Welcome participation in your culture is not appropriation.
Appropriation happens when a tradition is taken and decontextualized from its original culture, adopted by mainstream culture, and changed to mean something else without buy-in from the originating culture.
You know your culture has been appropriated when some rando who isn’t even part of your culture explains to you how you’re wrong about your tradition because it doesn’t look like their mainstream version. For example, explaining to an Indian person that yoga is a physical exercise program where you continuously shift between isometric stretches.
It’s funny you chose that example. People forget (or are probably just completely unaware due to language barriers) that there are a ton of really kooky quack yoga gurus that were born in India, live their whole lives in India, and have a cult following of exclusively Indians. They say some absolutely batshit stuff and most Indians roll their eyes and mock them the same way that you do with the crunchy granola crowd here.
Welcome participation in your culture is not appropriation. Appropriation happens when a tradition is taken and decontextualized from its original culture, adopted by mainstream culture, and changed to mean something else without buy-in from the originating culture.
You know your culture has been appropriated when some rando who isn’t even part of your culture explains to you how you’re wrong about your tradition because it doesn’t look like their mainstream version. For example, explaining to an Indian person that yoga is a physical exercise program where you continuously shift between isometric stretches.
It’s funny you chose that example. People forget (or are probably just completely unaware due to language barriers) that there are a ton of really kooky quack yoga gurus that were born in India, live their whole lives in India, and have a cult following of exclusively Indians. They say some absolutely batshit stuff and most Indians roll their eyes and mock them the same way that you do with the crunchy granola crowd here.