Sustainability Clashes and Concordances

Abstract

Cultural sustainability as concept and movement is rooted in discourses, practice, and theory drawn from environmental conservation and sustainability. Metaphors from nature and culture are convergent or divergent across semantic domains. This chapter explores metaphors of vulnerability such as endangerment, invasive and exotic, loss and protection, as well as tropes of restoration and recovery such as resilience and forms of intervention through protest, regulation, or stewardship. It also discusses cases in which cultural traditions and environmental conservation are in conflict, exemplified in disputed indigenous whale hunting. The creative tension in folklore studies engaging extinction, emergence and revitalization is further discussed as a foundational disciplinary issue. Intervention in nature through ecosystem engineering or conservation reliance is compared with cultural intervention and protection.