05 UTC

Interesting, but it makes me wonder to some extent if there's a difference between that sort of thing and the work of middle-class, educated Victorians and Edwardians in preserving folk culture in their own country but very much a feature of another class and culture. Or, for that matter, what Elgar did with folk music or Coleridge with ballads? Certainly there are a hell of a lot of "folk songs" which were "arranged" into a style considered more musically appropriate for an early twentieth century cultural elite.

Just musing. Don't mind me.

oursin February 18 2009, 15:08:07 UTC

That occurred to me, particularly given the recent reports of the Mary Neal/Cecil Sharp dingdong, which was at least in part about actual working-class women vs middleclass prescriptivist.

tournevis February 18 2009, 14:18:21 UTC

Daniel Anctil for Jewish/Yiddish culture and language in Montréal. Same thing: Quebecker of French Canadian, Catholic descent, native French speaker, non believer, yet most important scholar on Québec Jewry, and on Mtl Yiddish culture and cultural products. General go-to guy for the said community.

wonderlandkat February 18 2009, 15:19:52 UTC

I think how you approach it really matters. If you're working with or acting like part of the community in a way that works for them and makes them happy and you become an expert, it's one thing. If you come in claiming expertise based on academic qualifiers and don't care about the people you are claiming to talk to, it's a different situation entirely.

going_not_gone February 18 2009, 15:45:02 UTC

I dislike the idea that you have to be a member of a particular culture in order to care deeply about some aspect of that culture and develop expertise in it, or that your expertise and work are somehow less valuable if you were not born and raised in the culture. And if you are preserving something that would otherwise be lost, that's worthwhile in itself.

But being an "outsider" means you have to come to it with a lot of respect, and make sure you communicate that respect, and do the work to develop the expertise, whereas an insider has a certain amount of automatic street cred. If you're coming from a position of superiority and condescension, that can be very damaging.

So it's very much on a case-by-case basis; then, I'm all about judging people as individuals by their actions and making individuals take responsibility for their actions. There's a right way and a wrong way to do it.

twa_in_yin February 18 2009, 15:56:04 UTC

Alan Lomax is revered here in Spain for the fieldwork he did in the 50's, collecting folk music at a time when any expression of multiculturality was very violently repressed. Plus, he was a leftist, was vetoed by the ex-Nazi who was in charge of the official institute for Spanish folk music, and was shadowed by the Guardia Civil during his entire stay in the country ( ... )