Ryleva, A. N. Petrol as a Metaphor of Culture

Abstract: Changes which has taken place in conceptions of many phenomena lately allow us to take a new look at the combination of words ‘petrol and culture’. Not going too deep into details, let’s say that this connection is becoming extremely clear after certain genetic researches explaining the primary foundation of culture. The roots of a visual or verbal image lie in the mechanism of speech. Metaphor, as it is already known, is a mechanism of transfer of the meaning, i. e. – the mechanism of speech formation and, consequently, culture formation. It is time now to get a cultural understanding of strategic natural resources. Metaphor is the basic and the most profound, even though not the only one, tool for such understanding. Does it mean that we are facing the new stage of humanization of natural science and thereby, new opportunities of cultural studies, such as cultural understanding (a kind of cultural audit) of mineral resources?

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