I've always resented the way "traditional" cultures are "preserved". It's like when people want to protect "authentic" locales from the corrupting influence of tourism. I'm grateful that my own culture is not (yet) seen primarily through this lens. Imagine the day when legislation makes exceptions for fentanyl as a traditional ritual substance of nomadic Trailer Americans.

To me the beauty of these things is in their liveliness, in the aspiration to flourish and grow, not merely to conserve a little longer, to spend one more night with terminal cancer before the inevitable.