Temporality of Culture

We just read Jonathan Lear's Radical Hope for my Social Theory class. It deals with the temporary nature of culture and how everything that we've known and relied on to guide our lives can suddenly change. Lear examines how the Crow Nation was forever impacted by the loss of the buffalo, followed by a forced confinement to an Indian reservation. Surprisingly, Lear's work deals with the perseverance of the Crow people and how they were able to prepare themselves for an unknowable future. By recognizing that their way of life was coming to an end, they were able to protect aspects of their culture that could be passed down to later generations.