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Reckless Borrowing or Appropriate Cultural Sharing? CENTER Workshop |
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Reckless Borrowing or Appropriate Cultural Sharing? CENTER Workshop |
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Among religious educators there has been an increasing awareness in recent years of the significant amount of inclusion of spiritual rituals, symbols, and artifacts from sources outside the user's tradition. As worship and celebration increasingly incorporate ritual and spirituality from other cultures, concerns have been raised about whether it is possible to authentically incorporate these elements into a different tradition and to avoid racist implications when the transition crosses racial lines.
Unitarian Universalists, in particular, have begun to ask themselves whether this constitutes appropriate or reckless borrowing. Our Principles and Purposes affirm that "the tradition we share draws from many sources, including wisdom from the world's religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life." Over time, exposure to a variety of religious peoples and ideas has influenced the present Unitarian Universalist pluralistic theological position. At the same time, the Reverend Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley, Adult Programs Director at the UUA, has defined cultural appropriation as "consciously or unconsciously seeking to emulate concepts, beliefs or rituals that are foreign to a particular framework, individual or collective. It is incorporating language, cultural expressions, forms lifestyles, rituals or practices about which there is little basis for direct knowledge, experience or authenticity into one's being. It is also the superficial appreciation of a culture without regard to its deeper meaning."
Jacqui James, Anti-Oppression Programs and Resources Director at the UUA, led a workshop exploring this issue, including ways in which borrowing might be limited to appropriate forms and elements, and ways in which the borrowing we want to do might be done more appropriately. The workshop presented and discussed ten questions that potential "borrowers" should ask themselves:There is no single answer to dealing with issues of cultural responsibility, and there are few easy answers. Additional information on this complex issue is available from Respect, Inc. at respect@juno.com, in Brewster, MA.
- How much do I know about this particular tradition? How can I respect it and not misrepresent it?
- What do I know of the history and experience of the people from whom I am borrowing?
- Is this "borrowing" distorting, watering-down, or misinterpreting the tradition?
- Is the meaning changed?
- Is this overgeneralizing this culture - is it more diverse? (When pieces of culture are taken out of context, robbing them of power and meaning, problems can arise.)
- What is the motivation for cultural borrowing? What is being sought and why?
- How do the "owners" of the tradition feel about pieces of their tradition's being borrowed?
- If artifacts or rituals are being sold, where does the money go?
- Is this really spiritually healthy for Unitarian Universalists? (When we as a religious tradition borrow rituals from other cultures, we often lose the significant meaning -- the take on from the community in which they are based. We risk becoming impersonators.)
- How can we acknowledge rather than exploit the contributions of all people?
Reported for the Web by Bill Lewis
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