文化的商品化：玛雅的文化旅游外文文献翻译Word下载.docx

1、 Tourism and Maya identity. Annals of tourism research 30.2 （2003）: 353-368.原文 Tourism and Maya IdentityLaurie MedinaAbstractThis ethnographic study examined how the commoditization of culture for tourism affected traditional practices in a formerly Maya village adjacent to the most-visited Mayan ru

2、ins in Belize. Though the majority of villagers had abandoned this indigenous identity, they responded to the tourism demand for representations of an essentialized Mayan culture by utilizing new channels to access traditions they could no longer learn through old ways: they turned to the publicatio

3、ns of archaeologists and epigraphers who study the ancient Maya. As villagers developed expertise in the cultural traditions of their ancestors, they remained ambivalent about whether or not their unconventional acquisition of this knowledge provided sufficient basis for reclaiming Maya identities.K

4、eywords: culture; commoditization; identity; Maya; BelizeINTRODUCTIONOne school of thought in tourism studies has argued that the commoditization of culture for consumption renders the resulting practices inauthentic. This position distinguishes between traditions which persist in relative isolation

5、 from market forces,and practices elaborated specifically for the tourism market. Against this perspective, other scholars have asserted that such transactions between tourists and “tourees” generate new cultural configurations which are both meaningful and authentic to their participants. Advocates

6、 of this argument reject both the distinction drawn by the first group of scholars between more and less authentic cultural forms and the notions of culture and authenticity on which that distinction rests. The second school of thought instead portrays culture as dynamic and emergent. This paper int

7、roduces a third alternative in this debate: the commoditization of culture for tourism may involve the utilization of new channels to access cultural traditions of great antiquity. Posing this possibility for a formerly Maya village in western Belize, this paper engages two sets of debates in the so

8、cial sciences: it explores how the debate in tourism studies sketched above intersects with contemporary ones in the field of Maya studies, where “constructivists” cast Maya culture as a （relatively recent） social construction, while “essentialists” define it in terms of continuities that have persi

9、sted across centuries from pre-colonial times into the present.Early studies suggested that touristic commoditization the offering of cultural products and practices for money results in the emergence of a culture distinct from the traditional practice of “tourees” and less authentic by virtue of be

10、ing both “staged” and a commodity. MacCannell （1976） suggests that tourists are largely motivated by a “quest for authenticity,” which is fundamentally a search for cultural difference. Tourists interpret such difference as an indicator of less contamination by contemporary capitalism and thus great

11、er authenticity in relations among people andbetween people and nature. However, MacCannell asserts that toureesthe host population confronted with the arrival of tourists in their midst protect and insulate their culture by dividing their lives into “backstage” areas, where they continue meaningful

12、 traditions away from the gaze of tourists, and “frontstage” areas, where they perform a limited range of activities for a tourist audience. This makes available portions of host culture for guest consumption, while it protects other parts from commoditization. Such an argument assumes that touristi

13、c cultural performance, which MacCannell calls “staged authenticity,” is less authentic than practices not performed for tourists or for cash. Greenwood （1977） also engages this assumption by asserting that commoditization changes the meaning of cultural products and practices to such a degree that

14、they eventually become meaningless for their producers. The conclusion drawn is that the “staged authenticity” of commoditized culture is not authentic at all. Ryan （1996）, focusing away from concerns with authenticity, suggests that a “tourist culture” distinct from the everyday cultures of either

15、tourists or tourees emerges from their inter- （or trans-） actions; however, he builds on the same assumption that tourism leads to the emergence of a culture different from the original one of the tourees.TOURISM, CULTURE AND IDENTITYIf there were such a thing as a “typical Maya village” San Jose Su

16、ccotz would certainly not be it. A village of some 1,400 people in western Belize, Succotz is linked to “Mayaness” in two ways: through proximity to the ruins of an ancient Maya city that has become a popular tourism attraction; and through the ancestry, culture, andidentities of its contemporary residents. If the former connection provides an important source of income for