Kalpana Nro. 15 (2017) (pp.63-71) ISSN: 1390-5775

Latin American Scholars and the Heritage Tourism: a critical analysis.

Maximiliano Korstanje

Análisis Crítico

Latin American Scholars and the Heritage

Tourism: a critical analysis.

Maximiliano Korstanje

Department of Economics,

University of Palermo, Argentina

mkorst@palermo.edu

Abstract

This paper explores the problems of Latin American scholars in tourism at the time of

defining not only the meaning of heritage but also the valid policies to follow to protect

the tourist destination. In consonance with the latest advances of cultural theory we hold

that the obsession for heritage, not only within tourism but also in anthropology, exhibits

a neocolonial discourse to commoditize the non-western others.

Key Words: Heritage, Tourism, Latin America, Consumption, Commoditization

Kalpana Nro. 15 (2017) (pp.63-71) ISSN: 1390-5775

Latin American Scholars and the Heritage Tourism: a critical analysis.

Maximiliano Korstanje

Análisis Crítico

The onset of 19s century brought for first anthropologists the belief that the advance of

industrialism not only would be irreversible but will erode primitive kinships and forms

of organization, which means the disappearance of nonwestern cultures. As Harris puts

it, concerned in questions of heritage, heirs, and inheritance the first ethnologists were

lawyers (Harris, 2006). One of the aspects that defined the field-work of anthropology

was the efficacy to collect the lore, customs and object of primitive societies before their

disappearance. Indeed, the “Other”, far from being an independent entity, was

subordinated to European-gaze. The European paternalism envisaged the world as an

amalgam of different cultures, which evolved in different ladders depending on their

economies or ways of production. Europe was conceived as the most evolutionary and

refined form of civilization respecting to these “Others” who had not skills in arts and

trade. This seems to be the context, when the conceptualization of patrimony and heritage

surface. From that moment on, the relation of both with development took a material

connotation that suggested further trade and commercialization would be beneficial for

natives. Native backwardness was explained by their disinterest for economic progress,

as it was imagined by Europeans´ travellers. If the colonial order connected the center

with its periphery, travels paved the ways for the acceleration of colonization (Korstanje,

2012).

Nowadays, tourism and heritage seem to be inextricably intertwined. Tourism scholars

echo the assumptions that the fresh incomes generated by this industry alleviate the

poverty of natives or their living conditions. A fairer distribution of wealth, experts, and

public account balance give to the community a substantial economic improvement.

Tourism, of course, can help in such a stage. One of the benefits, these experts adhere, of

tourism consists in its ability to exploit intangible assets (as heritage and patrimony)

which have limited costs for investors. In parallel, abandoned cities or communities or

in the bias of destruction can be revitalized by the introduction of heritage. The discourse

of patrimony should be understood as an effective instrument to boost economies,

communities, or even cultures. ¿What are the commonalities of first ethnologists and

modern tourism policy makers?

Kalpana Nro. 15 (2017) (pp.63-71) ISSN: 1390-5775

Latin American Scholars and the Heritage Tourism: a critical analysis.

Maximiliano Korstanje

Análisis Crítico

At the time of entering in the field, ethnographers defied the classic conception of science,

which experimented at desks or in controlled conditions. B. Malinowski, the founder of

modern ethnography, acknowledged a clear gap between what people overtly say and

finally do. Therefore, for social scientists, the needs of moving beyond where the native

laid, were associated to the idea of “being there” to validate empirically what senses often

captivate.

Changing the epistemological basis of discipline, Malinowski and his seminal studies

showed the importance of fieldwork to expand understanding of cultures. In this vein,

two main assumptions cemented the western-gaze; the concern for some culture’s

disappearance was conjoined to situate the supremacy of Europe as an unquestionable

truth. It can be found in texts authored by many founding parents of the discipline as

Tylor, Boas, Durkheim, Mauss, Radcliffe-Brown, Malinowski Evans-Pritchard and other

founding parents (Racdliffe-Brown, 1975) (Pritchard, 1977) (Mauss, 1979) (Boas, 1982)

(Malinowski, 1986) (Tylor, 1995) (Durkheim, 2003). However, this sentiment of

protection resulted in an uncanny obsession to understand (not to correct) the lives of

these nonwhite others. Instead of correcting the factors that lead Imperial powers to

exploit the periphery, heritage became in a social institution that mediates between the

disciplinary violence of Europe and natives´ suffering. This does not mean that

anthropology was conducive to imperial order, but many of the produced knowledge

served for colonial administrators to discipline “indigenous customs”. This romantic view

of the world, not only facilitated the expansion of colonialism worldwide but facilitated

the conditions for the rise of anthropology as an academic discipline. Doubtless, in this

process, the concept of backwardness and wealth played a crucial role.

As the previous argument given, between 1975 and 1985 two senior scholars, J Heytens

(1978) and Gray (1982) used the term patrimony to denote development. In this respect,

tourism enables social capital to optimize wealth and resources to the extent to attract

more capital investment, which produces a virtuous circle. Underpinned by the

proposition that further tourism equals to further development, scholarship in tourism and

hospitality adopted a material conception of patrimony, as a new valuable resource to

Kalpana Nro. 15 (2017) (pp.63-71) ISSN: 1390-5775

Latin American Scholars and the Heritage Tourism: a critical analysis.

Maximiliano Korstanje

Análisis Crítico

exploit that may very well help societies or human groups historically oppressed by

nation-states (Comaroff & Comaroff, 2009).

In Latin America, scholars ushered the idea of patrimony in order to preserve landscapes,

environments or with others sustainable purposes. Local resources, unless otherwise

resolved, should be protected from the exploitation or the interests of market. That way,

the theory of patrimony suggests, natives receive the good (eluding the negative) effects

of tourism. At a second viewpoint, heritage plays a crucial role by cementing the local

identity. Locals not only acquire a self-consciousness that will facilitate potential

negotiations respecting to the proposed programs, but they administer their own resources

(Vitry, 2003) (Aguirre, 2004) (Dos-Santos and Antonini, 2004) (Mondino, 2004)

(Espeitx, 2004) (Toselli, 2006). As Korstanje pointed out, though in different contexts of

production and times, the spirit of colonial order respecting how the “other” is constructed, lingers

(Korstanje 2012). It seems worth noting that the channels for

scientific discovery and “the concept of the Other”, are inextricably linked. The empirical

research findings in tourism fields, far from questioning this connection, validate earlier

assumptions in regards to heritage. While tourists seek authenticity as a new form of

escapement from the alienatory atmosphere of greater cities, natives offer their culture as

a product to be gazed. Dean MacCannell and other followers offered a good description

of the role of tourism in a society of mass-consumption. MacCannell conceives that

tourism consolidated just after the mid of XX th century, or the end of WWII. Not only

the expansion of industrialism, which means a set of benefits for workers as less working

hours and salaries increase but the technological breakthrough that triggered mobilities

were responsible from the inception of tourism. There was nothing like an ancient form

of tourism, Maccannell notes. Taking his cue from the sociology of Marx, Durkheim, and

Goffman, Maccannell argues that tourism and staged-authenticity work in conjoint in

order for the society not to collapse. If totem is a sacred-object that confers a political

authority to chiefdom in aboriginal cultures, tourism fulfills the gap between citizens and

their institutions, which was enlarged by the alienation lay people face. The current

industrial system of production is finely ingrained to expropriate workers from part of

their wages. A whole portion of earned salaries is spent to leisure activities, even in

Kalpana Nro. 15 (2017) (pp.63-71) ISSN: 1390-5775

Latin American Scholars and the Heritage Tourism: a critical analysis.

Maximiliano Korstanje

Análisis Crítico

consuming tourism. As Krippendorff, Maccannell believes, industrialism forged a

“tourist consciousness” that revitalizes the glitches and deprivations produced by

economy. Tourism would be a type of totem for industrial societies that mediates among

citizens, officials and their institutions. In this context, tourism, like the totem in

primitive communities, revitalizes psychological frustrations and alienation proper of

urban societies. Not surprisingly, Maccannell adds, Marx was in the correct side at

denouncing the oppression suffered by the work-force. Nonetheless, leisure, far from

being an ideological mechanism of control (as in whole Marxism), prevents the social

disintegration (Maccannell, 1976; 1984). Over recent years, he was concerned by the lack

of ethics in tourism consumption. Coalescing contributions of Giddens with Derrida, he

points out that globalization entails to type of mobilities. Nomads who are defined as

forged-migrants are pitted against tourists who are encouraged to consume landscapes

and exotic cultures. Since tourists are conferred by a certain degree of freedom, this leads

them to think they are part of a privileged class, a sentiment that is reinforced by the quest

of “the local other”. Reluctant to contact others, tourists affirm their own self-esteem

enjoying the precarious conditions where natives live. If this is not controlled tourism

may produce a progressive process of dehumanization (Maccannell, 1973; 1976, 1984;

1988; 1992; 2001; 2009; 2011; 2012). It is interesting to discuss to what extent, the

discourse of heritage never left behind the idea of rationality, as it was formulated by the

founding parents of anthropology. The Other (good savage) is conceived in opposition to

civilized European. While Europeans have reached their stage of civilization because of

trade, the legal jurisprudence which is based in the principle of right and property and an

organized way for concentrating derived surplus, natives developed economies of

subsistence (Posner, 1983). This allegory suggests that problems of international

commerce are fixed by further investment. Therefore, aborigines who have been pressed

to live in peripheral and desert areas believe in the market as a platform to launch towards

prosperity. The needs of revitalizing tourists’ destinations by the adoption of loans and

international financial aid not only validates this assumption, but aggravates economic

problems simply because solicitant is unable to accrue their higher tax of interest

imposed by central nations. This is exactly the resulted denounce issued by sociologists

Kalpana Nro. 15 (2017) (pp.63-71) ISSN: 1390-5775

Latin American Scholars and the Heritage Tourism: a critical analysis.

Maximiliano Korstanje

Análisis Crítico

of development as Escobar (1997) Viola (2000) and Esteva (2000). Historically, the term

development was coined after American President Henry Truman in 1949, when he

claimed on the needs of helping others towards the trace of development. From that

moment onwards, the world was divided in two, developed and underdeveloped nations.

At a first glimpse, pundits asserted that development would be helpful in contributing to

enhance the living conditions of underdeveloped groups. The financial aid was the

touchstone in order for West to expand their cultural values to the rest of the world.

Needless to say, things do not turned out as planned. Financial assistance was issued

without any type of control to governments which failed to obtain fairer levels of wealth

distribution. Instead of accepting the liability, international business organizations as

World Bank, International Monetary Funds and Development Bank chose for using a

blaming the victim tactic. They, rather, replied that cultural incompatibilities between

developed and underdeveloped cultures were the main reason that explains why the

original promise of theory of development diluted (Esteva 2000; Escobar 1997).

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Análisis Crítico

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Análisis Crítico

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