Cultural Appropriation in Neopaganism

[Ashoka]

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this. I've noticed that a lot of neopagan and new age belief systems take from closed cultures. This includes smudging, using palo santo, and Santa Muerte.

I personally think it's our responsibility to educate ourselves on what is appropriate to use and what is not. If you're unsure, ask a native person who uses the practice if it is open or closed.

Thoughts?

 

[The Hammer]

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this. I've noticed that a lot of neopagan and new age belief systems take from closed cultures. This includes smudging, using palo santo, and Santa Muerte.

I personally think it's our responsibility to educate ourselves on what is appropriate to use and what is not. If you're unsure, ask a native person who uses the practice if it is open or closed.

Thoughts?

Here is a good article on the topic:
How to be a witch without stealing other people's cultures

But I disagree with this portion of the article: Ground your practice in your own ancestral lineage or individual practice.

*Emphasis mine

 

[Aštra’el]

I have heard this before... yet I continue to do as I will with complete and absolute disregard for the opinions of those who consider any of my thoughts or actions to be “cultural appropriation”.

I mean... there will always be those who disapprove. Their feelings about my practices are not relevant and they never will be. There is nobody whose permission I require to worship my gods as I will and practice my religion as I do, and I honestly could not care less about who lets themselves get offended over it.

 

[The Hammer]

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this. I've noticed that a lot of neopagan and new age belief systems take from closed cultures. This includes smudging, using palo santo, and Santa Muerte.

I personally think it's our responsibility to educate ourselves on what is appropriate to use and what is not. If you're unsure, ask a native person who uses the practice if it is open or closed.

Thoughts?

Also, take a look at this. Very well grounded and informative, from a professor of Anthropology, and a Religious Scholar Practitioner.

Video: Cultural Appropriation in Neopagan and New Age Religions: A Conversation with Sabina Magliocco

I read the transcript, but there is also a video/audio.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this. I've noticed that a lot of neopagan and new age belief systems take from closed cultures. This includes smudging, using palo santo, and Santa Muerte.

I personally think it's our responsibility to educate ourselves on what is appropriate to use and what is not. If you're unsure, ask a native person who uses the practice if it is open or closed.

Thoughts?

there are natives who will not care, or will care but be okay with others' use of materials or methods that still others object to. Who do you listen to? On what basis?

I, as did my wife, learned from people from First Nations who taught us how to properly smudge with white sage, sweetgrass and other herbs, as well as do other rites and rituals. Do I have the right to use those materials and methods? As it is, I use them sparingly, and I do not claim them as my own, but as what I have been taught.

So, if someone who doesn't know where I learned what I do objects, do I have to stop doing it? Or must they accept that others have other views about what can be shared?

As for grounding in ancestral traditions...which ancestors, and how far back, allows me or anyone else access? I have ancestors from across Europe and apparently the middle east and asia, if you go back far enough...and native american 8 or 10 generations back on two ancestral lines, that we know of. Do I only get to claim ancestral line through fathers, or mothers, or both? And as far was we can tell, for at least the last 8 to 10 generations, almost all of the ancestors identified as Christian. Does that limit my choices?

I certainly don't know what the answer is, but I suspect that there is not and cannot be one answer that fits all...

 

[Guitar's Cry]

I think as long as it's a personal practice and you aren't claiming it as yours, using it for profit, and it isn't harming the culture or environment in any way, it's okay.

Personally, I don't smudge with sage, which is a particular Native American practice and the overuse of it has ecological impact on the plant. I do use mugwort, more traditional in European pagan practice (or more likely so) and is in abundance, as an incense for ritials and cleansing.

 

[Hildeburh]

Smoking for cleansing is an ancient practice that cannot be ascribed to any one pre-Christian culture. The herb used varied from culture to culture depending on availability and the ascribed qualities of available plants.

 

[Hildeburh]

Personally, I don't smudge with sage, which is a particular Native American practice and the overuse of it has ecological impact on the plant. I do use mugwort, more traditional in European pagan practice (or more likely so) and is in abundance, as an incense for ritials and cleansing.

Being an Anglo Saxon pagan I agree with your post; as the Nine Herbs Charms states,

Artemisia Vulgaris (Mugwort)

Gemyne ðú, mucgwyrt, hwæt þú ámeldodest,
hwæt þú renadest æt Regenmelde.
Una þú hattest, yldost wyrta.
ðú miht wið III and wið XXX,
þú miht wiþ áttre and wið onflyge,
þú miht wiþ þám láþan ðe geond lond færð

Remember thou, Mugwort, what thou declared
What thou advised at the proclamation of the gods (Regen, “council of the gods,” and meld, “proclamation”)
“Una” (First) thou were named, the eldest of worts (herbs)
Thou hast might against three and against thirty,
thou hast might against venom and against that which flies.
thou hast might against the loathsome that yond the land fareth

 

[Guitar's Cry]

Being an Anglo Saxon pagan I agree with your post; as the Nine Herbs Charms states,

Artemisia Vulgaris (Mugwort)

Gemyne ðú, mucgwyrt, hwæt þú ámeldodest,
hwæt þú renadest æt Regenmelde.
Una þú hattest, yldost wyrta.
ðú miht wið III and wið XXX,
þú miht wiþ áttre and wið onflyge,
þú miht wiþ þám láþan ðe geond lond færð

Remember thou, Mugwort, what thou declared
What thou advised at the proclamation of the gods (Regen, “council of the gods,” and meld, “proclamation”)
“Una” (First) thou were named, the eldest of worts (herbs)
Thou hast might against three and against thirty,
thou hast might against venom and against that which flies.
thou hast might against the loathsome that yond the land fareth

That's where I got the idea for the practice.

Interestingly, I know a lot of Christians who smudge with sage, and I always suggest they use Frankincense, since that is more traditional for that faith.