by KIKE CALVO
When we think about cultural heritage, we often picture castles, temples, archaeological sites, museums, or historic cities.
But what if some of humanity’s most important heritage isn’t built from stone?
What if it walks, grazes, migrates, or swims?
Around the world, countless cultures have developed alongside particular animal species. These relationships are far more than economic. They shape identities, influence traditions, inspire art, preserve landscapes, and connect generations through shared knowledge.
Recent anthropological research suggests that perhaps we should think of these animals not simply as wildlife or livestock—but as living carriers of culture.
Heritage That Breathes
A 2026 doctoral dissertation by anthropologist Fiona Potter at the University of Manchester explores this idea through fieldwork among the South Sami people and Norwegian mountain farming communities in central Norway. Rather than focusing only on museums or historic sites, Potter examines how relationships between people and animals themselves become part of cultural heritage.
Her central argument is both simple and profound.
Heritage is not only something we preserve.
It is something we continue to live.
When Animals Become Symbols of Identity
In the South Sami communities of northern Europe, reindeer are far more than an economic resource.
They shape language, seasonal movements, ceremonies, family histories, craftsmanship, and ways of understanding the landscape.
Likewise, Norway’s traditional summer mountain farms are inseparable from cattle. The annual movement of livestock, cheese-making traditions, and mountain grazing have helped define rural Norwegian identity for centuries.
The research introduces the concept of “culture bearers”—animals whose presence helps carry traditions, memories, and community identity across generations.
It is an idea that resonates far beyond Scandinavia.
The World Is Full of Cultural Partnerships
Traveling across continents, similar relationships emerge again and again.
The camel made long-distance trade across the Silk Road possible, connecting civilizations from China to the Mediterranean.
The yak has sustained Himalayan communities for centuries, providing transport, milk, wool, and companionship at high altitude.
The horse transformed the cultures of the Mongolian steppe, where mobility became a defining way of life.
In South Korea, the Haenyeo women divers have built an extraordinary maritime tradition centered on sustainable harvesting of the sea.
Among the Maasai of East Africa, cattle remain deeply connected to social identity, ceremony, and community.
In the Brazilian Pantanal, generations of local guides have developed an intimate understanding of jaguars, rivers, and wetlands that cannot be learned from a map.
Even species we usually admire only as wildlife can become part of a community’s cultural identity.
More Than Conservation
When an animal disappears, the loss extends beyond biodiversity.
Languages lose words.
Songs lose meaning.
Traditional skills fade.
Stories become disconnected from the landscapes that gave them life.
Conservation, therefore, is also cultural preservation.
Protecting a species may mean protecting an entire way of understanding the world.
This perspective encourages us to think differently about national parks, indigenous territories, rural communities, and protected landscapes.
They are not simply habitats.
They are living archives.
Travel as Cultural Discovery
One of the greatest privileges of travel is recognizing these connections firsthand.
A reindeer herd crossing a snowy valley.
A shepherd moving livestock through ancient mountain pastures.
A family tending rice fields with water buffalo.
A fisherman reading tides passed down through generations.
These moments remind us that culture does not exist separately from nature.
Instead, people and landscapes continually shape one another.
Perhaps this is why the most memorable journeys rarely revolve around famous monuments alone.
They revolve around relationships.
A LŪM Perspective
At LŪM Expeditions, a new chapter by Luminous Photo Expeditions, we believe meaningful travel begins by asking deeper questions.
Not simply:
“What am I looking at?”
But:
“Why does this place matter to the people who call it home?”
Whether following reindeer across northern landscapes, tracing the Silk Road through Central Asia, photographing jaguars in Brazil, meeting the Haenyeo of Jeju Island, or exploring traditional communities around the world, we seek journeys where wildlife, people, and culture cannot be separated.
Because some of humanity’s greatest heritage is still alive.
And sometimes, it has four legs.
Further Reading
This article was inspired by:
Illustration Note
Banner image created for illustrative purposes, inspired by the cultural heritage, landscapes, and traditional human–animal relationships discussed in this article. It is not intended to depict a specific individual, community, or documented moment.
