On cultural appropriation and cultural transpropriation: a Latin American perspective

Abstract

This article analyses the reception of debates on ‘cultural appropriation’ in Latin America, as the term landed in the region in the late 2010s straight from the US and Canada. Upon arrival, the Anglo-Saxon meaning of ‘cultural appropriation’ competed with the literal equivalent apropiación cultural (or apropriação cultural in Brazil), known in Latin America previously, although with a totally different sense. By examining such a clash of meanings and examples of resistance against the Anglo-Saxon version and inconsistencies in its local use, its applicability in Latin America is discussed. It is argued that, due to the specificities of the local ethnic-racial dynamics, some types of interethnic migration of cultural elements can indeed be analysed as variants of cultural appropriation, while others become incomprehensible when interpreted with conceptual frames developed for North American realities. For the latter, this article presents the term ‘cultural transpropriation’ as an alternative.