counterstream
noun
coun·ter·stream
ˈkau̇n-tər-ˌstrēm
variants
or counter-stream
plural counterstreams or counter-streams
1
: a stream which runs counter to another
… those concealed rocks which I found when I was out in my boat; and which rocks, as they checked the violence of the stream, and made a kind of counter-stream, or eddy …—Daniel Defoe
… there has been a counterstream of migrants returning from Britain and North America to many parts of the Caribbean …—George Gmelch
2
: something (such as a political, cultural, or religious system) that is different from or opposed to the mainstream
… a convincing argument that the Appalachian religion is an authentic counterstream to modern, mainstream Protestantism.—The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture
But there is a critical difference between counterstream and mainstream cultures. The counterstream cultures lived in harmony with their environment, because they either had to or they chose to.—Majda Bastic
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Merriam-Webster unabridged
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