Sunday, December 6, 2009

More on appropriating Hawaiian culture

Building off my previous post on the commodification and appropriation of Hawaiian culture within the context of a global economy, one can clearly see how hula has been utilized by foreign cultures in the following three videos:

See, below, how Japanese nationals have taken the Hawaiian art as their own in this sexualized version, revamped for profit:



And not surprisingly, local Japanese (born/raised in Hawaii) are complicit in an industry that passes around the Hawaiian culture as something that can be freely passed around:



And then there is the typical Waikiki version incorporating its corrupted version of hula into a tourist-driven economy:



For a more accurate history of hula in Hawaii and the Pacific, go to PacificNetwork.tv, or at least watch these very interesting videos, below, which show hula and its connection to war and provide an explanation of gender stratification:





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