Page 125 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

10 | Cultural Appropr at on

fundamental fact—culture is dynamic, always changing. Why is this so? Cer-
tainly economic motivations explain part of the changing nature of culture. The
media, information, and culture industries constantly search for new ideas and
personalities they can sell to potential audiences. Audiences play their part too,
though, by demanding constant cultural stimulation. Novelty and change are
important parts of human nature.
Culture is not limited to what is offered up by the media, IT, and culture
industries, of course. Culture has more traditional features too—language, re-
ligion, typical food, and gender relations, for instance, all help define us cultur-
ally. But even these traditional anchors of culture are represented symbolically
in the Information and Communication Age. For instance, language is a symbol
system in and of itself. Religion depends on symbolic imagery—the Christian
cross, Jewish star of David, and Muslim crescent moon, for example—as well
as music, mythology, holidays, and rituals, to maintain its cultural influence.
Food is inherently visual and often represented in advertising. The way the mass
media present images of men and women contributes much to our understand-
ing of gender roles.
Without question, much of what we come to believe about our culture is con-
ditioned by repeated exposure to the communications and culture industries,
and to more traditional sources of information—especially religious institu-
tions, schools, government, political parties, and civic organizations. We know
how pervasive and powerful these influences can be, but do they determine our
sense of culture and cultural identity?
Not entirely. Humans are not just passive recipients of cultural information.
Although the tendency to conform to cultural norms and expectations is always
there, and the norms and expectations are backed up by all kinds of rules and
regulations, most people—especially more independent-minded individuals—
do not simply accept the cultural values, norms, and habits they inherit. People
and groups often resist the cultural framing and conditioning to which they are
exposed. That resistance sometimes leads to the creation of alternative cultural
expressions.

a DEFiniTion
The key battleground concept of cultural appropriation refers to how people
take something that is given to them by culture and use it for their own pur-
poses, sometimes in direct contradiction to the intention of the creator of the
original idea. By culturally appropriating a cultural resource, people “re-signify”
the object or idea in question. They give it a different meaning.
To understand the usage of the concept being described here, it is best to
think of the word “appropriation” as a noun that is being modified by an adjec-
tive, “cultural.” A “cultural appropriation” is an act of cultural modification that
is performed by individuals or groups. The term “appropriate” can also be used
as a verb to communicate the idea being discussed here, as in “people appropri-
ate cultural materials for their own reasons.” Don’t let the more familiar defini-
tion of the adjective “appropriate” throw you off. For our purposes, “appropriate”