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Authenticity and Identity

Theme-parking the Amanas

State University of New York at Stony Brook dbarthel{at}notes.cc.sunysb.edu

Many scholars see the tourist as engaged in a search for authenticity, a managed effect which tourist sites strive to produce in convincing forms and formats. This intellectual concern is reflected in the current debate over heritage, in which questions are raised as to exactly how far historic sites can and should try to achieve historical authenticity. Much of this discourse, however, seems strangely detached from social structures relating to power, social class and ethnicity. Using the case example of the Amana Colonies in southeastern Iowa, the author examines who stands to benefit from efforts to achieve authentic representations of this community's pietist and communal past. Examining the social interactions and social structures relating to both historic conservation and tourism in Amana, the author concludes that only heritage professionals appear to have a short-term interest in approximating historical reality through accurate historic representations. In the long-term perspective, however, it is argued that both residents and tourists might be seen as having interests that run counter to their apparent short-term interests in the economic and entertainment exploitation of this historic resource.

Key Words: community • conservation • consumption • heritage • tourism

International Sociology, Vol. 16, No. 2, 221-239 (2001)
DOI: 10.1177/0268580901016002006


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