In Reykjavík, Iceland, the city’s oldest cemetery was exhumed in favor of yet another tourist hotel despite local cultural leaders’ objections and existing concerns that new hotels already exceeded projected demand. For Icelanders, cemeteries are important material and symbolic markers of the nation’s history and heritage and cherished contributors to Icelandic cultural identity. The anomalous destruction of this particular, historically significant cemetery suggested the question, “What is going on here?” and launched a comparison of Icelandic cemeteries as material, symbolic narratives to the narratives underlying the imagined future of the external consultancy’s recommendations. The narratives expressed in the cemeteries differed substantially from those identified in the consultancy proposals and suggested that one culture’s values can replace unintentionally another’s rather quickly in lasting ways. This repeats globally and diminishes diversity and human–human and human–nature relationships. This investigation explored the substantial differences between the two narratives, vulnerabilities to such external influences, and considerations for efforts toward change that protects cultural and geographic diversity. These changes, the associated processes and histories were identified and discussed in global context with attention to identity formation, resilient and sustainable futures, spreading global homogeneity, and efforts toward more sustainable futures. While destruction of cultural markers is sometimes necessary, this exploration highlights the need to identify and consider these decisions carefully and to attend to a diversity of voices.

在冰岛的雷克雅未克，人们挖掘出该市最古老的墓地，以支持另一家旅游酒店，尽管当地文化领袖对此表示反对，并且担心新酒店已经超出了预计需求。对于冰岛人来说，墓地是该国历史和遗产的重要材料和象征标记，也是对冰岛文化特征的珍贵贡献者。这个特殊的，具有历史意义的公墓的异常破坏提出了一个问题：“这里发生了什么？” 并比较了冰岛公墓的材料，象征性叙述和外部咨询公司建议的设想未来的叙述。墓地中的叙述与咨询建议中确定的叙述有很大不同，并建议一种文化的价值观可以持久地无意识地取代另一种文化的价值观。这在全球范围内重复发生，并减少了多样性以及人与人之间以及人与自然之间的关系。这项调查探索了两种叙述方式之间的实质性差异，对此类外部影响的脆弱性以及为保护文化和地理多样性而做出的努力的考虑。在全球范围内确定并讨论了这些变化，相关的过程和历史，并关注身份形成，弹性和可持续的未来，传播全球同质性以及朝着更可持续的未来的努力。尽管有时有必要破坏文化标志，