Smoking Out Local Traditions? Identity and Heritage Production in Southeast Estonian Rural Tourism Enterprises

Abstract

In this paper we explore the current process of the smoke sauna’s transformation from a tradition into heritage in the context of rural tourism in Voru County, southeast Estonia. We examine the multiple meanings and values that the smoke carries from the tourism entrepreneur’s perspective and the possible connections between the smoke sauna and personally interpreted cultural identity. Our theoretical approach handles heritage production as a selective process conducted by tourism entrepreneurs, in which personal memories, stories and material settings are displayed or performed in order to make them experienceable for the public. The results of the analysis of the fieldwork material indicate that three major directorial attitudes towards local tradition and heritage exist, expressed in the materiality of sauna settings, whereas entrepreneurs’ interpretations of the intangible dimensions of the smoke sauna are more varied as they are based on emotional and personally significant meanings rather than shared cultural values.