“Midcentury Indian performers – particularly those who devised and managed their own performances—surely set and reinforced white expectations concerning Indian gesture, custom, and appearance, but by and large, their material seems to have emerged from Native cultural practices rather than the fictions of the Indian play” (Deloria 57-58).
Reading Vine Deloria’s article reminded me of the “Ethnicity, Inc.” chapters from last week. As I was wondering with those articles, why are we so uncomfortable when cultural group or individuals add their cultural products to the market? Is it because we are concerned with whether or not the group was forced into such a position? Is our discomfort because we believe (perhaps even despite the views we want to have) that the cultural products become less authentic once they have entered the marketplace? We know that individuals change traditions and products due to considerations of the audience.
Was this not happening in the past? Were people not using the products of their cultures in order to make money in Ancient Rome? Maybe my question is redundant, but it seems there are some unspoken concerns about how cultural groups use their cultures in the economy. As if we are concerned that groups do not really understand what they are doing with their own cultural products. And I am concerned about this.
I meant Phillip Deloria, not Vine. But it is all in the family. :)
ReplyDelete