ABSTRACT

Despite the ubiquity of cross-cultural adoption, some instances have generated public outcry as alleged forms of exploitative appropriation rather than affirmative appreciation. Careful, complex consideration of contentious instances of cultural adoption is especially important in postcolonial societies characterised by ingrained power imbalances that can lead to both exploitative, offensive instances of cultural appropriation and overblown accusations of such. For this purpose, we agree with theorists, Richard Rogers and James Young, that it is imperative to avoid treating cultural adoption as a unified phenomenon and to find complex analytical models that unpack its various forms. However, since in principle no such model can be flawless, we add a complementary heuristic to these, developed from eight components of the complex ethical concept of “otherness.” This may further help cultural theorists, media practitioners and others justify “workable” (contextually sensitive, temporally located and revisable) assessments regarding whether complex instances of cultural adoption should be condoned or challenged. We discuss the eight components of otherness, indicating how each may be applied, in a critical consideration of the cultural adoption involved when the international fashion house Louis Vuitton created an expensive fashion range inspired by the Basotho blanket.

摘要

尽管跨文化收养现象普遍存在，但有些情况仍引起了公众的强烈抗议，认为这些行为被认为是剥削性挪用而不是肯定性欣赏。在以根深蒂固的权力失衡为特征的后殖民社会中，对有争议的文化采用实例进行仔细、复杂的考虑尤其重要，这种失衡可能导致剥削性的、冒犯性的文化挪用实例以及对此的过分指责。为此，我们同意理论家理查德·罗杰斯和詹姆斯·杨的观点，即必须避免将文化采用视为一种统一的现象，并找到能够解开其各种形式的复杂分析模型。然而，由于原则上没有这样的模型可以是完美无缺的，因此我们添加了一个补充启发式，由“他者”这个复杂的伦理概念的八个组成部分发展而来。这可能会进一步帮助文化理论家、媒体从业者和其他人证明“可行”（上下文敏感、临时定位和可修改）评估的合理性，即复杂的文化采用情况是否应该得到宽恕或挑战。我们讨论了差异性的八个组成部分，指出了如何应用每个组成部分，批判性地考虑了国际时装公司路易威登受巴索托毛毯启发而设计的昂贵时装系列时所涉及的文化采用。暂时定位且可修改的）关于文化收养的复杂情况是否应该得到宽恕或挑战的评估。我们讨论了差异性的八个组成部分，指出了如何应用每个组成部分，批判性地考虑了国际时装公司路易威登受巴索托毛毯启发而设计的昂贵时装系列时所涉及的文化采用。暂时定位且可修改的）关于文化收养的复杂情况是否应该得到宽恕或挑战的评估。我们讨论了差异性的八个组成部分，指出了如何应用每个组成部分，批判性地考虑了国际时装公司路易威登受巴索托毛毯启发而设计的昂贵时装系列时所涉及的文化采用。