Tourism in archaeological sites of the trans-Urals region: rethinking the landscape status and heritage regimes

Abstract

The article discusses the tourist commodification of archaeological sites in the Tobol Trans-Urals region (Tobol’skoe Zaural’e, Russia). The transformation of the region into a taskscape of professional archaeology associated with the urban centers of the Kurgan and Tyumen regions, as well as its tourist development, run by both the state and private business, involves the archaeological heritage of remote territories into the urban economy. This urban expansion is described here from the perspective of landscape negotiation, that is, the narratives and practices of rethinking the territories interpreted as a resource of the new type. This rethinking process involves all social groups claiming a place in the landscape, as well as the landscape itself, modified both in accordance with group ideas about the archaeological heritage (heritage regimes) and in accordance with the challenges generated by intergroup interaction. Based on fieldwork in the Kurgan region and in the south of the Tyumen region, we identify the main groups participating in negotiation on the promotion of the archaeological heritage, and also describe the practices of mutual modification of archaeological sites, which producing landscapes of negotiation.