Communal Appropriation: Considerations of Heritage and Cultural Preservation

<p>While cultural appropriation is widely taken as a negative phenomenon that should be avoided, aspects of cultural appropriation are desirable for cultural preservation and heritage. These aspects can expand upon a museum's function by fostering an authentic connection to the community that would enhance the exhibition of cultural artifacts with authenticity, sustainability, diversity, and accessibility. This paper interprets auto-ethnographical visits to two sites, the Watts Tower Community Center in Los Angeles, CA, and the Fairfield House in Bath, England as a way of understanding community appropriation. Both the Watts Tower Community Center and the Fairfield House are inhabited by black and ethnic minority communities that have adopted and claimed their respective sites as locations for cultural activities outside of the intent of the original site's founder. I argue in this essay that community appropriation is a phenomenon that can be used as a way of cultural heritage that destabilizes traditional values and troubling aspects of current cultural preservation. In this essay, I aim to close a gap in our understanding of cultural transmission, preservation, and community efficacy.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Cultural Studies, MA

Level thesis:degree_level

Open Access Master's Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

School of Arts and Humanities

Year dc:date.available

2023

Author dc:creator

• Chaney, Nikia

Contributors dc:contributor

• Jung-Hsien Lin

• communal
• cultural heritage
• museum preservation
• communal appropriation
• Museum Studies
• Other Arts and Humanities

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/515

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarship.claremont.edu:cgu_etd-1536