Indigenous knowledge, repackaged as an exotic anthropological offerring, gains the "value addition" which all other raw materials of the south receive in the factories of the north. The global intellectual & material supply chains are identical in this regard & mimick each other.
This means that "veganism", "mindfulness", "coherent breathing" are "finished products", because the "intellectual raw material" has now been processed for the global palate. This product can now be taken off the shelf & readily consumed without risk of cultural contamination.
During this process of repackaging, indigenous knowledge/culture not only loses its true character, but also, indigenous people loose control of their own creation - they are alienated from their own culture. "cultural appropration" can at best be a euphemism for this process.
A great example of this is what Yoga has ended up becoming especially in the west. Devoid of its core philosophy, as a mere "stretching exercise", & mixed with exotic mumbo-jumbo, Yoga is more like one of the several ethnic dresses in a fashionista's wardrobe & nothing more.
From beer yoga, to goat meditation, to hot-bath yoga, it ended up becoming almost everything else than what it was supposed to be. The same applies to the festival of Holi, which is now celebrated more as a rave party in many parts of the world. One may ask, though, that
cultural spread almost always entails intermingling. Why is it such a bad thing? It is not. What is key, however, is that indigenous cultures have to negotiate this process from a position of no-power, because they were/are colonised. The lack of agency makes it problematic.
@Anuraag_Shukla @ruchirsharma_1 @jsaideepak @priya_27_ @indumathi37 @subhash_kak @harshmadhusudan @suryakane
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