Mana, Shamans, and the Cultural Misappropriation behind Fantasy Terms

[Jd Smith1]

As a GM I will appropriate anything that feels like it will work. To date, not a single Polynesian has complained.

 

[Maxperson]

Thirty plus years as a police officer, and I've seen countless convictions on similar circumstances.

Taking material property without the express permission of the owner is a crime. The only exceptions are if you are an agent of the owner, or married to the owner.

There's a guy here in the USA, to use just a single example, who did prison time for borrowing a set of tools from his uncle's garage without express permission.

Those are different circumstances. That guy didn't mistakenly take his uncles tools. The guy in the example was allowed to borrow his roommate's bike and grabbed the wrong one by mistake.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Those are different circumstances. That guy didn't mistakenly take his uncles tools. The guy in the example was allowed to borrow his roommate's bike and grabbed the wrong one by mistake.

Still a criminal act. Intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal neglect. Either of the latter elements apply.

Taking another's property without permission is a crime. That defense (I thought it was my buddy's bike,car, stereo, house) has been tried to death, and is very simply defeated by a single question: did you check?

Before you assume control of real property that does not belong to you, ensure you have a legal right to do so. It is very simple. The vast majority of people live their entire lives and never violate this.

 

[ccs]

* I'm sure we could likewise cite 'druids' and 'bards' where the original cultural context of a term was transformed into a generic fantasy term.

Oh, that's OK. Go back far enough in my family trees & both of those terms come from my heritage.
Since they belong to me?
I hereby grant everyone - past/present/future - permission to use these terms as they please in any & all forms of communication imaginable with no compensation expected {however, should you feel inclined I do take PayPal....}.

There. Now you can all rest easy knowing that you've not misappropriated anything from me.

 

[Aldarc]

4e's Primal Power did a good job taking the class name "Shaman" and offering a variety of images of how the abilities might work in the world.

As said above: add, don't subtract.

However, this does get to the earlier point made about how shamanism is typically framed as primitive in comparison to priest or cleric. The fact that shaman class is associated with the "primal" source kinda hints at how we generally think of it.

Well, much of the english language is taking terms from other languages. So do we stop using "sugar" because it has Arabic roots?

At this point, we either need to make up thousands of new words to replace English words with, or acknowledge were speaking English and if a definition of a word fits what you're describing, you go with it. Might as well replace the numeric system while we're at it so we don't culturally appropriate Arabic culture.

Cultural appropriation is a very real thing. But because a word had it's origins from another culture, doesn't mean the current definition is cultural appropriation itself.

Much as @doctorbadwolf says, the fact that these words come from another language isn't really my point. Appropriation of new vocabulary from other languages happens. However, I discussed, for example, about how various indigenous cultures have pushed back against having the term "shaman" applied to their spiritual leaders as an inappropriate moniker and the cultural harm of "plastic shamans" that stems from Western misconceptions. In the case of "mana," its history in Western usage amounts to 130 years or so of Western misconceptions of Micronesian and Polynesian culture and language.

Like with a lot of D&D and fantasy's tropes, these terms come with a lot of transmitted cultural baggage that we are sometimes not aware we are transmitting or propagating. Sometimes it's helpful to understand where these concepts come from so that we can either (1) consider whether we want to continue using the terms for whatever reason or (2) re-imagine how we use those terms so they are more inline with their original cultural contexts and do so in new imaginative ways that actually bring greater vivacity to the concepts in fantasy.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Mana would be way cooler if it was the inner power of a person, and was affected by their family, environment, friends, etc, and wasn’t really so much an individualistic resource.
Also a decent alternative to Ki, though again the spiritual and social aspects of mana are lost.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Also a decent alternative to Ki, though again the spiritual and social aspects of mana are lost.

This is another one. I am not Asian, nor have I ever trained in any real martial arts or eastern religious practices, but if I believe ki/chi is real and I have it and can learn to use it, nobody better try to tell me I am appropriating anything just because I was not born into that culture.

 

[prabe]

As a GM I will appropriate anything that feels like it will work. To date, not a single Polynesian has complained.

I think there's a difference between grabbing (or appropriating) something for your home campaign, and doing the same for something you intend to publish. I think I can rely on the players around my table to give me some benefit of the doubt if I screw something up out of ignorance; I don't think I would expect or deserve the benefit of the doubt from the larger public, if I published it.

 

[Dire Bare]

Would they? To the best of my knowledge, they do not identify as “paladins” or use the title “paladin” as part of their order’s offices.

That would be revealing the secrets of the order . . . . .

 

[doctorbadwolf]

This is another one. I am not Asian, nor have I ever trained in any real martial arts or eastern religious practices, but if I believe ki/chi is real and I have it and can learn to use it, nobody better try to tell me I am appropriating anything just because I was not born into that culture.

This comes across as very “I can wear a bindi if I want to!” style entitled.