Economic Inequity and Indigenous Cultural Erasure.

Here is a “Quick and Dirty” on cultures and their impacts on economics so it can be better understood what is meant by “something not being a culture issue, but an economic issue”. Things can be a really important cultural issues with deep heritage ties, but most people will not understand capitalism’s impact until we discuss the purely economic side. Think of all the subcultures we know and how access to money in the way many country’s work affect how you can interact with the various aspects of that culture and your freedom to interact with it.

I particularly find the idea that the deep cultural ties related to Indigenous populations have been/are being taken and commodified. This is not a new problem. Indigenous cultures have faced this for years which is where many of our trends come from (also for other POC cultures). We have been fighting the commodifying of cultural items and making cultural erasure the new definition of cultural appreciation.

Some cultures appreciate this because it shares their culture even if it is diluted. Others do not due to the long history of erasure, structural racism in many cultures, and the imperialist (or colonizing) outlooks of many nationalities. There is no right and wrong about this, but it is important to listen to the perspectives of people and how capitalism’s use of culturally significant items impacts many POC on multiple levels.

These links are in no way the end all be all nor do I believe they speak more highly of one perspective over another. These just inform on how one thing impacts another.

Resources
Erasure of Indigenous Knowledge and its Impact on Culture excerpted from INTRODUCTION TO CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR