#cultural erasure | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

peridot-tears · 10 months

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Hey MDZS fandom. I want you guys to be careful interacting with this person.

If you don't already know, Chinese people have had a long history with cultural erasure when it comes to taking on English-language names. It started with imperialism, and continues as a way to "assimilate" and avoid mockery of our language in western countries.

For Chinese diaspora like myself, it's another form of racism we face, to the point where some of us are reclaiming our names in everyday life. Here's an article about this movement happening across Asian diasporas in the United States -- just to name one instance out of many.

The responses to this post reflect that:

You can see that my comment assumed "good faith." However, OP deleted these comments and blocked me. (That didn't stop other people from calling it out as well, though I have to assume that if OP was so offended by my comment, the next few people will receive the same treatment.)

I honestly didn't like whipping up the diaspora statement -- that I wrote with multiple Chinese diaspora fans of MDZS, all of us hailing from multiple different countries and backgrounds, our ancestry coming from completely different regions of China -- because it meant that we were encountering another microaggression.

If you ever wonder why MDZS and danmei fandoms in general seem to be so bereft of Chinese diaspora voices, that's absolutely because of these microaggressions: Someone makes a joke, writes a story, writes some meta, that is culturally ignorant at best, offensive and harmful at worst, and when we gently correct them, explaining why it's racist, the person in question shuts us down, dismisses us, gets defensive, or worse.

Regardless of where you are -- fandom, social media, on the street, at work, at school -- as long as you are interacting with other people, your words matter and affect other people. That includes being racially offensive, even if you didn't intend to be. It's how you respond to the people you've insulted that reveals your character, how willing you are to be complicit in their mistreatment.

My rule of thumb has always been this -- if multiple people, including those of the culture you've just made a microaggressive joke about, find it unfunny, racist, or harmful, then you listen. Dismiss or ignore them, then yes -- you absolutely are racist.

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matan4il · 9 months

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I can't believe it's only Aug 12th and already there's a Xmas post on my dash.

Every single year I have to get through the non-Christian erasure that is Xmas season, the way that everyone acts as if the whole world celebrates Xmas, every year I have to feel like I'm being mean and raining on people's parades when I refuse to join in, or when I try to (as politely as I can) refuse to be greeted with Xmas wishes, every year I have to grit my teeth as every show has a Xmas special, every app and software has festive events and sales, changing into special Xmas versions of their icons, every media outlet wants to tell me about the joys of Xmas shopping and tourism, meanwhile I'm biting my tongue not to blurt out repeatedly that Xmas is when historically my people were targeted, brutalized and sometimes even MURDERED... and apparently Xmas season just keeps getting longer.

I don't mind that people who are religiously or culturally Christian celebrate it. I kinda mind it when non-Christians do, because that strikes me as the effects of commercialism and cultural colonialism, but hey. Other people are independent individuals, it's up to them to make their own choices, even if I personally make a different choice. And I'd never make anyone personally feel bad about their choice, either. What bothers me is that it's basically IMPOSSIBLE to opt out of Xmas celebrations if you're one of the people who don't want to participate. They're everywhere. They're in every place, they're in so many spaces that I otherwise love. And they just keep starting earlier every year. I wanna bang my head against the wall.

This is what religious / cultural coercion feels like. Yeah, even if it's done unintentionally by many.

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dragonturtle2 · 1 year

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The Collector’s Magical Kingdom of Appropriation

The Collector’s reign over the Boiling Isles is actually a huge illustrated metaphor of cultural appropriation. Sure, there are the more blatant signs of full on colonialism and genocide. We plainly see the entire native population is either enslaved or hidden away in fear, while Collector takes their territory for himself. But The Owl House has always spent time being a mirror held up to the consequences of the fantasy genre, and the desires of its fans.

Think of the stars with eyes that Collector uses to decorate the Isles, and deploys as enslaver drones. Why the star shape? It’s not just a reminder of how he/they are technically a little kid. It’s the overriding aesthetic of the Collector society. They seem to live in the cosmos itself, their clothes have celestial bodies all over them, and each one of them apparently had a phase of the moon stamped on their faces. So in order to make the Boiling Isles more appealing to himself, Collector stamped his local iconography all over them. He/They took one look at the native architecture and design and decided it wasn’t suitable to his wants. Along with morphing the citizens into wood and plaster, he gave them redesigned and rebranded outfits. Even the local ecology and vistas were crudely plastered over, to the point that a newcomer like Camila Noceda couldn’t distinguish what elements were original.

And these aesthetics are designed to wage war with each other. The inhabitants and architecture of the Boiling Isles are modeled after the free-range bizarreness of Hieronymus Bosch. The most mundane utilities are steeped in the macabre, and nobody even blinks an eye at. This reflects how the Witch civilizations have mimicked the dead giant that gave rise to their existence. Possibly how they’re so at ease with the very concept of death, since they live with the reminder of it’s inevitability, and how it can bring beauty.

What Collector prefers is an 80’s G-rated fantasy kiddie cartoon in the vein of Care Bears.

There’s also the metanarrative aspect with how Luz’s entire story has been passed on. The Collector has spent all these months play-acting Luz’s life; all her accomplishments, and all her sacred bonds. Yes it was King’s suggestion; “the Owl House” game. But Collector obviously loves it. Yet Collector has nothing but contempt for Luz herself, even as a concept. He/They get pouty or mopey whenever she gets referenced. We’ve all seen this pattern of thought with bad faith arguments from chuds online, when it comes to certain franchises. Where they don’t actually have any problems with the story or the particular tropes, they just get pissy when the protagonist is a female or person of color. Collector calls Luz “that human,” like who she was born as is an insult.

The only person Collector treats anything like a peer is King, because he is also a species that reaches Godhood. All the lesser species can be treasured pets, at best. The Collector shares a mindset (or at least outward habits) with bigoted gatekeepers, where the joys of a story or franchise aren’t deserved by people who don’t remind them of themselves. Even if those different types of people are the ones who created the story in the first place. Their accomplishments are only worthwhile if HE can use them, including stamping his name and face on them. Colonialism doesn’t just steal the fruits of labor, they steal your stories of the past, present, and future.

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As an aside, the actions of erasure also extend to the only remotely real bond Collector has, King. Which isn’t surprising given that he’s literally redecorating and playing games with the corpse of King’s dad. The process King’s gone through is assimilation by way of involuntary adoption. King is dressed in Collector clothes, lives in a Collector palace (built atop his dad’s resting place), and learns Collector lore as he reads Collector bedtime stories. Meanwhile, his mom and auntie are living behind bars while they scrounge for their prescriptions.

Although this isn’t quite the intended assimilation like Collector has done for the entire Isles and witch-kind; he/they are just offering King what they enjoy most, which mostly defaults to what they’re already familiar with. That’s just normal for kids, and people in general.

I believe this is a different kind of warning Collector poses to anyone who enjoys stories, and all us involved in fandom. Not just the terror of artistic gentrification. It’s seeking out stories, characters and settings to only fulfill our own desires and preferences. Searching for only baseline wish fulfillment can trap us in a bubble that stops us from growing. Then if something is unique or incongruous, we either throw it away or end up mangling the interpretation. And when art is swept aside and destroyed, we’re also degrading where it came from. It’s creator, it’s people, and it’s country.

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When King first came into his Titan power, I thought it seemed strange that it was a vocal attack. Just because the actual physical noises of the Titan - speech, language, cries - have never had any prominence in this show. Descriptions or theories of how that species have never been included in the lore reveals, or the musings or sayings of the local populace. The closest we’ve gotten is Belos’s original lie, “I am the voice of the Titan.”

I assumed it was meant to contrast with King’s squeaky voice and grand boasts being his main source of comedy. And just basic symbology about puberty. But after writing all this, I’m convinced it was setting up how to save the day from whatever Belos and Collector will try to inflict.

King will stand with his mother and sister (and hopefully aunt and Hooty) and they ALL scream out that what they have is perfect. They scream to prove they exist, and they don’t need to write any coherent song or reasonable argument to prove or earn that right. Their identity, their self perception and self respect, is their power. The most basic of expression can annihilate oppressors, as long is it’s honest. And of course, coordinated noise is a great opportunity for some musician to get involved.

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Big thanks to @marztheincredible for Beta’ing the preceding essay concerning this very histories and complex subject.

#the owl house #toh #luz noceda #toh the collector #toh collector #king clawthorne #cultural erasure #tw cultural erasure #cultural appropriation #owl house Titan #tw colonialism #Youtube #toh king #toh titan #toh analysis #owl house analysis #owl house essay #marztheincredible

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spaceshipsandpurpledrank · 1 year

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#talkin #tik tok #indian child welfare act #native americans #supreme court #samuel alito #sherrilyn ifill #cultural erasure

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kouhaiofcolor · 1 month

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On the internet, especially social media, I try my best to alter my algorithms to show people who look like me (a brown skinned black girl with traditional back features). However, my algorithms show “black” girls but it’s women who are biracial or have like a slight drop of black in them. It’s frustrating bc I sometimes get in my feelings. I don’t look anything like what I’m seeing and the people I’m around. So like it just makes me feel self conscious at times. (Fyi the girls on my algorithms are beautiful & I’m NOT hating on them. I just want to see black girls who don’t look like zendaya.)

Unfortunately, algorithms are a reflection of the societies (& groups within those societies) they're catered to appeal to. And tragically, this allows colorism & cultural appropriation to, if anything, hyper-saturate & erase or dilute Black representation & culture. It's very problematic & harmful — & you're definitely not the only person who finds themselves frustrated over it when looking to specifically immerse yourself in content of people that actually look like you (much less who experience life w/ the same social bias for being fully Black). I understand. The future sucks lol.

#black tumblr #black twitter #black representation #colorism #cultural fetishism #cultural appropriation #cultural erasure #ask #anon

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squirmydonnie · 4 months

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#palestine #free gaza #free palestine #cultural erasure

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songoftrillium · 11 months

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A showcase of the art produced by Krzysztof for World of Darkness, and a starving UNICEF child from his portfolio. To keep in line with Paradox Interactive's creative vision for this complete reboot, the logo has been colored to match the blood on the man's hands. This lineup will probably grow between now and August. Is anybody else starting to notice an alarming trend with this pending "reboot" of this RPG coming soon? Is anyone else uncomfortable as heck about what they're seeing? Say something about it.

#world of darkness #werewolf: the apocalypse #werewolf the apocalypse #colonialism #cultural erasure #appropriation #anti-semitism #indigenous erasure #werewolf #werewolves

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gynoidgearhead · 10 months

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[Embedded tweet described in alt text of above image. Image embedded within the tweet is a section of a book page that reads as follows. Bold text is highlighted in the original image.]

Mollie's family was straddling not only two centuries but two civilizations. Her family's distress increased in the late 1890s as the U.S. government intensified its push for the culmination of the assimilation campaign: allotment. Under the policy, the Osage reservation would be divvied up into 160-acre parcels, into real estate, with each tribal member receiving one allotment, while the rest of the territory would be opened to settlers. The allotment system, which had already been imposed on many tribes, was designed to end the old communal way of life and turn American Indian tribes into private-property owners - a situation that would, not incidentally, make it easier to procure their land.

[End book excerpt.]

More about this here (link). The law (or one of the laws) putting this practice of allotment into motion was called the Dawes Act.

#dawes act #assimilation #anti-indigenous racism #anti indigenous racism #racism #genocide #cultural destruction #cultural erasure #imperialism #colonialism #manifest destiny #alienation #private property is theft #private property #capitalism

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ashleyfableblack · 9 months

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Another piece and a bit of an excerpt from "The Festival of Serpents" a Lyra Heartstrings and Sweetie Drops cross-cultural jam, set in The Eternal Courtship AU.

Bonnie brushed through her wife's mane, listening intently as Lyra went on about her ancestral homeland…

"When I was just a little filly great, great grand-mam Flameberge used to tell us all stories about them, Selene and Marceline. She was something else."

Her smile was tinged with the nostalgic sadness of family lost. Bonnie paused in brushing through her wife's now bright orange mane to lovingly stroke her cheek. Lyra gave her hoof a nuzzle and continued.

"Great-great grandda Fortune Fair, now he was a crazy old coot. I used to think his mind was just gone. We ALL did. The way he would carry on about 'The Old Ways'. Still, he seemed so happy sometimes- like when he used to tell us about the time he actually saw Marceline."

"Met her? Isn't She one of your people's gods?"

Lyra nodded. "Yep. She gave all us Mares of the Isle our red manes and big floofy chests." Lyra puffed up the crest of her barrel- a trait normally only seen in pegasi and even then, hardly so prominent as Lyras.

Bonnie smirked and gave her wife an affectionate nuzzle. "Remind me to thank her sometime."

Lyra kissed her hoof with a proud ruffling of her fluff. "Heh. The legends differed on what She looked like. Some said She was stone gray with a mane as black as ink and huge, hooked wings with wounds on her neck like a vampire bite. Some of the old-timers said She WAS the first vampire, others said… well, She roamed the deepest parts of the woods, far from the edges of any of our villages or fields. WAY out where She could be alone, doing whatever gods do when she wasn't with Selene."

Lyra laughed heartily and began to pantomime exaggerated waves of her hooves, speaking with the raspy tones and exaggerated accent of an old stallion mariner of the Coltic Isle.

"Back in those days, before the coming of those Golden Coast heathens a unicorn knew their place. Children of the world were we, children of the isle, the soil- but our mares, they were the daughters of the wood and we KNEW our place weren't there. That was HER land and we knew well enough to respect Our Lady's sovereignty…"

Bonnie laughed as Lyra turned to her, squinting and jutting out her chin. She theatrically sipped from an unseen flagon and wiped at an invisible beard.

"BUT there were those of us who were daft enough to go wandering where we shouldn't. And I just happened to be a stallion of such dubious mettle." She cackled and slapped her flank with a huge grin. "I had just been blessed with the delightful learning that your dear grammie would soon be blessing our happy home. Being a proper stallion of the isle, the lads took me out to celebrate, perhaps a little too much, it turned out."

Her voice grew more ominous in tone. "Soon, I was full of the spirit and wandering about in the woods. Not just any woods, mind you. These were the dark places, where the light found no home. The beautiful moon herself never touched the soil and the tree bark was as black as the pitch beneath the icy depth of the seas. I felt about in the dark, terrified by my own stupidity. Even …eh… encumbered… as I was , I knew I was not in the safest of places. Birds didn't sing out there. Nor bees fly. They knew better, as I should have. The things which grew knew no hoof nor horn. Things which were not for pony-kind. Old things lived out here, dark things, dangerous things."

Lyra's eyes darted about excitedly with a panicked glare "It was soon I heard their laughter. whispering in my ears. Taunting me, teasing, just on the edge of hearing, like shadows in my mind. They hissed and giggled- cruel, mocking voices like needles dipped in honey and hate. EVIL voices cackling tiny shrill things, threatening me with madness. I ran as I never had, tears in me eyes. I knew it would be my last night on the sweet coast of my family. My last thoughts would be fearing for your grammie and how I'd not be there to greet her into this world.

But then, I saw…"

She lifted a hoof and pointed to the distance, suddenly very still, reverent.

"The voices stopped. EVERYTHING stopped. The world itself froze in dead silence, like winter had claimed it all. The only way I could tell you I yet lived, sweet lassie, was the pounding in my chest and the blood, rushing through my ears. The eyes. Two spheres of green flame, floating in the dark. They drew me in. It was like looking into the maw of the serpent herself at the end of all things."

"She came from the dark… like nothing I had ever lain eyes upon. The most …beautiful and terrifying mare a body had ever beheld. Her ivory coat seemed to sprout from the dark, glowing like a star- like I was watching creation unfold. A body as lithe and graceful as the music of the wind. She had fetlocks that seemed to flow in a breeze all their own and a mane as crimson-red as the blood of Equis' own soul, trailing down to the grass. She towered over me, looking down with those eyes. Impossible eyes. They were… like looking into time. I could see our village being built, stone by stone. I saw the faces of my own dear ma and da, falling in love at the sweet summer festival. Meeting my sweet beloved Flameberge in the flower of our youth. I saw the birth of our first foal, and felt the cold across my gut of four stallions carrying my mortal remains to the pyre. There was no doubt about it, I was in the presence of The Wood Herself, The Great Mare of Soil and Stone and I was an idiot in the very deepest of trouble."

#my art #mlp g4 #mlp au #mlp au lore #the festival of serpents #lyrabon #lyra heartstrings #bon bon #sweetie drops #bonnie #love #lgbtq #lesbian #culture #cultural erasure #mlp oc #eternal courtship #ashleyfableblack

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insane-control-room · 5 months

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if i see any posts that are supporting hamas, i am going to instantly report the blog to tumblr as glorifying terrorism. i dont expect anything to be done, but im sick of the one sidedness of the goyim of this website, and at least theyll be blocked from me.

i will not stand for anyone supporting a group that forcibly makes jews, hindus, druze, buddists, atheists, zoroastrians, sikhs, jains, and christians pay a jizyah, convert, or die.

thats what hamas is. go learn about arab colonialism.

#the oppressed are united #hamas is ISIS #go learn about india #go learn about iran #and whats happening there now #cultural erasure #ethnic cleansing #we will not be erased

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averygayplant · 11 months

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As a white 16 year old boy, adapting and participating in cultures you were not born into as a white person is NOT cultural appropriation and I'm really fucking tired of people on my side of politics constantly fighting about this. So let me end the argument here, as someone SUPER unqualified to do so.

From my admittedly not very extensive research, white people are stupid. It's okay, you can slow clap. It's pretty common knowledge. The term 'cultural appropriation' has shifted over the years into something I don't really like, and the reason why is pretty much just as simple.

A historically reoccurring tactic of colonists is to stifle the religion and culture of the people they're abusing so that it can't be taught or shared and forcibly replacing it with whatever they believe- most notably, it's usually Christianity or some variation of such. This leads the culture to be forgotten and buried and burned, thus massacring an entire people and their history in a barbaric yet terrifyingly efficient fashion. This has been accomplished historically by targeting children and trafficking them into slave labor/'modern religious boarding schools' and slaughtering them under the guise of 'teaching' them.

I feel it's important to note that the erasure of these cultures was not caused by people participating in them, but trying to snuff them out methodically. Now that I've explained that, let me get back to the cultural appropriation thing.

Appropriation of something is supposed to be adopting cultural practices without understanding their significance or value, as is unfortunately the case with many native tribal practices that have been widely adopted into 'western culture' and done so ENTIRELY incorrectly. Instead of pointing this out though, I find that my flavor of liberal often accuses people genuinely trying to learn or celebrate other cultures of appropriating them when adopting their food or clothing or whatever, of whitewashing and diluting the cultural significance and so on.

Let me remind you that the reason so many cultures have been lost is because they were singled out and forbidden to be taught to others, as I pointed out a few paragraphs eariler.

So, to conclude this post, just my trivial, american high schooler understanding of how cultures grow and survive suggests that outsiders learning about other cultures is actually a GOOD thing, and that instead of yelling at each other for doing something rooted in different cultures despite being paler than snow, we should actually encourage people how to adopt these practices correctly- because, lets be honest. If you were afraid of being accused of appropriating traditions, would you bother to learn about them, or would you be entirely ignorant of their people and their struggle?

I guess my final point is that if I, your typical mountain white boy can understand this with no actual research outside of thoroughly enjoying social studies and world history, so can everyone else if they bother to think about it for more than two seconds.

#cultural genocide #cultural appreciation #world history #history #cultural awareness #colonisation #colonialism #cultural erasure

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tierra-del-encanto · 1 year

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how do you pronounce "aurelia"?

this is a complicated question for me. i use the spanish pronunciation of /au-ˈɾe-lja/ when i introduce myself, even when asked to repeat it. i still feel a bit guilty that i don't correct people when they use the anglicised pronunciation of /ə-'ɹ̠eɪ-li-ə/, but i just can't find it in my heart to do it, especially due to the way that spanish names have transformed in my family. like many other families in the southwest with mexican heritage, we have experienced something called language shift, and we all now exclusively use english to communicate. but, of course, there was a bit of an in-between period with my grandfather's generation, and this interesting thing happened where certain relatives might have two different spellings and pronunciations of their own name, depending on what language they were using in a certain context. i think it is mainly for this reason that i can't bring myself to correct people who call me /ə-'ɹ̠eɪ-li-ə/ and reply, "yes, that's right!" when they say it that way after expressing doubt about pronouncing it correctly.

but it does make me happy when people call me /au-ˈɾe-lja/, because it shows me that they want to make an extra effort to respect my cultural identity. for people who have difficulty pronouncing the alveolar tap (aka rolling your Rs), there are ways that you can practise! did you know that this sound actually occurs in english? yes, it's true! take the words "ladder" or "better", for example. in american english, we don't really pronounce these words with a full D or T sound in regular speech. there's a bit of a different sound there, and it's also an alveolar tap, just like in spanish. keep this in mind and try saying these words to yourself if you want to pracise this sound. it is possible and you are capable, i promise! ❤️

but also, ain't nobody got time to give everyone they meet a linguistics lesson, and who wants to hear people complain about how their name is "impossible" to pronounce all the time? so, /ə-'ɹ̠eɪ-li-ə/ is fine too, and due to said language shift, most people in my family call me that anyway. if my own family uses that pronunciation, how can i correct others?

or who knows, maybe i should? i'm still conflicted. perhaps some day i'll gain the courage. 🤷🏻‍♀️

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justanisabelakinnie · 2 years

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Why is there a petition on change.org for Mariano to be played by a white guy if Encanto ever hits Broadway?!?!?!?!?!

Can white people ever, like, stop taking away and erasing every aspect of Colombian culture for even a second? Like--

#they really can't handle when anything is about them can they #also saying it's just a joke doesn't make it any less ridiculous stupid unfunny and quite frankly downright fucking RACIST #plus dolores would never date a white guy da hell #see i can make jokes too #except mine are actually funny #encanto #encanto fandom #encanto fandom salt #racism #fandom racism #not isabela madrigal #cultural erasure #colombia

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aif0s-w · 2 years

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A thread

https://twitter.com/arthurkei_ua/status/1520759747858812932?s=21&t=76fblpnK0ugpDLTVOEmvpQ

In occupied Karafuto (Sakhalin) a russian woman breaks Japanese pottery and turns the remains into “jewellery”.

Russian women proudly decorate themselves with a tragedy of Japanese people.

People abandoned their belongings fleeing occupation. Of course, russia doesn’t try to return the cultural ancestry to Japan, they just destroy it. Like everything else.

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pppaperwork · 1 year

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Cultural Patrimony and the War in Ukraine

I have been looking into the repatriation of artworks like the Parthenon marbles, and Benin Bronzes. It has been eye opening to see how many artifacts have been stolen or looted from their countries of origin, especially by Britain and the U.S.

Earlier this month when I began writing this post it was going to be focused on a marauder-style looting of Scythian Gold from art museums in Melitopol and Mariupol, Ukraine by Russian forces in April of this year. But, just two weeks ago at the beginning of November there was yet another tremendous raiding at the Kherson Art Museum in Southern Ukraine. The Russians destroyed many businesses, churches, homes, and cultural sites in the raid where much of the loot was found as Museum staff and community members tried to preserve it. As aforementioned, this is not the first strike Soviet forces have made on Ukrainian Art and Cultural institutions, those who understood the cultural significance of the items tried to save them. The museum was home to hundreds of paintings dating back to the 17th Century. Shortly after the raid, Soviets withdrew from the Southern Ukrainian city of Kherson in retreat with vans full of thousands of priceless artifacts.

These stolen paintings and artifacts are a part of a larger, darker tactic to scrub Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, and other Eastern Europeans of their cultural heritage and independence. Art is only the tip of the iceberg unfortunately, this month's raids included the vandalism and removal of 200 year old holy remains from their resting place in one of the 250+ Orthodox and Christian churches destroyed since the war began. Not to mention the homes, businesses, technology, national monuments and written history that have been lost. This is Ethnic cleansing and it is a war crime, these pieces must be returned to Ukraine.

The Scythian gold is one of the more pressing issues of this Museum theft, though. We're talking about approximately 198 solid gold artifacts, jewelry, ornaments, weapons, armor, and sculptures dating back over 2300 years, stolen, and not because they were just stumbled upon either. Similarly to how the staff at the Kherson Museum tried to hide and preserve the artwork, the staff at the Melitopol Museum tried even harder. In a New York Times interview in April, Museum Director Leila Ibrahimova describes hiding the Scythian Gold in cardboard boxes in a cellar or basement at the first signs of Russian Militarization in Melitopol back in February. About a month later, Ibrahimova recounted being kidnapped from her home with a black bag on her head for hours of intense questioning by Russian forces. She did not give in and was released, promptly fleeing Melitopol for somewhere not under Russian control. It was another month after that when a different museum employee was put at gunpoint for the Scythian Gold, she did not lead them but they found the boxes anyway.

The next day, in Kyiv, the Mayor of Melitopol gave an enraged press announcement that Ukraine's Scythian gold was gone with the Russians and no one had its whereabouts any longer.

Scythian Gold describes a type of gold sculpture or artifact from the 7-3 Century BCE, made by Scythian or nomadic people in a geographic "band" across the Pontic-Caspian Steppe from around Romania, west through Siberia. This is one of the most sought-after collections of artwork by museums throughout history, known for its rich origins and cultural backgrounds. Scythian gold is also said to be the purest gold there is, and it has disambiguations in the context of alchemy, mythology, and religion as well. It has been reported by multiple sources, although not confirmed, that select pieces of Scythian gold that were stolen from the Melitopol Museum have hit the stolen art market online and underground for bidding. All I can say is it's a shame and I am feeling very sorry for those living in Ukraine and the generations of war, violence, natural disasters, and ethnic cleansing they have faced.

In that initial research into stolen ancient art I mentioned, I noticed that most of the articles and hot-button issues coming up were focusing on Western European countries (UK, Spain, France), stealing from prehistoric cultures around the world. It's interesting to me as a student who had weekly field trips to LOCAL (Northeastern U.S. ) art museums and saw plenty of ancient "tribal" art and cultural and religious artifacts from across the globe, that the U.S. apparently acquired all of it ethically. I digress, I just thought it was worth mentioning that a suspiciously small amount of info on stolen art in the Americas was available.

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fierceautie · 2 years

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Systematic Erasure of Jews is Really Obvious When Researching Geneology

A sense of identity is really important to people of any age, especially children. This can be hard. This is not just gender or sexuality identity. It can mean family history. This can be especially hard for kids who are not being raised by their biological parents. My biological kids know they are Jewish from my side and German/Italian from their dad’s side. Because the other kids are…

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#cultural erasure #holocaust #jewish culture #jewish erasure #jewish people #jewry

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