Just to change the geographical focus for a moment, I think it's fascinating how we in the UK see ourselves in relation to our cultural heritage – especially in light of the row over immigration and foreigners coming in and supposedly taking over and changing our culture. This was brought home to me by a series of programmes on the Beeb about the Celts, the last of which I watched last night. Although the Celts were 'incomers' to Britain at some undefined point in history, they became more or less indigenous, with tribes spread across most of the British Isles until they were pushed by the Roman invaders into the peripheral areas we now think of as the Celtic nations. Although the Romans lived in Britain for four and a half centuries and, it could be argued, had far more of an impact on our civilisation than the Celts, today there is little blatant Roman influence in popular culture, whereas Celtic influence in the shape of designs, jewellery, tattoos – even their Pagan religion – is to be found everywhere. We like to see ourselves as descendants of the Celts but still think of the Romans as invaders, despite the possibility that many of us have as many Roman genes as Celtic. The same could probably be said of the Anglo Saxon/Norman perception.

So when I said before that cultural appropriation is usually a form of cultural approbation, this is what I meant – people only adopt the styles of cultures that they feel comfortable with or in some way admire.