Circus collection with wild animals

I did see it, but I didn't associate it with modern day circuses at all due to its very vintage nature and possibly also because I looked only at the papers and mostly recall seeing bright, bright colors and wild patterns. If anything, to me, it brought forth mental images of all of the places that use clowns and circus motifs in scary things these days. A few of the Halloween horror type places in my general area have used Circus themes. So to me, it fit in with all of the other Halloween collections being released, since that's probably the only way I would use it for actual scrapbooking.

I can understand how it could be upsetting if one were to view it in regards to animal treatment in actual circuses though, and I'm sorry it made you sad and angry when you saw it. Hugs.

I agree. Especially since I tend to just find them scattered in with completely non-Native American elements. Like a dreamcatcher is apparently the equivalent of a glitter unicorn or a puffy rainbow or a "You go girl!" sticker.

I always feel the need to explain the use of the word 'tribe' as a general rule to Americans (which does not apply in the case of a clearly native American-themed scrapbook line). It's from the Latin 'tribus' which was commonly used and still is today. European tribes were referred to as such long, long, loooong before European settlers imported the word when they colonised North America and applied the generic term to classify Native American tribes. The term is still commonly used in history and anthropology books, museums and even common language in Europe.

Here's a history magazine cover talking about 100 Gaul tribes in the territory that is today known as France:



Tribalism and modern tribes include individualistic affiliations like sports teams. "My tribe" is thus not necessarily an appropriation or disrespectful use of Native American culture when detached from other signals like dreamcatchers and headdresses. Anyhoo, enough of me on my sociolinguistic pedestal! 😉

This is one of those times when there's a break between North America (+ Africa to some extent) and Europe. I still see many everyday uses of the word 'tribe' in Europe, including political tribes (like here), tribe shifting among teenagers and young adults, etc. That can be interpreted as offensive or automatically coming with negative connotations to Americans when it isn't.

This conversation reminded me of the odd return of the phrase "spirit animal" in the past few years, too. It was a huge trend on social media ("XXX is my spirit animal"). Now that was a surprise. It lasted all the way through the BLM movement of the early pandemic as well. At that time, Bella Blvd. had a "My Tribe" collection filled with Native American references and imagery that ended up being cancelled although the product was ready to be shipped to retailers.

Yikes. In my mind, cancelling that line was a good idea.