A thread on the on the “Roleplayers of Color” mailing list was discussing the Wish lists for non-European cultural defaults for fantasy settings thread on Story-Games. Kynn Bartlett had a great idea for judging how to do this sort of fantasy right:
It has to be the myths OF THE CULTURES YOU’RE WRITING ABOUT, not the myths of OTHER PEOPLE ABOUT THEM.
A Mythic Africa has to be based on the myths people in Africa tell, not based on the myths that white-supremacist America has about Africa.
A Mythic Ancient Pueblo campaign (my current project) needs to be based in a frame of reference of that of the Southwest U.S. native peoples, not around that of European colonialism.
I really like this, because it’s a firm, commonsensical, practical grounding for enabling both cultural sensitivity AND remixing of various cultures into good gameplay. Wins all around!