#which is cherrypicked from like 3 cultures without any understanding of the backgrounds of the practices | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

wikagirl · 2 years ago

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I‘ve been using friendship bracelet braiding methods to make fancy trims and borders for future larp projecs (because getting nice looking ones that fit my aesthetic is mucho hard)

and so I got curious about where friendship bracelets come from

and now I‘m confused

because the practice of friendship bracelets is apparebtly appropriated from central american indigenous practices but the knot methods and just decorative knots in general can be seen all through out history, most notably china and arabic countries but also slav and norse cultures.

And now I‘m not quite sure if what I‘m doing can be seen as cultural appropriation or not because I‘m using these methods to supplement for decorative trims that I don‘t have the recources for to make in a historically appropriate way. The knotbinding itself doesn‘t really seem to be traceable to one specific culture as far as I can tell from the like 8 articles I‘ve read, just the bracelet giving thing and that‘s what the knots are most associated with, so idk if it would be okay for me to use the methods still or not.

It‘s generally a fun and easy to learn craft, it keeps my fingies occupied so my brain can focus and I but if this is a nother thing that has been forcefully taken from a nother culture then I‘m not sure if I want to continue using these methods :/

#for me personally there is a major difference between things we‘ve adopted from other cultures via trade and exchange #and things we have taken from cultures via conquest #cutural appropriation police I need some advice #I think I can also use loop braiding if I really do end up not using my current method anymore #which is a method from medieval england but it offers much less detail in the braid #brits dont get to complain about their stuff being yoinked when the british museum exists #I‘ve tried it once but I don‘t have the space in my room that it takes to make the braids as long as I need #an example of cultural exchange I like to use a lot is food #humans just loooove to share food and try new ones and mix and match to create new things #but it doesn‘t work like that with ritualistic or spiritual practices #*looking right at those peeps on instagram sageing their house and doing juice detox to cleanse their chakra and pray to their kami*#which is cherrypicked from like 3 cultures without any understanding of the backgrounds of the practices #and one of them we as in the broader population have been asked repeatedly to not do #this shit makes me so angy sometimes

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