🔍 Key Concepts: Cultural Appropriation, Acculturation, Assimilation, Indigenous Intellectual Property Rights, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

• Cultural Appropriation: Imagine a popular student in school starts wearing a band t-shirt of a lesser-known band that a less popular student has loved for years. Suddenly, the band's music becomes mainstream, but the original fan's devotion is overlooked. This is cultural appropriation on a small scale, which becomes problematic on a larger scale when a dominant culture borrows from a marginalized culture without understanding or respect.

• Indigenous Intellectual Property Rights: Let's say a rural community has a unique, ancient method of weaving. It's their intellectual property because it's unique to them. These rights aim to protect such unique cultural practices from being exploited or stolen.

• Cultural Appropriation: A fashion designer incorporates sacred symbols from Native American culture into their designs without understanding their significance.

• Indigenous Intellectual Property Rights: The use of the Neem tree in traditional Indian medicine was attempted to be patented by a western pharmaceutical company. India fought against this, as the knowledge is part of their traditional knowledge.