thank you for posting this. i was chuckling because i have lots of scottish names in my family and my dad's name was scottish (it's the name I mostly use) and i have all the same wistful feelings about scotland and things scottish as you do.
i have never really explored this heritage of mine, but after reading a bunch of the Cultural Appropriation Fail posts I figured it would be a good thing for me to START with that. it would be the least wannabe thing I could do, you know? starting there.
I too was always encouraged in school to explore other countries and cultures, to learn about their food and cook it, to begin to notice the rest of the world. and this is certainly good, if shallow and if only a beginning. and i am so grateful that my first and most important experience of african american culture, for example, began with jazz. Loving jazz led me to beging to notice and perhaps, I hope, "get" a lot of stuff that I never would have noticed or even registered otherwise, probably -- i am so suburban and whitebread in every other way, it's not even funny.
i don't have a clear answer as to when respectful resonance becomes cultural strip-mining. I really don't. but I know it's not a bright line; and that you would get lots of answers from people you asked inside the cultures in which you take an interest.
I think even being aware and sensitive is a step in the right direction, though. and i liked the idea that i read somewhere in Mammoth Fail that it's important to behave as a guest and not a tourist. thanks again.
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i have never really explored this heritage of mine, but after reading a bunch of the Cultural Appropriation Fail posts I figured it would be a good thing for me to START with that. it would be the least wannabe thing I could do, you know? starting there.
I too was always encouraged in school to explore other countries and cultures, to learn about their food and cook it, to begin to notice the rest of the world. and this is certainly good, if shallow and if only a beginning. and i am so grateful that my first and most important experience of african american culture, for example, began with jazz. Loving jazz led me to beging to notice and perhaps, I hope, "get" a lot of stuff that I never would have noticed or even registered otherwise, probably -- i am so suburban and whitebread in every other way, it's not even funny.
i don't have a clear answer as to when respectful resonance becomes cultural strip-mining. I really don't. but I know it's not a bright line; and that you would get lots of answers from people you asked inside the cultures in which you take an interest.
I think even being aware and sensitive is a step in the right direction, though. and i liked the idea that i read somewhere in Mammoth Fail that it's important to behave as a guest and not a tourist. thanks again.