| Author
|
Spiritual Property: Does psytrance steal cultures?
|
Psycosmo
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
42
Posts :
787
Posted : Jun 20, 2005 23:52
|
Well.... I can see that I am totally outvoted here. I see peoples points, and I actually agree to some extent. I think it is great how psy brings together people from different cultures, and sort of creates a structure into which bits and pieces of other cultures become incorporated. In fact this is really what first attracted me to psytrance... because it is so much like my own personal system of spiritual-religious beliefs/values, where I incorporate what I like from many different religions including Ancient Greek, Amazonian, Andean, Tantric and Voodoo. I am by no means an experet or certified in my knowledge of any of these religions, so I could well be doing the same thing that I created this thread to stop...
So if I do it myself then why did I start this whole conversation?
Because even though that is what I do, I do it because I feel that the option of spiritual multiculturalism is the lesser of evils... The greater of evils being to remain attatched to the dogma of my own culture, Chrisitanity. I cannot fully adopt the views of any of the non christian belief systmes either because there is much in them I do not agree with.
So spirit multiculturalism really is my only option.... But I have reservations about it still because I am worried that I am taking beliefs out of their context and mangling them in an attempt to fit them to my own purposes. And that isnt good because it can lead to almost speaking for another people.
Take the traditional use of Psilocybe mushrooms in parts of Central America. While I think it is positive for modern Americans using the mushrooms to recognize that they are used for traditional religions/healing reasons, there is a danger too. The danger is that the Modern American (or other) will take their experience and then use it to make false assumptions about the traditional use. Those assumptions can spread, and that can cause harm.
How?
Consider this: Americans/Europeans/Isralians etc have money. Often lots of it, especially compared to the people whose cultural icons they use. Americans/Europeans travel. They go on tours. Some of those tours involve visitin shamans/religious specialists. This the shaman/religious specialist can become like a tourist attraction. Like hotels and restarunts, the shamans and religous specialists who make the most money will be the ones who cater to the tastes of the Americans/Europeans, who show the tourists what they want to see. Thus there becomes an incentive to modify the traditions to appease the tourists. Then the tourists go and see the specilists and come away with the wrong idea, and go home and spread it to their friends. This the cycle continues.
I studied anthropology in college, and my Professors are constantly railing against cultural appropriation because of situations like I described above. They have told me many stories of specific examples of this that they have seen (like the German tourists that tried to tell the Maya shaman how to do his ritual!). My Profs have traveled the world a lot and talked to a lot of people and I trust them. If they tell me that something is a serious problem, I listen because I really respect them. Now I dont expect you all to do the same because you dont know them and most of you dont know me...
But PLEASE just consider that all the arguments you people made were self- based. You all talk about how the spirit multiculturalism has benefitted you and your people, but nobody has shown an example of how appropriating an already oppressed peoples symbol/ritual has helped that people. Just PLEASE consider seriously what I am saying here and CONSIDER the possibility that there can be unintended ramifications resulting from using other peoples sacredness.
Peace out all,
and thank you for all the replies
|
|
|
mubali
Mubali
Started Topics :
71
Posts :
2219
Posted : Jun 21, 2005 01:07
|
I do understand your point about this situation... Perhaps the real issue is not about what spiritual multiculturalism affects those oppressed, but what the effects of capitalism can do to an oppressed nation? And what would you suggest for a solution... A major reason why many of these oppressed cultures became that way was through a general lack of understanding which became expressions of so called moral superiority. I am certain that if the same amount of understanding that has been achieved within the past 30 years were applied well over a hundred or more years ago we would have less of the cultural fallouts that we have now... Would it be considered stealing a culture if money could not be made from it?
 An Eagle may soar, but Weasels don't get sucked into jet engines. |
|
|
|
aplz
Started Topics :
2
Posts :
29
Posted : Jun 23, 2005 23:13
|
|
Heres the main question. Would you rather have these 'forigen' cultures in the genre, or western 'culture', i.e bitches, popularity, corporations, money, drugs, violence? |
|
|
|
|
