The Negative Impacts Of Indigenous Culture

In the article, “The Benefits of Cultural ‘Sharing’ Are Usually One-Sided," Adrienne Keene (2015) brings up a valid question, “Who has the right to represent an Indigenous community? Outsiders, or the community themselves?” The link to the article is as follows http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/08/04/whose-culture-is-it-anyhow/the-benefits-of-cultural-sharing-are-usually-one-sided. Through out history, there are many examples of cultural appropriation. As well as, examples of the negative impact it has on society. That is not up for argument; however, what is up for debate is who are the ones with the right to control the image of individual cultures and how they are to be represented to the world. Cultural appropriation has always and will always, to an extent, be a part of the human experience. However, if individuals want their own cultures to be represented in a certain light it is up to them, as individuals, to represent that image. …show more content…
The problem with this is, who within that culture gets to have the final say in what is an appropriate representation of the culture as a whole? It becomes difficult to have a set representation of a culture when there are differences of opinion within a culture. Historically, Latin American countries have been viewed as having conservative values due to the influence of the Catholic Church, one of those conservative values being the negative representation of contraceptives. Yet, government programs aimed at controlling population growth through the use of contraceptives have been largely successful within Latin American countries, such as Mexico (Oakley & Rodriguez, 2005, p. 212). Clearly here there is a difference of opinion between the religious institution and both the government and general population, but who is to say either side is