For several years, the debate on “cultural appropriation” has been recurring. In the fashion industry, music, cinema, cuisine and the arts, the use of an object or motif from elsewhere, an ornament, a melody, an instrument, an ingredient, is denounced by some as an abusive loan to a culture dominated by the dominant culture (western culture). The balance of power between the two cultures distinguishes cultural appropriation from assimilation or interbreeding. The minority has no choice but to accept the appropriation by the majority, so it is not an exchange of equals. C ultural appropriation perpetuates a form of oppression that has its origins in conquest or colonization. The term appeared in the United States in the 1980s, with the rise of post-colonial studies, a field of university research at the intersection of sociology, anthropology and history. One of the most regularly raised cases of cultural appropriation is that of the elements ...