counterstream

noun

coun·ter·stream | \ ˈkau̇n-tər-ˌstrēm

variants: or counter-stream

plural counterstreams or counter-streams

Definition of counterstream

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