As you know I try to avoid overt politics, but sociology—how
human societies are ordered and disordered—fascinates me. Today I bring another example.
It seems there is a group that is asking the United Nations
to make what they call “cultural appropriation” illegal. A Dean of the University of Colorado Law
School said that the UN should negotiate a legally binding document that would “obligate states to create effective
criminal and civil enforcement procedures to recognize and prevent the
non-consensual taking and illegitimate possession, sale, and export of
traditional cultural expressions”.
Say what?
The utter nonsense of this idea just overwhelms me. My first reaction was one of dismay. I’m British, Irish, and German according to
my DNA, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to give up Spaghetti Bolognese for
Steak and Kidney Pie!
As I looked into it though, it got worse. Noodles were invented by the Chinese. Even if I had some Italian DNA I’d have to
get permission from China to have my spaghetti.
Olive Garden and Macaroni Grill would have to close their
doors.
And speaking of China, if the owners of the Oriental House restaurant—the best Chinese
buffet in the Fourstates—couldn’t serve Ozark hillbillies and Oklahoma cowboys,
they would soon be broke.
So who gets the corn?
Americans? Or Native
Americans? At a minimum it would all
have to stay here, but what would we do with it? How would Hispanics and other Latinos make
tortillas? I guess we could negotiate an
agreement and make it “consensual”. But
it would have to be reciprocal or Taco Bell would be in trouble.
I suppose if it were determined that corn belongs to all
Americans we could make moonshine. It
goes down very smooth; it just doesn’t have quite the nutritional value of a
tortilla.
Some of you will say I’m just being silly. This is not about food or commodities, it’s
about cultural and intellectual property.
Really? Again I ask: Who makes that decision?
I make my living working for an Indian Tribe. They are great people to work for, and I like
being here. Because of my appreciation
and respect for all of those in “Indian Country” as it is called, I have two
watercolors hanging on my wall. Yes,
they were painted by a Native American artist.
I enjoy them immensely. One of
them depicts a young Indian on a horse.
He is wearing feathers, and holding his lance and shield. Very iconic.
But wait. The
indigenous peoples of this continent did not have horses. Horses arrived with the Europeans. They were quickly appropriated by the native peoples, but they didn’t originate
here. Did the artist ask permission to
use that image? Maybe he tried, but who
would he ask?
Who gets to lay claim to horses? Probably not even the Europeans. They got them from the Central Asian steppes,
and the North African coast. My
ancestors took those animals, and through the process of selective breeding
created the breed we know today as the Thoroughbred.
Thoroughbreds came with the early settlers to America and
mixed with other breeds to create more new breeds. The Morgan Horse is a totally American breed,
and was used along with other breeds and cross-breeds to create the even more
famous American breed, the Quarter Horse.
My point, of course, is that all of our various cultures
have something that was “appropriated” from another culture. It how our species, homo sapiens, behaves. Businesses
today even memorialize this appropriation.
They call it “Best Practices”.
Selecting the best of a culture and incorporating it into your own is
how mankind has made it this far. After
all, we Europeans turned Americans, wouldn’t be here today if our ancestors had
not appropriated many of the ways of the native Americans who were here before
us. There was a time when schools
actually taught that fact. If not for a
man from the Patuxet tribe named Squanto, we were told, the Pilgrims would have
all died. We were taught to admire and
respect him. I still do.
In the end, cultural appropriation is the best way to
disseminate ideas and practices. I’d
love to see more people appropriate the American concept of “Equal Justice
Under the Law”. It’s a much better way
than sending soldiers to foreign cultures to “Nation build”. If I can appropriate what I like, I can make
it mine. If you come using force to make
me make it mine, you’ll have a fight on your hands.
