Ethics of Cultural Appropriation (eBook)

James O. Young is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Victoria. He has published more than 40 journal articles on the philosophy of language and the philosophy of art and is the author of Global Anti-realism (1995) and Art and Knowledge (2001) and Cultural Appropriation and the Arts (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008). Conrad G. Brunk is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and former Director of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria. He is the author of numerous articles and texts on ethical issues relating to technology, the environment, law, and professional practice. Dr. Brunk consults regularly for governments and international organizations on environmental and health risk management and technology policy issues.

Notes on Contributors ix

Preface xii

Artist Statement xvii

lessLIE

1. Introduction 1

2. Archaeological Finds: Legacies of Appropriation, Modes of
Response 11

George P. Nicholas and Alison Wylie

3. The Appropriation of Human Remains: A First Nations Legal and
Ethical Perspective 55

James [Sakej] Youngblood Henderson

4. The Repatriation of Human Remains 72

Geoffrey Scarre

5. 'The Skin Off Our Backs': Appropriation of Religion 93

Conrad G. Brunk and James O. Young

6. Genetic Research and Culture: Where Does the Offense Lie?
115

Daryl Pullman and Laura Arbour

7. Appropriation of Traditional Knowledge: Ethics in the Context
of Ethnobiology 140

Kelly Bannister and Maui Solomon (Part I) Conrad G. Brunk (Part
II)

8. A Broken Record: Subjecting 'Music' to Cultural Rights
173

Elizabeth Burns Coleman and Rosemary J. Coombe with Fiona
MacArailt

9. Objects of Appropriation 211

Andrea N. Walsh and Dominic McIver Lopes

10. Do Subaltern Artifacts Belong in Art Museums? 235

A.W. Eaton and Ivan Gaskell

11. 'Nothing Comes from Nowhere': Refl ections on Cultural

Appropriation as the Representation of Other Cultures 268

James O. Young and Susan Haley

Index 290

"There are several characteristics that make this collection of essays an admirable endeavour: the breadth of questions and disciplines covered - music, arts, archaeology, genetics, religion, ethnobiology - in an interdisciplinary dialogue moderated by philosophers; the passionate engagement of the authors with the ethics of appropriation of subaltern cultures by dominant Western cultures; the incisiveness of the debates over each theme discussed (one author debating with another before giving his/her own point of view in the shape of an individual article); the soundness of theoretical arguments and the stunning and provocative examples debated." (Journal of the Royal Astronomical Institute, 2011)

"To read these essays is to eavesdrop on a roomful of thinkers
locked in spirited debate about the meaning of cultural
appropriation. What knits the chapters together is the
authors' shared desire to clarify what's at stake when
outsiders copy, collect, or steal the biological and cultural
resources of subaltern peoples."

-Michael F. Brown, Williams College

"This breakthrough collection is a splendid demonstration of the
benefits of collaborative interdisciplinary research to produce
strikingly original scholarship. We are the beneficiaries. Talented
teams of leading philosophers with outstanding specialists in a
wide range of disciplines examine the enormously complex ethical
challenges of cultural appropriation. This is a model for
scholarship in an increasingly complex era of intellectual
globalization."

-Julie C. Van Camp, California State University, Long
Beach