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Papers by Anna Källén
by pristine people while contributing philanthropically to the same people’s well-being and development. ‘A journey into Laos is a journey into an Asia long lost’, claims the same website. This chapter investigates the promises of development involved in the business of ecotourism at the archaeological heritage site of Hintang in northeastern Laos. With its spectacular archaeological sites of standing stones and underground chambers set in breathtaking mountain
scenery, Hintang has gained a name as one of Laos’s key ecotourism destinations. Yet its remote location, far from all tourist comfort zones, has so far prevented signifi cant numbers of travelers from actually getting there. From international ecotourism businesses to the Lao national and regional administration to local people who see opportunities for income generation by selling snacks, soft drinks and handicrafts, all stakeholders involved in maintaining an image of Hintang as a future tourism destination are enticed by promises of development. Such promises are presented differently by and to these various stakeholders and, arguably, they have little—if anything—to do with the actual heritage of Hintang. Despite this apparent disconnect, I argue that these promises and the heritage sites of Hintang are in fact decisively connected. I suggest that the reconstruction and presentation of Hintang’s heritage sites carry an implicit narrative that establishes a ‘developmental’ relationship between a simple past and a complex present, and maintains local communities in a ‘double bind’ that compels them to occupy a subaltern ‘space of difference’.
by pristine people while contributing philanthropically to the same people’s well-being and development. ‘A journey into Laos is a journey into an Asia long lost’, claims the same website. This chapter investigates the promises of development involved in the business of ecotourism at the archaeological heritage site of Hintang in northeastern Laos. With its spectacular archaeological sites of standing stones and underground chambers set in breathtaking mountain
scenery, Hintang has gained a name as one of Laos’s key ecotourism destinations. Yet its remote location, far from all tourist comfort zones, has so far prevented signifi cant numbers of travelers from actually getting there. From international ecotourism businesses to the Lao national and regional administration to local people who see opportunities for income generation by selling snacks, soft drinks and handicrafts, all stakeholders involved in maintaining an image of Hintang as a future tourism destination are enticed by promises of development. Such promises are presented differently by and to these various stakeholders and, arguably, they have little—if anything—to do with the actual heritage of Hintang. Despite this apparent disconnect, I argue that these promises and the heritage sites of Hintang are in fact decisively connected. I suggest that the reconstruction and presentation of Hintang’s heritage sites carry an implicit narrative that establishes a ‘developmental’ relationship between a simple past and a complex present, and maintains local communities in a ‘double bind’ that compels them to occupy a subaltern ‘space of difference’.
The volume
–explores how the discourses of colonialism and ecotourism affect tourists, archaeologists, heritage managers, and the local community;
–is written as a set of overlapping creative essays, each giving an overlapping perspective on Hintang;
–is a multidisciplinary research project based on ethnographic fieldwork, archival research, interviews with community members, biography, material culture studies, and text analysis.
This volume has sprung out of the Research School for Studies in Cultural History at the Faculty of Humanities of Stockholm University, a five-year interdisciplinary research programme focusing on interplays between past and present. The Research School has provided a productive space for border-crossing academic enterprises. And as a result, the seventeen essays of this volume display just as many innovative approaches to traditional academic subjects such as celebrity, literary genre, prehistoric remains, television, and historic monuments. All stem from unexpected combinations and sliding perspectives, focusing on obscure corners and gaps between the illuminated centres of traditional academic knowledge. From such sliding perspectives follows the realization that all narratives, representations, and claims of culture and history are in some sense political.
The seventeen essays in this volume demonstrate how a shifting kaleidoscope of the academic subjects makes new knowledge possible, and enables the formulation of new critical questions. Challenging, disturbing, inspirational, these essays all make cultural history.