Brian S. Hook
Sep 29, 2022

In a cultural rather than legal sense, appropriation usually involves the implicit or explicit erasure of the source culture. The idea of “property” doesn’t apply to culture as it applies to a product. Not to pile on Alison Roman, but she created a “spiced chickpea stew” that resembled a curry—but denied that it was a curry, claiming she “has no culture” in which curry exists. (If this story isn’t familiar, Google can help.) That’s a good example of appropriation, and a way to distinguish it from borrowing, adaptation, acknowledgement, homage, imitation, etc.

Brian S. Hook
Brian S. Hook

Written by Brian S. Hook

Dad, classicist, mountain dweller, erstwhile triathlete, wannabe woodworker, follower of Socrates and Jesus (two famous non-writers), writing to avoid raveling

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