Cultural and Religious Appropriation and Where to Draw the Line

Cultural and Religious Appropriation and Where to Draw the Line August 24, 2016

My post on Pagan Entitlement led to two different responses.  One was an amicable mini-discussion with Steven Posch – the person I called out in my post and who was really very gracious about the whole thing. For which I am grateful, I mean, I basically called him an entitled Pagan and implied he was disrespectful to other cultures.

And then there is the second response, which is a kind of calling out on me, by Jön Upsal’s Gardener.  He seems to mostly like my post but he also references a previous post of mine where I discuss, in part, folkishness, following ones ancestral religion to the exclusion of all else, and how I am just not into that. I am Hellenic but have no ancestral ties to Greece – that I am aware of anyway.

He points out the seeming hypocrisy between my posts, that one must respect living little-p Pagan religions but we don’t have to do the same for the “dead” religions, which aren’t so dead anymore.  Or, we don’t have to respect the adherents of European religions.

I can see his point, it does seem like hypocrisy on the face of it – but that’s only if you read it a certain way and it depends on where you draw the line.

Religious terms
By RichardF (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

It’s Not Just Religion

When I speak of those cultures that we have a false sense of entitlement over – Native Americans, Aus Aboriginals etc – it’s important to note that I am not speaking only of religions.  I am speaking of cultures, peoples, literal tribes and families that have existed for centuries and millennia.

A sacred space like Uluru is not just sacred to them for religious reasons, it is sacred on a cultural, tribal, familial and deeply personal level.  You can take religion out of the equation and still they could say, “My grandmother once bathed here” or “My great-grandfather made this mark when he climbed up here”.

It might be like having a family home that you grew up in, one of your parents grew up in, and one of their parents too.  Going there you might find the marks your ancestors have made, scratches on doorways of kids heights, initials in a bedpost.  You might feel wonder, nostalgia or even awe.

But let’s say your grandmother was famous and now people think it is their right to just walk into your home, even when you say they can’t.  Because, you know, she’s public property and so now is your home.  Even though you still own it.  Or maybe you don’t own it because someone killed all of your family and stole you away and decided your home is now their museum.

Uluru and such places are religiously sacred, but that is not all they are.  And the above is an oversimplification in reality.

The Gods Are Not Stealable Items

When we speak of religion we are speaking of something else, something that becomes entwined with a culture and tribe and family, with the self – but which can be, if needed, separated almost completely, both ways.  One can continue to be fully part of their tribe, family and culture whilst removing the religious beliefs and practices, or one can separate from the culture, tribe and family but continue with the religion.

The Gods call who They will is oft stated by Pagans, so do the spirits and other beings or creatures.  They are autonomous life forces and They cannot be stolen like a toy, or a child.  To suggest that the Gods don’t ever choose to call to people who are of a different cultural heritage, is to try to impose our will upon Them.   Maybe They don’t, but it’s not up to us to say so.

We can of course appropriate religious practice and belief, but this is not necessarily always a bad thing.  If the Gods of a “forbidden” religion call to you, how should you respond? You have the choice to say no, we always have that choice – even if some Gods are pushy about it.  But do we not also have the choice to say yes? Can we not abide by the will of a deity who has called to us?

Borrowing or being inspired by another peoples religion isn’t something that the originating culture can forbid – because it is not up to them what their Gods desire.  So in truth we can practice any religion we wish, if we are called to it and no one can truly gainsay us except the Gods or spirits or beings of that religion.

Don’t Confuse Religion and Culture

But, and there is always a caveat, that is as far as it goes.  You can follow a religion that is part of a living little-p pagan culture – but that doesn’t give you rights to the culture itself, the tribes, the families or the community.  Because the religion is only one facet of their culture and their whole, it is not the whole.  Worshipping some Gods doesn’t give one the right to bathe in the sacred spring where a specific persons grandmother bathed.  Worshipping the same Gods as a particular community doesn’t magically give you the right to invade that communitys rituals and homes and shrines.

It also doesn’t give you the right to state that you are part of that tribe or community or culture.  Practicing a Native American or Aus Aboriginal religion doesn’t give you the right to call yourself Native American or Aboriginal or even specifically Cherokee or Arrernte.  Because the religion of the Arrernte people is not what defines an Arrernte person – being Arrernte, with Arrernte ancestors is what makes one part of that tribe.  And the arduous process of being legally and culturally defined as Aboriginal, getting to know the tribe and having them vouch for you and invite you in, if you weren’t born into it in the first place.

You can honour my ancestors if you wish, you can name my grandfather in your daily or weekly or monthly or yearly prayers – but that won’t make you a Carman (that’s my last name by the way, no online safety for me).  And even if you did become a Carman, married into my family or were adopted by us, that wouldn’t give you the right to come into my home and make offerings at my ancestor shrine.

What About the “Dead” Religions?

I follow the Hellenic religion, I call myself a Hellenic Pagan – but I am not Greek and I never would try to call myself that.  It’s a bit problematic though, Hellenic basically means “of Hellas” or could be translated as “of Greece” so it could seem like I am saying I am a Pagan of Greece.  No I do not like that, but at the same time my religion is of Greece, so it is correct.  Labels can be problematic in that way and I have no answer.

Seriously, Google “Hellenism Australia” and you will find a whole lot about Greek people living in Australia and Greek Orthodox churches in Australia – but very little about the ancient Hellenic religion being practiced here.  I am acutely aware of this label problem.

I don’t feel like I am part owner of the ancient shrines and temples in Greece.  I would love to go to them of course, I would also love to go to the sacred places of religions I am not part of – Stonehenge, Glastonbury Tor, the Pyramids etc.  But what if people of those lands, practicing the ancient religions, suddenly gained ownership of those sacred sites and decided the rest of us aren’t allowed in?

Abide by the laws of the land, it isn’t my land.  But I would be super sad.

I don’t feel entitled to the sacred spaces of my religion (except my own spaces of course).  I might feel like I have the right to practice my religion, despite my ancestry – but I don’t feel entitled to anything beyond that.  Greek Hellenics don’t have to show any solidarity with me, they don’t have to welcome me into their spaces and rituals.  But then again, neither do Aussie or American or Canadian or UK Hellenics.

Obligatory Conclusion

Because “conclusion” by itself is getting boring.  Not everyone will agree with my position in this, in either direction really.  Some will say, “No you can’t practice any religion you want!” and others will say, “Appropriate all the things!”  and some will say, as Jön Upsal’s Gardener does, “Practice only your ancestral religions!”

That’s fine, we draw our lines in different ways, we make different distinctions. This is my line regarding cultural and religious appropriation and the difference between the two.  I can’t say if it’s right, so much as it is right from my own perspective.

I also know there are several things I haven’t mentioned in this post, things that people may bring up, “But what about thisssss!?!”  What about it? I either can’t fit it into this post, or it isn’t what this post is about.  I am sure it will come up in another post one day, don’t stress.

I think it’s important to remember, when it comes to most non-Abrahamic religions, they aren’t ruled by a single authority – not even a single deity for the most part.  No human is in control of the religion/s, no one can truly say what is okay and is not.  An individual or group may have authority over a specific tribe, temple, family or likewise, and the religion within them – but they don’t have authority over the entirety of the religion itself.

They have no authority over you in your personal beliefs and practices.  They have authority over what you can do in their space, but not in your own space.  And never forget that what you may assume is religious, may actually be cultural and as such your shared religion gives you no rights to it.

And respect is still paramount, whether the religion is living or dead or revived or reconstructed or shiny and new.  Be respectful of what you are doing, where your religion comes from, who else is practicing.  They may not have authority over you, but you have none over them either.


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