thesacredcircle:
There is a difference between taking things from another culture to suit your practice, just because you want to and actually taking time to LEARN about a culture, study it with someone OF that culture and use their tools respectfully. You can’t just decide you like native american traditions and decide to wear a headdress in your Ostara ritual; that IS cultural appropriation. It’s a very tricky thing and eclectic neo-Pagans really need to be careful about this. There’s been enough culture stealing over the past few centuries.
There is a big difference from being respectful to another culture and incorporating a few beliefs and practices, and doing so without any knowledge of the item, beliefs, practices, etc. from said culture which in itself is a lack of respect. I’ll take what you said in your example. A headdress? If they were being respectful they wouldn’t even use a headdress in the first place. A headdress is sacred, it’s not something to put as a fashion statement or because it looks “cool” and you are “drawn to it”. In some nations, the feathers on a headdress were added when the wearer did a brave act. Other cases they would have to fast themselves and meditate for days to prepare himself and prove himself. Women were not allowed to participate in the making of a headdress, and headdresses were worn by the men who gained the respect and reverence of others in their tribe, and held the most importance and was the most influential. Certain beads? Certain beads mean something, passed through family lines, some are connected with ones ancestors, some are sacred in certain meanings and symbolization to the people of a culture, such as certain beads in my own culture.
This is what is called cultural appropriation, which is vastly different from cultural appreciation. Not every culture you can adopt and call your own, especially indigenous cultures and cultures that have been colonized. A culture is made through the people of that culture, ones who grew up in said culture. If you haven’t even been around people or talked to people of that culture whether its online or off, to get an understanding of their culture, you simply can’t claim it because you find it fascinating or are drawn to it. You can’t claim a culture, but a culture can claim you. If you want to integrate yourself into a culture with respect, learn from the people who are from that culture, learn as much as you can about certain items, practices, and beliefs, and understand where the meanings behind them come from. If it’s something as sacred as for example a headdress don’t use it for say doing a ritual for a Sabbat or what not.
You don’t have the right to claim something especially a sacred item of another culture as yours to take because you are simply drawn to it. You want to talk about being respectful? Learn why those items are sacred in the first place and if you have the right to take them and use them as your own. If you actually got permission to use a headdress from elders and members of a certain nation, spoke with them, know the meanings and sacredness of it, they actually gave you a headdress that actual Native Americans made, fine, because you have permission to use it. But if you are just going to blindly go, oh this is so cool, I’m so attracted and drawn to it so I will use it when I do my rituals, then forget it, that in itself is being disrespectful to the sacred item, the culture, and the people of that culture.
There are many Native Americans who still refuse to let those who are not Native American to use their rituals and sacred items. But when you say, “oh but I’m drawn to it, so I will use it anyway regardless of what you say,” that is racist and disrespectful to the people who do have the right to say what can be used and what can’t be used from their own culture, especially when it comes to certain things that are considered sacred.
Again, there is a big difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation.
(Source: pagan-confessions)
I’m not talking about being Pagan in general, but I’m talking about someone who believes, worships, and practices the same as you cultural wise. Now I’m Filipino and majority of Filipino’s are Roman Catholic the other Muslim. However there are actually a good number of Pagan Filipino’s I have met and seen online. None never in real life though I wish, and if I go back home to the Philippines and attend one of the Pagan Pride Day festivals there I would meet some. However even though I have met Filipino’s who are Pagan, majority of them are Wiccan which is fine I don’t mind because we can still connect with each other through similar beliefs.
