Body, Nature, Language: Artisans to Artists in the Commodification of Authenticity
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3138/anth.591.A01Keywords:
political economy, commodification, authenticity, handicrafts, peripheriesAbstract
This article examines processes of authenticating and selling handicrafts at the conjuncture of cultural pride and economic profit in two peripheral sites (Finnish Sámiland and rural Québec), under shared conditions of late capitalism and globalising political economies. These conditions (re)structure traditionalist and modernist discourses about artisans' historical bodies, their connections to the local land (nature), and how they interactionally authenticate and sell their products through language. Under these conditions, the commodification of authenticity pushes artisans and handicrafts beyond being emblems of national belonging and collective tradition, and toward individualised, artistic commercial production with greater or lesser ties to post-national cosmopolitanism.
Downloads
References
Amit-Talai, Vered 1997 In Pursuit of Authenticity: Globalization and Nation Building in the Cayman Islands. Anthropologica 39(1/2):53–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/25605851
Aronczyk, Melissa 2013 Branding the Nation: The Global Business of National Identity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199752164.001.0001
Bauman, Richard, and Charles Briggs 2003 Voices of Modernity: Language Ideologies and the Politics of Inequality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486647
Beck, Ulrich 2006 The Cosmopolitan Outlook. Cambridge: Polity Press
Bourdieu, Pierre 1996 The Rules of Art. Cambridge: Polity Press
Bruner, Edward 1989 Of Cannibals, Tourists and Ethnographers. Cultural Anthropology 4(4):438–445. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/can.1989.4.4.02a00070
Bruner, Edward 2004 Culture on Tour: Ethnographies of Travel. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Cavanaugh, Jillian R., and Shalini Shankar 2014 Producing Authenticity in Global Capitalism: Language, Materiality and Value. American Anthropologist 116(1):51–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/aman.12075
Cave, Jenny, Lee Jolliffe, and Tom Baum, eds. 2013 Tourism and Souvenirs: Glocal Perspectives from the Margins. Bristol, UK: Channel View Publications
Chibnik, Michael 2003 Crafting Tradition: The Making and Marketing of Oaxacan Wood Carvings. Austin: University of Texas Press
Clifford, James 1997 Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Clifford, James 2013 Returns: Becoming Indigenous in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.4159/9780674726222
Cohen, Erik 1988 Authenticity and Commoditization in Tourism. Annals of Tourism Research 15(3):371–386. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0160-7383(88)90028-X
da Silva, Emanuel, and Monica Heller 2009 From Protector to Producer: The Role of the State in the Discursive Shift from Minority Rights to Economic Development. Language Policy 8(2):95–116. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10993-009-9127-x
Dana, Teresa E., and Liisa Remes 2005 An Ethnographic Study of Entrepreneurship among the Sámi People of Finland. Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship 18(2):189–200. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08276331.2005.10593339
Del Percio, Alfonso, ed. 2016 The Semiotics of Nation Branding. Signs and Society 4(1): S1–S187
Duchêne, Alexandre, and Monica Heller, eds. 2012 Language in Late Capitalism: Pride and Profit. New York: Routledge
Foster, Robert 2007 The Work of the New Economy: Consumers, Brands and Value-Creation. Cultural Anthropology 22(4):707–731. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/can.2007.22.4.707
Graan, Andrew 2013 Counterfeiting the Nation? Skopje 2014 and the Politics of Nation Branding in Macedonia. Cultural Anthropology 28(1):161–179. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1360.2012.01179.x
Graburn, Nelson, and Aaron Glass 2004 “Introduction.” Special Issue “Beyond Art/Artifact/Tourist Art: Social Agency and the Cultural Value(s) of the Aestheticized Object.” Material Culture 9(2):107–114. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1359183504044367
Habib, Jasmin 2004 Israel, Diaspora and the National Routes of Belonging. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/9781442676329
Handler, Richard 1988 Language and the Politics of Culture in Quebec. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press
Hechter, Michael 1975 Internal Colonialism: The Celtic Fringe in British National Development, 1536–1966. Berkeley: University of California Press
Heller, Monica 2011 Paths to Post-Nationalism: A Critical Ethnography of Language and Identity. New York: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199746866.001.0001
Heller, Monica 2014 The Commodification of Authenticity. In Indexing Authenticity: Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Véronique Lacoste, Jakob Leimgruber, and Thiemo Breyer, eds. Pp. 136–155. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter
Heller, Monica, Lindsay A. Bell, Michelle Daveluy, Mireille McLaughlin, and Hubert Noël 2015 Sustaining the Nation: The Making and Moving of Language and Nation. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Heller, Monica, and Alexandre Duchêne 2012 Pride and Profit: Changing Discourses of Language, Capital and Nation-State. In Language in Late Capitalism: Pride and Profit. Alexandre Duchêne and Monica Heller, eds. Pp. 1–21. London: Routledge
Heller, Monica, and Normand Labrie, eds. 2003 Discours et identités: La francité canadienne entre modernité et mondialisation. Fernelmont, Belgium: Éditions modulaires européennes
Heller, Monica, and Joan Pujolar 2009 The Political Economy of Texts: A Case Study in the Structuration of Tourism. Sociolinguistic Studies 3(2):177–201
Hobsbawm, Eric 1990 Nations and Nationalism since 1760. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Hobsbawm, Eric, and Terence Ranger, eds. 1983 The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Jamal, Tazim, and Steve Hill 2004 Developing a Framework for Indicators of Authenticity: The Place and Space of Cultural and Heritage Tourism. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research 9(4):353–372. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1094166042000311246
Johnstone, Barbara 2009 Pittsburghese Shirts: Commodification and the Enregisterment of an Urban Dialect. American Speech 84(2):157–175. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00031283-2009-013
Kaul, Adam 2007 The Limits of Commodification in Traditional Irish Music Sessions. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 13(3):703–719. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2007.00451.x
Kelly-Holmes, Helen, and Sari Pietikäinen 2014 Commodifying Sámi Culture in an Indigenous Tourism Site. Journal of Sociolinguistics 18(4):518–538. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/josl.12092
King, Ruth, and Jennifer Wicks 2009 “Aren't We Proud of Our Language?” Authenticity, Commodification, and the Nissan Bonavista Television Commercial. Journal of English Linguistics 37(3):262–283. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0075424209339924
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara 1998 Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums and Heritage. Berkeley: University of California Press
Kirtsoglou, Elisabeth, and Dimitrios Theodossopoulos 2004 “They Are Taking Our Culture Away”: Tourism and Culture Commodification in the Garifuna Community of Roatan. Critique of Anthropology 24(2):135–157. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0308275X04042650
Kokker, Steve 2002 Québec: Lonely Planet Guide. Melbourne: Lonely Planet Publications
Koontz, Amanda 2010 Constructing Authenticity: A Review of Trends and Influences in the Process of Authentication in Consumption. Sociology Compass 4(11):977–988. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9020.2010.00334.x
Kopytoff, Igor 1986 The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as Process. In The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Arjun Appadurai, ed. Pp. 64–91. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511819582.004
Lacoste, Véronique, Jakob Leimgruber, and Thiemo Breyer, eds. 2014 Indexing Authenticity: Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783110347012
Länsman, Annii-Siiri 2004 Väärtisuhteet Lapin matkailussa: Kulttuurianalyysi suomalaisten ja saamelaisten kohtaamisesta [Host-Guest Relations in Tourism in Sápmi (Finland): A Cultural Analysis of the Encounter between Finns and Sámi]. Inari: Kustannus-Puntsi
Laurin, Serge 1989 Histoire des Laurentides. Québec: Institut québécois de recherche sur la culture
Lee, Molly 1996 Tourism and Taste Cultures: Early Collecting in Alaska. In Unpacking Culture: Art and Commodity in the Colonial and Postcolonial Worlds. Ruth P. Philips and Christopher Steiner, eds. Pp. 267–281. Berkeley: University of California Press
Lee, Molly 2004 Weaving Culture: The Many Dimensions of the Yup'ik Eskimo Mingqaaq. Études/Inuit/Studies 28(1):57–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.7202/012639ar
Lehtola, Jorma 2006 Sámi Duodji: Saamenkäsityöyhdistyksen 30-vuotisjuhlanäyttelyn näyttelyluettelo [Catalogue for the Jubilee Exhibition of the Sámi Handicraft Association's 30th Anniversary]. Saarijärvi, Finland: Saamelaismuseosäätiön julkaisuja
Lehtola, Veli-Pekka 2012 Saamelaiset suomalaiset: Kohtaamisia 1869–1953. [The Sámi, the Finns: Encounters 1869–1953]. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura
Lehtola, Veli-Pekka 2015 Saamelaiskiista. [The Sámi Debate]. Helsinki: Into kustannus
Littrell, Mary Ann, Luella F. Anderson, and Pamela J. Brown 1993 What Makes a Craft Souvenir Authentic? Annals of Tourism Research 20(1):197–215. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0160-7383(93)90118-M
Magga, Sigga-Marja 2010 Vapauden rajat ja ulottuvuudet: Kirjoittamattomat säännöt duodjin ja saamelaisen muotoilun mahdollisuuksina ja rajoittajina [The Limits and Dimensions of Freedom: The Unwritten Rules of Duodji and Sámi Design as Possibilities and Limitations]. MA thesis, Giellagas Institute
Magga, Sigga-Marja 2012 Saamelainen käsityö duodji kansallisen identiteetin rakentajana. [Sámi Handicraft Duodji National Identity Builder]. In Saamenmaa: Kulttuuritieteellisiä näkökulmia. Veli-Pekka Lehtola, Ulla Piela, and Hanna Snellman, eds. Pp. 216–225. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura
McLaughlin, Mireille 2010 L'Acadie post-nationale: Producing Franco-Canadian Identity in the Global Economy. PhD dissertation, University of Toronto
Morissonneau, Christian 1978 La terre promise: Le mythe du nord Québécois. Montréal: HMH Hurtubise
Notzke, Claudia 1999 Indigenous Tourism Development in the Arctic. Annals of Tourism Research 26(1):55–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0160-7383(98)00047-4
Oberholtzer, Cath 1995 The Re-Invention of Tradition and the Marketing of Cultural Values. Anthropologica 37(2):141–153. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/25605807
Pennycook, Alastair 2010 Language as a Local Practice. London: Routledge
Pietikäinen, Sari 2010 Sámi Language Mobility: Scales and Discourses of Multilingualism in a Polycentric Environment. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 202:79–101
Pietikäinen, Sari 2013 Heteroglossic Authenticity in Sámi Heritage Tourism. In Multilingualism and the Periphery. Sari Pietikäinen and Helen Kelly-Holmes, eds. Pp. 77–94. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199945177.003.0005
Pietikäinen, Sari 2014 Circulation of Indigenous Sámi Resources across Media Spaces: A Rhizomatic Discourse Approach. In Mediatization and Sociolinguistic Change. Jannis Androutsopoulos, ed. Pp. 515–538. Berlin: De Gruyter. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783110346831.515
Pietikäinen, Sari, Leena Huss, Sirkka Laihiala-Kankainen, Ulla Aikio-Puoskari, and Pia Lane 2010 Regulating Multilingualism in the North Calotte: The Case of Kven, Meänkieli and Sámi Languages. Acta Borealia 27(1):1–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08003831.2010.486923
Pietikäinen, Sari, and Helen Kelly-Holmes 2011 The Local Political Economy of Languages in a Sámi Tourism Destination: Authenticity and Mobility in the Labelling of Souvenirs. Journal of Sociolinguistics 15(3):323–346. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2011.00489.x
Pietikäinen, Sari, Helen Kelly-Holmes, Alexandra Jaffe, and Nik Coupland 2016 Sociolinguistics from the Periphery: Small Languages in New Circumstances. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316403617
Prentice, Richard 2001 Experiential Cultural Tourism: Museums and the Marketing of the New Romanticism of Evoked Authenticity. Museum Management and Curatorship 19(1):5–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09647770100201901
Roy, Marie-Josée 2015 Les bijoux québécois: Vive les colliers d'ici. La Semaine, 20 March: 39
Salazar, Noel, and Nelson Graburn 2016 Introduction: Toward an Anthropology of Tourism Imaginaries. In Tourism Imaginaries: Anthropological Approaches. Noel B. Salazar and Nelson Graburn, eds. Pp. 1–28. New York: Berghahn
Sarivaara, Erika 2012 Statuksettomat saamelaiset: paikantumisia saamelaisuuden rajoilla. [Non-Status Sámi: Locations within Sámi Borderlands]. PhD dissertation, Sámiallaskuvla, Guovdageaidnu
Szala-Meneok, Karen, and Kara McIntosh 1996 Craft Development and Development through Crafts: Adaptive Strategies of Labrador Women in a Changing Fishery. Anthropologica 38(2):249–270. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/25605841
Tan, Peter, and Rani Rubdy, eds. 2008 Language as Commodity: Global Structure, Local Marketplaces. London: Continuum
Turgeon, Laurier 2010 Les produits du terroir, version Québec. Ethnologie Francaise 40(3):477–486. http://dx.doi.org/10.3917/ethn.103.0477
Urry, John 1990 The Tourist Gaze: Leisure and Travel in Contemporary Societies. London: Sage
Urry, John 2002 Global Complexity. Cambridge: Polity Press
Vakkuri, Marjukka 2009 Koruntekijä juurten lumoissa. [Jewelry Maker Charmed by Roots]. Lapin Kansa, 25 January: 17
Valkonen, Sanna 2009 Poliittinen saamelaisuus. [Political Sáminess]. Tampere: Vastapaino
Wallerstein, Immanuel 1983 Historical Capitalism. London: Verso
Wherry, Frederick F. 2006 The Social Sources of Authenticity in Global Handicraft Markets: Evidence from Northern Thailand. Journal of Consumer Culture 6(1):5–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1469540506060867
Whitelaw, Anne, Brian Foss, and Sandra Paikowsky, eds. 2010 The Visual Arts in Canada: The Twentieth Century. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press
Williams, Raymond 1973 The Country and the City. London: Chatto and Windus.
Downloads
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors contributing to Anthropologica agree to release their articles under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 Unported license. This licence allows anyone to share their work (copy, distribute, transmit) and to adapt it for non-commercial purposes provided that appropriate attribution is given, and that in the event of reuse or distribution, the terms of this license are made clear.
Authors retain copyright of their work and grant the journal right of first publication.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
