I’ve encountered people on social media who tell me that I have no right to hold animist beliefs because animism “belongs” to various indigenous cultures.

It is not my perspective that culture is something that any particular peoples or bloodlines have, as in they can claim exclusive rights to it, like it’s trademarked or copyrighted. This is a mindset that comes from our capitalistic, transactional society. Everything must be owned. From beliefs to traditions, to celebrations to even clothing. Our society looks at your genetics to judge whether or not we can appropriately participate in a culture.

Let’s not even go into how inherently racist this position is. Or how some feel they need to protect indigenous cultures from the massive harm they endure if someone else believes in ideas that originated with humans tens of thousands of years ago, well before our recorded history.

Culture, to me, is something people do. They live their culture, they do not own it. No harm is done to the Japanese people if I wear clothing that was designed in Japan. Even if that clothing is in an old traditional style. No harm is done to anyone if I believe in animism.

In fact, the very nature of an animist’s beliefs is that we are all connected and we all have spirit, including rocks, rivers, trees, forests, and so on. The idea you should be excluded from believing in animism because you can’t trace your genetics to an indigenous people is laughable because of the degree of ignorance one must maintain to even have such an idea.

So, you can certainly shout “cultural appropriation” if you want, but I won’t engage with ignorance. I simply do not acknowledge humans as divided by racial and cultural lines. I not only acknowledge all humans as equal persons, but I also recognize everything else the same way.