Baby Teepees are like, totally, in.

In cultural appropriation, design, teepee, tent, tipi by Adrienne K.21 Comments

The newest accessory for your already perfect nursery? A tipi of course! Eagle-eyed readers Andrea, Laura, and Mieko spotted these “adorable” tipi’s all over tumblr last week. Most of the pictures are from Design Chic, and here’s how the author sets up a slew of tipi-pics: Grown-up or child, we all need a little bit of space that is all …

But Why Can’t I Wear a Hipster Headdress?

In coachella, cultural appropriation, hipster headdress, hipsters, tribal fashion by Adrienne K.108 Comments

(image from http://www.facebook.com/iamhowlingwolf, which is an entire post in itself. geez.) I’ve posted a lot about the phenomenon that is the hipster headdress (see here, here, and here), but I’ve never really broken it down as to why this trend is so annoying and effed up. A lot of this will be review and is repeated elsewhere on the site, …

Cultural Appropriation Bingo: proving your comments are unoriginal and ignorant

In bingo, cultural appropriation, eff that, I'm mad, ignorance by Adrienne K.16 Comments

 (Awesome bingo card made by Dr. Sheila Addison) On all the fantastic articles on cultural appropriation that have been making the rounds these past couple of days (Threadbared has a awesome round up here, I definitely recommend a look), the comments are getting heated. People are getting defensive, people are throwing the “omg it’s just fashion, get over it!” card, …

Sweat Lodges Part II: No, you can’t. Here’s why.

In cultural appropriation, Details, jezebel, sweat lodge by Adrienne K.17 Comments

AK note: This is Part II in discussing sweat lodges and non-Natives. For Part I and background,click here. After that long lead in, lets break it down into some of the major issues at play here. I feel like I’m treading in a bit of dangerous water here, because admittedly sweats have not been a part of my spiritual tradition. …

Mardi Gras Indians: can cultural appropriation occur on the margins?

In cultural appropriation, mardi gras indian suits, mardi gras indians, new york times, stereotypes by Adrienne K.20 Comments

(image via http://library.duke.edu) Last week, the New York Times published a really interesting article concerning Mardi Gras Indians, specifically looking at the possibility of  the “Indians” copyrighting their costumes so their images can’t be used in things like calendars, promotional materials, etc, without their consent. I’ll get to that issue in a second post, but I think the entire concept …

Appropriations at the Boston Museum of Science

In American Indian, Boston Muesum of Science, cultural appropriation, Hopi Indian Village, museums by Adrienne K.2 Comments

This past weekend I took a trip to the Boston Museum of Science to see the Harry Potter Exhibition (which was amazing and awesome and anyone who is a fan should go see it…but I digress), and since our tickets got us into the rest of the museum, we wandered around the galleries a bit. I didn’t even have my …