| This project revolves around commodification and the appropriation of culture, particularly Hispano culture in New Mexico. More specifically, I look at santos as an example of a commodified cultural tradition. Hispano art, particularly santos can be analyzed as sacred/devotional; sacred/marketed; or as commodified art.; Sacred/devotional art is created specifically for use as a religious totem. Sacred/marketed art is sold for money in the market place and is created to resemble the sacred/devotional art. Commodified art is produced solely for its market value with no thought of the sacred/devotional. Commodification denotes a particular social construction of things that people value and refers to the social process of transforming and converting ideas, objects, and events into articles of trade or commerce in the capitalist marketplace or more succinctly, turning social activities into economic ones. Commodification, in other words, emotional and relational settings in which they are produced and redefined in new terms, a form of representation. (Radin 1996; Tisdale 1996a; Mullen 1993; Sahlins 1976, chapter 5; Bloch and Parry 1989; Ohmann 1996, introduction). “Contested commodification” refers to instances in which we experience personal and social conflict about the process and the result (Radin 1996, preface). The contestation in this study concerns how Hispano culture has been represented by Anglo outside change agents, and how they have used their position and power to represent Hispano culture in New Mexico in a particular way, a way that serves the purposes of their own self promotion, the tourist industry and an ideology of discrimination that I call racism. Discrimination, arrogance, condescension, paternalism, and appropriation define the racism that I refer to in this study.; This project is informed by the American Studies paradigm of multi- and interdisciplinary analysis. I have used culture studies, anthropology, historical studies, and regional studies using cross- and interdisciplinary texts, archival research, interviews, and participant and participatory observation techniques particularly in the areas of the art market and tourism. Tourism and cultural representation in this study are grounded in a cultural studies approach, with particular attention given to consumer culture and its orientation to the marketing and consumption of goods and services. At issue is the social conditioning of cultural production and symbolic forms and their shaping by class and ethnic relations as well as the relationships between economic and cultural institutions. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
