Why do I keep getting obsessed with other cultures?

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I keep getting obsessed with other cultures. My first cultural obsession was black people. I wanted to be black so badly. I was very young when I had that obsession, it was weird. It later changed to India. Way after that I got obsessed with a bunch of Scandinavian countries.

My latest cultural obsession is Jewish people. This one seems to be way more controversial than all of my other cultural obsessions. It's kind of annoying. I constantly feel like I'm a cultural appropriator/impostor.

Luckily I'm getting a DNA test. Maybe I have DNA from all of my past cultural obsessions. That would make me feel better about those obsessions.

I get this. It's not a bad thing, you live in the U.S. right? Pretty culture devoid place, well maybe not devoid, historically very interesting, but the predominant culture these days is just meh. I've been thinking about DNA tests as well. I don't feel it's wrong or that other people shouldn't want to understand or possibly even immigrate to other regions/cultures, But I just feel like an intruder myself if I don't have any actual heritage. Right now I'm obsessed with the Celtic and Scandinavian cultures, the two regions I know I definitely have ancestors from. I've also got interests in Finnish, Central Africa, Siberia, Central Asia, and North American Native cultures. Mostly interested in learning languages and mythologies.

Is that not good for you? Learning and escaping at the same time, lol.
As a child I empathised with indians; cowboys where big back than, they even spoke german over here, lol
Around your age I would read jewish writers, my fav still is Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Last edited by traven on 25 Jan 2016, 6:02 am, edited 1 time in total.

No, I'm in Canada. My parents are Ecuadorian. I have fair skin and my hair used to be light brown, so people never saw me as Ecuadorian. That messed with my cultural identity a lot. My sister looked more stereotypically Ecuadorian. I was kind of jealous of that. That's probably what started my black obsession. People also made a bunch of jokes about my sister having a different father or me being adopted.

Because you're a curious young person with an enquiring mind?
It's not unusual to find other cultures outside your own experience fascinating. Anthropologists have been obsessed with other cultures for centuries. For an autistic, perhaps being so interested in the cultures of others is a kind of compensation method, a way to try to understand other people, because your autism can make doing so intuitively difficult.
You seem to think this is a bad thing? I'd disagree and say it's a good thing. Again, it may be helping you to overcome some other common autistic missing pieces, such as empathy. If you have immersed yourself in a particular culture, especially a minority one such as black culture, you have a greater understanding of what it might be like to be black and part of that culture, and can understand better than someone who had not done so.
I don't believe you have to be biologically connected to that culture to appreciate and take part in it respectfully. Multicultural countries like Canada are a smash of cultures anyway, just as the name suggests, and no one considers that appropriation. As to your interest in Jewish culture, I'm sure adult converts to Judaism don't consider themselves impostors, because they have embraced that cultural history as a crucial part of their religious affiliation. Having genetically Jewish heritage isn't required. As long as you're respectful about it, why should you be uncomfortable?

A) nothing wrong with being fascinated by other cultures per se. In fact its a good thing. But if you give the appearance that you're trying to join (or pass for) some group your not a member that can rub folks the wrong way. So be careful how you do it.

B) you're probably diverse (multi ethnic, if not multicultural) within yourself already.

If you're Ecuadorian your probably Mestizo - a mix of White and Indian. In fact I think Ecuador was part of the Incan Empire (along with Peru, and Bolivia).

The White Spanish part of you could well have both Moorish, and Jewish heritage as well. Jews were a promininent group when Spain was ruled by the Muslims during most of the Middle Ages. Then the Christians fought their way down from the North to push the Moors out of Iberia. Then, the same year Columbus set sail, the Christian monarchs of Spain deported all of the Jews from Spain- sending them to North Africa, and the Balkans. That group of expelled Jews became the Sephardic Jews (as opposed to the Ashkanazi Jews of Poland, and Russia, who are the bulk of America's Jewish population). So its very possible that you are part Sephardic Jew (on top of your like Latin Spanish, and American Indian, ancestry).

A while ago, I was really obsessed with Costa Rica. It wasn't so much a special interest as one of my weird obsessions, similar to my obsessions with people. I thought about it all the time and was interested in the culture and the positive aspects of the country.

It's one of the best things to be obsessed with--unless the obsession is of a negative aspect of the ethnic group/culture.

*Looks slightly to the left where is shows Location:Canada*

fail

People actually bullied you over that, that's total crap. What other people said about Spain in the Middle Ages.