Cultural Appropriation Of Yoga

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Namaste. This word is spoken at the end of yoga classes all over the country. This word is translated to mean “I bow to the God within you.” However, during yoga classes, God is barely spoken of because yoga isn’t religious (Lawson 2). Right? The yoga we have become so familiar with in America only represents a small portion of what yoga truly is. Here in America we view yoga as a fun way to exercise and an excuse to buy “cute” new workout clothes. Yoga is supposed develop not only your body, like Americanized yoga depicts, but also your mind and spirit (Prairie Yoga 1). According to Dr. Ishwar, yoga is “Essentially a spiritual discipline based on an extremely subtle science, which focuses on bringing harmony between mind and body” (Basavaraddi …show more content…
According to Nittle cultural appropriation “typically involves members of a dominant group exploiting the culture of less privileged groups-often with little understanding of the latter’s history, experience and traditions (Nittle 1). However, when the author interviews Susan Scafidi, Scafidi says that it’s difficult to form a definition for cultural appropriation, but she then proceeds to give a definition saying; “Taking intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, or artifacts from someone else’s culture without permission….” (qtd. in Nittle 1). According to the article, cultural appropriation in the United States almost always involves members of the dominant culture “borrowing” from the minority groups. “Borrowing” from minority groups is key in cultural appropriation because it robs the minority groups in which the majority “borrowed” from of the credit they deserve. What cultural appropriation isn’t, is cultural groups rubbing off on each other. Because of all the different ethnicities that make up the United States population, it is a common thing for communites consisting of multiple ethnicities to rub off on each other; residents of the community may pick up on different customs or religious traditions that surround them. However since they are not stealing or “borrowing” from another culture it is something totally different than cultural appropriation (Nittle

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