Organization and Interdependence between People

Malinovsky defined culture as an instrumental apparatus that serves to satisfy human needs. However, the essence of culture is not limited to the satisfaction of biological needs. As the world created by man develops the forms of social organization and interdependence between people become more complex, new human needs are emerging which are different from biological. They are called secondary derived needs, they force society to move forward and cultivate. At the same time, each person exists in society and his actions directly depend on the cultural values ??of this society. And each time when a person satisfies his needs they are limited by cultural environment norms, rules, customs which are existing in his society.

The concept of culture has two types , first one is the dominant culture is a collection of the values of beliefs, traditions and customs that guide most members of society, the second one is minority culture is a group that is not dominant among the general population in these public and temporary spaces. The term “cultural appropriation”, as a rule, has a negative meaning. In most cases, it is used when a minority culture is borrowed, or interacting cultures are involved in a historical, ethnic or racial conflict.

According to the theory of supporters of this concept, cultural appropriation differs from acculturation and assimilation because appropriation implies borrowing elements of a particular culture in a colonial manner which means copying and using outside its original cultural context. Often in the process, the original meaning of these cultural elements is distorted; their use can be regarded as a manifestation of disrespect or even desecration of the shrine. The initial deep meaning of an element in a minority culture can be reduced to an “exotic” trend in the dominant culture. We are talking about cultural development, as a rule, when the white population appropriates elements of the culture of non-white peoples. For example, if an Asian copies the style and behavior of an African American, or an African American puts on an Indian costume, this is also regarded as appropriation.

Supporters of the concept give the following examples of cultural appropriation: sports teams which use the names of indigenous tribes, images of representatives of these peoples as the logo or team mascot, traditional works of art of indigenous tribes (Washington Redskins), costumes on Halloween, making bindi or dreadlocks. Critics of the concept of cultural appropriation challenge it for a number of reasons. Their position is often based on the opposite vision of cultural borrowing as a generally positive phenomenon which is contributing to the mutual enrichment of cultures. According to critics, this is due to the sincere admiration of a particular culture and without any malicious intent. The editors of Spiked believe that the notion of “cultural appropriation” strikes at the social interaction between different nationalities and promotes a particularly conservative view of the world not allowing the mixing of cultures; the conception is reviving the old-fashioned look at cultural and racial problems. The editors at the same time noticed a different attitude of supporters of political correctness to such concepts as gender and race / culture. If the first is perceived as something subjective and flowing, the second is static and unchanging in their eyes [ 5 ]. In this way, we considered different views on the concept of cultural appropriation. I want to believe that critics and supporters of this theory will find a compromise.

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