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Chieftain Hat - Cultural Misappropriation?


Jtmorris

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*note* To hopefully add clarity to this, neither my wife or I were upset by this, but the holiday costume piece sparked some good discussion between us. It led us to a much larger conversation about a bunch of things. Ultimately we were curious if anyone was actually offended by this. I did not want to jade the discussion or clog it up with backstory. My words may have conveyed a tone of social justice crusade, but that is not the intent at all. Hope that helps lessen the anger over this post! May your anger continue to lessen throughout the day.

One definition of "cultural appropriation" might be when somebody adopts aspects of a culture that’s not their own or without "permission". Often times it is done in situation where one culture oppressed the other. (It is different than assimilation or exchange)

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So my wife and I were playing and finally killed enough Turkeys for the Chieftain Hat skin. My wife (who is much more discerning than I), was a bit taken a back that the developers would choose to put in an item like that which is an important symbol and part of current and past Native culture. She wasn't conformable with it at all, and more a bad use of a cultural symbol. 

Do you think it's misappropriation? 

Share your thoughts on why or why not?

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The head dress is a very important part of their cultural heritage - none of those other things are.

"Is it misused?" is exactly the question. 

It's not about being uptight, it's about being respectful of each other and not selfish and insensitive; Educated rather than ignorant. 

The question is more of an intellectual discussion around the appropriate use of something like that, not necessarily if it offended you or not. 

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8 minutes ago, Jtmorris said:

The head dress is a very important part of their cultural heritage - none of those other things are.

"Is it misused?" is exactly the question. 

It's not about being uptight, it's about being respectful of each other and not selfish and insensitive; Educated rather than ignorant. 

The question is more of an intellectual discussion around the appropriate use of something like that, not necessarily if it offended you or not. 

In short, No. Chief's of native american tribes wear these hats to this day, it is not being used in a disrespectful manner it is simply in the game.

Do we not make WW2 games because it's disrespectful to every country involved's culture? Dont think so

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Its apportiate, a game where you live off the land use everything you get from a plant/dino you harvest. If you think about it is a tip of the hat or homage to how the native peoples lived, use everything and none gone to waste.  The hat in the old times is  a symbol of power.. and if you killed 20 turkeys by all means i dont want to mess with you. Also the word chieftain isnt directed towards anyone except the leader of a group, band of, or tribe.  Think about it 

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Im native american and im offended on how you think this is disrespectful to our people..  if anything i am happy that a symbol of my culture was put into the the game.

What tribe is your wife from because she needs to do a little more research on our background if she finds it disrespectful to have our cultures symbol in a video game. 

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Man, I don't know who peed in everyone's cornflakes this morning, but geez, put the knives away, take a step back, a deep breath and calm down.... I don't think anyone is offended at the costume piece - more unsure if we should be. Neither of us know much about Native culture, and that's a big reason I posted the question! Educating ourselves is better than resting in ignorance. Sorry that asking questions and beginning discussion offends some of you, but that type of mind numbing denial is not how I want to live my life, so I will just disagree that the question is not worth exploring. 

Some helpful insights in some of the above posts too. I would love to hear more thoughts about it. 

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I dont think it's offensive as it's something that you earn from achieving a certain goal . It's a prize you've won for being bad ass enough to kill them crazy turkeys so that makes it a positive thing doesn't it? 

If you attained it by say.... Stealing the land and pillaging a tribe of dark skin toned players for the past 500 in-game years then hell yeah that's offensive . 

Im white though so I can't speak for how a first nations person would take this. 

I doubt wc meant to offend anyone by putting it in the game.

 

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3 hours ago, Jtmorris said:

Non intellectual conversation can be had elsewhere. 

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Man, I don't know who peed in everyone's cornflakes this morning, but geez, put the knives away, take a step back, a deep breath and calm down.... I don't think anyone is offended at the costume piece - more unsure if we should be. Neither of us know much about Native culture, and that's a big reason I posted the question! Educating ourselves is better than resting in ignorance. Sorry that asking questions and beginning discussion offends some of you, but that type of mind numbing denial is not how I want to live my life, so I will just disagree that the question is not worth exploring. 

Some helpful insights in some of the above posts too. I would love to hear more thoughts about it. 

Although you may fancy yourself an intellectual because you ponder such deep conundrums of "cultural misappropriation" in a dinosaur video game, this is a truly inane thread. Stop looking for things to be offended by and enjoy your life. It's too short for this nonsense.

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4 hours ago, Jtmorris said:

Non intellectual conversation can be had elsewhere. 

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Man, I don't know who peed in everyone's cornflakes this morning, but geez, put the knives away, take a step back, a deep breath and calm down.... I don't think anyone is offended at the costume piece - more unsure if we should be. Neither of us know much about Native culture, and that's a big reason I posted the question! Educating ourselves is better than resting in ignorance. Sorry that asking questions and beginning discussion offends some of you, but that type of mind numbing denial is not how I want to live my life, so I will just disagree that the question is not worth exploring. 

Some helpful insights in some of the above posts too. I would love to hear more thoughts about it. 

Sounds like your studying some liberal arts degree at college. Social Justice? 9_9

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35 minutes ago, BulletForce said:

Sounds like your studying some liberal arts degree at college. Social Justice? 9_9

Haha it does! But no. Just thought it was an interesting discussion.

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Apparently we should just stick to talking about the injustice of how game bugs and SE are ruining the thousands of hours people are wasting on a video game. Sorry for disturbing all of your regular "important"  discussions.... 

Carry on. 

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10 hours ago, Jtmorris said:

So my wife and I were playing and finally killed enough Turkeys for the Chieftain Hat skin. My wife (who is much more discerning than I), was a bit taken a back that the developers would choose to put in an item like that which is an important symbol and part of current and past Native culture. She wasn't conformable with it at all, and more a bad use of a cultural symbol. 

Do you think it's misappropriation? 

Share your thoughts on why or why not?

I recommend reading various anthropological studies to help mitigate that modern native American triggering. Start first with ones covering how the headdress in the game isn't universal to all or even most tribal societies of North America, especially prior to the late 1800's(pre ghost dance era). 

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I don't think it needs to be an issue. Wildcard isn't trying to sell it off as a product of white culture or anything. They just added it as a reward for a holiday event that recognizes both European settlers and Native Americans, and on top of that, it represents achievement in the game. I'm only distantly related to any Native American groups, but I don't think I'd find it overly offensive even if I had strong cultural ties to a particular tribe or ethnic group. That seems to be the consensus among people with much greater N.A. heritage than I have, too, so I wouldn't sweat it too much

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2 hours ago, Jtmorris said:

Haha it does! But no. Just thought it was an interesting discussion.

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Apparently we should just stick to talking about the injustice of how game bugs and SE are ruining the thousands of hours people are wasting on a video game. Sorry for disturbing all of your regular "important"  discussions.... 

Carry on. 

It's not an interesting discussion in the slightest, it's an attempt by someone to make something out of nothing.

It's a game where one of the core game mechanics is that you band together to form tribes. What is a common theme among tribes throughout history? A tribe chief! What did the tribe chief, aka the chieftain, wear? Oh let's see... a cool kind of head dress! Let's put one of those in the game!!

What if WC had put a Beefeater hat skin in the game? I mean it has nothing to do with tribes or whatever but still, let's run with it for a second - should the English be offended? Wait! There are dragons in the game!! That's a mis-appropriation of Nordic, Welsh/Celtic etc heritage!!

Get outta here with this nonsense, jeez where is this world heading.

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