Can I Borrow Some of Your Culture?

Lately, I have seen quite a few rather angry debates online about ‘cultural appropriation’. Apparently, people that grew up in a particular culture get upset when people from outside that culture use symbols, artefacts, clothing and rituals they ‘have no right to’, being outsiders and not part of the culture they are displaying. Can anyone really claim to ‘own’ a culture? Does it make sense to demand of others to stay away from elements of cultures they didn’t grow up in?

We all grow up in one culture or another. Being human, our ‘natural’ environment — the one we…