Authenticity

From the ruins of Umm ar-Rasas we went to Madaba, a small town with an equal muslim and christian population. Omar took us to the church of St. George, which houses a mosaic map of the Holy Land dating to the 6th century AD. After having spent some time in the town, we went on to Mount Nebo, the place where Moses is said to have been buried.

Figure 1: Close-up of the mosaic map

Before we went there, however, we went to a souvenir shop, where the locals also produced mosaics. Upon our arrival, the locals were busy making some mosaics, and they showed us the process behind making these mosaics. What struck me, was that as soon as some of the students began to walk further into the shop, most of the locals dropped their work, and started to follow them, obviously to try selling them something. Several students, including myself, had the idea that it was some kind of 'staged authenticity', a performance to show to the tourists. We cannot blame them, of course, since tourism in Jordan is momentarily at a low.

We spent over 30 minutes in that shop, which most felt was too long, but it gave me the opportunity to look around a bit. Souvenirs are great signs of commodification. They show how the host culture is transformed into goods that can be bought or sold.[1] Overmore, souvenirs indicate the image of the country, which may or may not be entirely accurate. To an outsider it may look like souvenirs depict the host culture accurate, but most souvenirs are trumpery, fun to look at, but of no real use. On our way to Jordan, Jos and I spent some time in the souvenir shop at Schiphol. The goods in the store showed an image of the Netherlands of: cows, windmills, wooden shoes, orange, Ajax, and weed. But how do such images arise? Are the souvenirs a consequence of the image of a country, or do they shape this image?

[1] Stephen Williams, Tourism Geography - a new synthesis, 2nd edition, Routledge, 2009