Amanda Lucia — Box Braids, Buddhist Altars & Native Headdresses: Radical Self Expression vs. Cultural Property at Burning Man

In globalization, cultures abut rapidly and religions and ethnicities blend and hybridize. However, the imbalanced power relations between cultures and ethnicities have also created controversies over cultural property rights. Critics of “cultural appropriation” attempt to restrict access to cultural and religious forms and expressions to their source cultures. Burning Man is a social microcosm in which cultural appropriation clashes with the community’s commitment to radical self-expression. Such clashes are compounded by the predominant whiteness of the festival. This paper analyzes Burning Man’s principle of radical self-expression as it stands in conflict with contemporary debates around cultural property. It questions the extent to which Burning Man can and should operate as a utopian environment, distanced from and immune to social forms of ethnic, cultural, and religious conflict.