"Our culture" really means "the ways in which we've become accustomed to doing things (because reasons), and which we believe everyone else should recognize as an entitlement for us."
Likewise, "our culture is dying" seems like an overly-dramatic catch phrase for, "we don't like it that circumstances are changing and reducing our ability to do things in the manner to which we've become accustomed and are now entitled."
EDIT: As another commenter correctly says, it's not a great idea to drive vultures into extinction. My comment is about people whinging about it in a way that suggests it's all about them.
People in valuing intangible things for not obviously rational reasons that can be easily dismissed if you approach the entire world with an attitude of smug cynicism shock
One thing that really bothers me, is a frozen culture. For example, Native Canadians would have a changed culture by now, 500 years after we showed up.
Before our arrival, there was war between Native nations, cultural change due to trade and new inventions, and so on.
Unless people believe that Natives didn't have new ideas, this is clearly so. And Native history shows change!
To imagine that 500 years later, no music, language, culture, technology would have changed, is a massive disservice to both the intellect and capabilities of those peoples.
Yet we enable things such as unrestrained hunting, and even whale hunting, for cultural reasons.
As if a healthy Native nation wouldn't stop hunting endangered species! Come on!
So yes, static "this is the way it was" is a load of hurtful outcomes.
For all we know, Natives might have invented our tech by now, had we not intervened.
You need a few things to care about wheels. Some sort of idle class with free time, domesticated draft animals, and an industrial base.
Basically, people need to stop moving around and hunting to live, which means crops and domesticated food/work animals. And large cities for a strong industrial base.
There were few places where all that came together. Maybe the Incans? But they also has waterways and slaves.
If you’re going to recognize that natives/first nations/etc. have agency then we have to accept the good and the bad instead of infantilizing them according to some fantasy ideal.
We have hunting quotas, and attempt to mitigate over fishing, and so on. Yes, we aren't perfect, but we try.
My point was, if a contempary Native nation existed, had modern agriculture methods, and was able to subsist without hunting? I suspect they would self regulate as we do.
> "Our culture" really means "the ways in which we've become accustomed to doing things (because reasons), and which we believe everyone else should recognize as an entitlement for us."
This could be the laziest definition of culture that I’ve read so far.
Today's Pearls Before Swine comic is relevant concerning "translation": One of the characters has a "magic translation box" to translate "politicianish" into "the truth." I did something similar in my original comment above.
Likewise, "our culture is dying" seems like an overly-dramatic catch phrase for, "we don't like it that circumstances are changing and reducing our ability to do things in the manner to which we've become accustomed and are now entitled."
EDIT: As another commenter correctly says, it's not a great idea to drive vultures into extinction. My comment is about people whinging about it in a way that suggests it's all about them.