Mirror or Masquerade? On Representational Ethics in Cultural Heritage Museology And Tourism

Râna Campbell

doi:10.1051/shsconf/20141201046

Abstract

Icelandic cultural heritage museology is embedded in a complex of social, political, and economic matters, at both the national and continental levels, that look to tourism as an opportunity for development in rural regions. The present paper draws on master’s research that examined the relationships of Westfjords communities with two maritime heritage museums in the region. Two qualitative case studies based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with heritage producers connected to each site were supplemented with additional qualitative data from a focus group comprised of five Westfjords residents. Open and closed coding schemes based on the condensation of transcripts into thematic units were used to analyze the data, thus producing descriptions of the representational ethos of each museum, and findings were subjected to ethical analysis. Both museums were found to reflect contemporary issues that are subject to debates about cultural identity, heritage, and representational style and ideology, while analysis revealed that there is a persistent danger of oversimplifying or distorting cultural representations, particularly where each museum has stakes in tourism. This was judged a potential disservice to the nuanced identities of local communities, and a recommendation was put forth for museums to engage conscientiously with questions of identity and cultural representation.

Highlights

It is a well-documented fact that tourism is one of the most widespread and fastest-growing industries in the world [1,2,3,4,5,6,7] and that, in the vast majority of countries visited, there is an ongoing, steady rise in the annual number of visitors [8]
Each individual interviewed has a singularly unique vision and aspires to something distinct and personal in his efforts lent to the Sea Monster Museum (SMM), yet a sense of solidarity with the community unites most in a creative process that aims to benefit the village both economically and culturally
It is interesting that while broad discussions of maritime heritage bring about cross-scale expressions of identity in both case studies, discussions relating more strictly to the ideals and operations of each museum show that the SMM and the Westfjords Heritage Museum (WHM) deviate from one another where considerations of identity are concerned, such that the SMM associates itself more closely with local identity and the WHM with national identity

Summary

Introduction

It is a well-documented fact that tourism is one of the most widespread and fastest-growing industries in the world [1,2,3,4,5,6,7] and that, in the vast majority of countries visited, there is an ongoing, steady rise in the annual number of visitors [8]. While there would appear to be some disagreement as to whether or not cultural heritage tourism is a niche in and of itself [4,14], it is an important sector of the industry that appeals broadly to travellers interested in learning about “culture, heritage, and ethnicity” [4,15], whether their own or another’s [4]

Methods

Results

Conclusion