Abstract

SONG, Baleun. Indigenous and Traditional: Staged Authenticity in the Tourism Field of ​​Zinacantán, Chiapas. Entrediversidades rev. cienc. soc. humanid. [online]. 2022, vol.9, n.1, pp.95-117.  Epub Mar 15, 2023. ISSN 2007-7610.  https://doi.org/10.31644/ed.v9.n1.2022.a04.

This article analyzes the production process of authenticity in tourism promotion of Zinacantán, Chiapas. As a destination for indigenous tourism in the area, Zinacantán is the place where an authentic experience is explicitly promoted, guaranteeing tourists the presence of its indigenous inhabitants and an approach to their cultural life through a visit to a Zinacanteco family home. During the tour, the guide and the Zinacanteco family try to maintain impressions appropriate to the demand of indigenous tourism, highlighting elements categorized as “indigenous” and “traditional”, and, at the same time, making invisible others that run the risk of collapsing the tourists’ stereotypes about Zinacantán and its people. This paper investigates how authenticity is produced in this tourist environment and how the Zinacanteco family is presented to tourists. Finally, it proposes to understand the values created in the tourist visit as a result of contemporary models of indigenous tourism, strategically exploited by local agents to have advantages in the global market.

Keywords : indigenous tourism; authenticity; front; Zinacantán; performance.