In this blog post, I will be discussing endangered cultures and commonly will be referring to the Ted Talk by Wade Davis titled Dreams From Endangered Cultures. At first glance endangered
cultures seem pretty clear-cut in that they are cultures that are endangered and won’t be alive for long unless they are conserved and saved. After watching this discussion I realized that it is so much more than that. Cultures in general are “other ways of being and orienting yourself on Earth”. In my own terms this means that cultures are not just differences between people but how people exist on Earth and how different people see the world. A new term I took away from this video was “Ethnosphere”. In my understanding after this video the Ethnosphere is all the thoughts and all the wisdom in the world ever to exist from the beginning of consciousness time. Endangered cultures are the same thing as biological diversity plummeting from Earth.
In Ukraine the culture is under attack and does risk being endangered as they are being invaded and attacked by Russia. Although Ukraine and Russia have similar cultures, once Ukraine pulled away from the Soviet Union in 1991 it separated the two cultures even more. “Over 150 cultural sites partially or totally destroyed” (UNESCO). Russia has targeted many cultural sites in order to destroy the differences Ukraine separates itself with as Russia believes they are still the same as Ukraine and they should all be under Putin’s rule. “The questioning & denial of the Ukrainian identity & history as a justification for war, is a violation of their right to self-determination.”. Ukraine’s culture is becoming endangered and Russia does not believe they are a different culture at all. Ukraine is at huge risk of biodiversity as Russia wants to dissolve the differences they have and claim they are still simply Russians.
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