@MildlyAutistic You said you don't mind boring so I will preface this by saying my understanding of appropriation comes from studying aesthetics and art historical theory as well as postcolonial theory (which is much more cross-disciplinary) so people with other backgrounds may not agree. @MildlyAutistic So, the way I most often think of appropriation is as a way for people to borrow a sense of cultural capital from a group (specifically an embodied, almost inherent-seeming sense of who they are & what they represent). People want that aura and not the tool itself.

Here's my take, having used this as an archaelogy (#pubarch) lesson many times before: the fridge quiz is bad for the thing NYT says it's for, but it's bad because our subjective assessments of economic, social, gender, and ethnic identity using groceries is very unreliable.

https://twitter.com/shane_burley1/status/1321497592455258113

Exhibit 1: I've been teaching a #pubarch garbology lesson for about 7 years now and can only remember once where a team got close on those predictions. My colleague made the exercise with his university students, counting and listing their household garbage.

Jesus Christ, people, if you follow me I hope you would 1. Know better and 2. Feel comfortable contacting me or any of the other public-facing archaeologists who post often on such topics.

https://twitter.com/FossilLocator/status/1321142245664395268

I have had people in my extended social circle find skulls before and I helped them safely deliver it to a proper place to facilitate repatriation after police said it was no big deal. Seriously, ask someone for help, it's important.