Research

Today's meaning of the term describes everything from hairstyles, clothing, food and music, but the term was used differently in the past. In the 1980s, the term “cultural appropriation” was originated in schools to discuss the Western colonialism and treatment of non-white cultures. The concept has developed through time from the study of culture that began in the 1840s. 

The study of culture started with a German anthropologist, Gustav Friedrich Klemm. He published General Cultural History of Mankind, in which the word “culture” is used for the first time in society. He inspires other people to study the concept of culture and British anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor releases Primitive Culture in 1871. His study helps establish cultural anthropology as a recognized field of social science. He also creates the term “cultural diffusion” to describe the process of transferring elements of culture between societies. This term is used similar to cultural appropriation because they both include groups of societies taking elements from other groups. Then in 2010, Public criticism of cultural appropriation rose as social media gained popularity. Cultural stereotyping occurs when one assumes that all people within a culture act and think the same way. It is also studied that cultural appropriation can also have mental health effects because of how often stereotypes can affect a culture.