Rethinking Cultural Keystone Practices: Conflict Resolution Practices as Examples of Salience and Well-Being

  • Andreu Arinyo-i-Prats Department of Archaeology and Heritage, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada; Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
  • Shauna LaTosky Department of Anthropology, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, Canada
  • Nancy J. Turner School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.16.2.2025.1909
Keywords: Cultural Keystone Practices, Well-being, Salience, Conflict resolution, Cultural loss

Abstract

We explore and expand on the concept of Cultural Keystone Practices as an extension of the concept of Cultural Keystone Species and Places. These concepts have helped raise awareness of traditional human-environment interactions by focusing on community well-being and salience. We discuss several keystone-related terms and link them as interdependent for well-being, where salience itself might fall within one keystone concept or another. We focus on three illustrative examples of Cultural Keystone Practices (tribunal de les aigües, Potlatch and dônga) which share conflict resolution as a well-being function. In these three cases, the salience resides in the practice itself, rather than in a particular place or species. Moreover, since the societies that host these practices perceive them as traditions that are not easily substituted with other ‘functional’ equivalents, we can consider them as keystones. Furthermore, we emphasize the need for an assessment strategy for these practices and highlight the limitations of other approaches for the direct and indirect protection of cultural practices, such as UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). Cultural Keystone Practices can be a key enabler for people’s recognition of culture as essential for well-being. A standardized, cross-cultural, community-driven measurement of Cultural Keystone Practices has the potential to serve as a foundation for evaluating the risk of cultural loss associated with significant cultural practices, as well as the consequences of such loss, across diverse contexts.

Author Biographies

Andreu Arinyo-i-Prats, Department of Archaeology and Heritage, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada; Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany

Andreu Arinyo-i-Prats has a physics background and is interested in modeling, measuring and conseptualising  cultural loss, cultural diversity, and how the loss of culture is linked to well-being.

Shauna LaTosky, Department of Anthropology, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, Canada

Shauna LaTosky is a socio-cultural anthropologist and Professor in the Department of Anthropology, University of Northern British Columbia, Canada, with interests in ethnobotany, tangible and intangible cultural heritage, gender, agro-pastoralism, and traditional ecological knowledge in Southern Ethiopia.

Nancy J. Turner, School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada

Nancy Turner is an ethnobotanist and ethnoecologist who has worked with Indigenous Elders and cultural specialists in western Canada for over 50 years. She is a member of Order of Canada and Royal Society of Canada. She is an emeritus professor within the School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

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Figure 1 Visual abstract highlighting the main concepts of the article. A We highlight the need for cultural keystone practice thinking in terms of saliency and community well-being, while supported and supporting species and places. B We illustrate the cultural keystone practices concept by focusing on conflict resolution as a well-being.
Published
2025-12-01
How to Cite
Arinyo-i-Prats, A., LaTosky, S., & Turner, N. J. (2025). Rethinking Cultural Keystone Practices: Conflict Resolution Practices as Examples of Salience and Well-Being. Ethnobiology Letters, 16(2), 7-19. https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.16.2.2025.1909
Issue
Vol 16 No 2 (2025)
Section
Perspectives

Copyright (c) 2025 Andreu Arinyo-i-Prats, Shauna LaTosky, Nancy J. Turner

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