Yellowman YXM- using motifs from other cultures

[TsPoet]

I grew up in Santa Fe. My parents owned an art gallery. I worked a lot with Indian Artists, mostly Navajo. The artists selling lower end wares (ie sitting under the portico) would tell the tourists that it was sacred. The upper end artists selling their wares for $1000+ would say that was not really the case. It's art. They are making money off of it, they are sharing it.

But... Joe Ben, a fabulous sand painter who sold his sand paintings for thousands of dollars was once doing a "real" sand painting demonstration - the tourists huddled around taking photos and it was twilight. Joe was very very upset - a sand painting of the type he made MUST be destroyed before sunset and he couldn't get to it. My father (a man with no empathy whatsoever) managed to force his way to the front of the crowd and kick the painting. Joe was forever in his dept. To this day, I'm amazed that my father bothered, Joe must've been upset enough to break through my father's lack of noticing.
Anyway - they are two different things. Copying art from other culters that's out there and that you can buy from them is no different, IMHO, than copying Van Gogh or any other art.

[Crankin]

I really can't comment on the cultural aspects; the best thing about these products is the material. Like GLC, I get extremely overheated during indoor classes and when I run outside. Not so much for cycling.
I am not sure what exactly turns me off about some of the designs. A couple of them, it's definitely the color combinations and for some, I hate to say it, the designs just look ugly to me.

[Wahine]

It's an interesting issue. I agree that any cultural, sacred image, should be treated with respect. Regardless of a person's personal beliefs (but that's a whole other topic).

But it's sort of a double edged sword of the global village, isn't it? Someone sees something that they identify with and they want to emabrace it and make it part of who they are, so they adapt and modify it into something uniquely theirs but inspired by X. That's actually a pretty pure motivation in some ways.

Then there are companies that use these images in their designs with no religious significance at all but simply for the visual appeal. The consumer sees it, something clicks and they buy. Maybe it never goes farther than that. But maybe they think, "Wow, this is really cool" and choose to learn more about where that image came from. All of a sudden you have a person in the USA who becomes inspired by and aware of a different culture. Probably also a good thing.

But in the process the imagery has been watered down. It's no longer meaningful. And a culture may become offended.

It reminds me of a chinese proverb, "Good luck, bad luck, who knows"

I certainly don't have the answer.

But I am pretty certain that it can't be stopped. In the current world of instant sharing of images and ideas, it's inevitable that people will run with ideas and inspirations driven by many different undercurrents of intention and I don't think it can be controlled.