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the term authenticity and its multiple uses. Tourist settings can be viewed
“as a continuum, with the first and front-most region being the one that is
most for show purposes and the sixth or backmost region being the one
that is most authentic and motivates touristic consciousness (MacCannell,
1976, p. 102). According to Jamal and Hill (2004, p. 355), “the dialec-
tic of authenticity, reflects an ontological anxiety of existence about what
we are and what is genuine and objectively true about the human condi-
tion.” Accordingly, “an authentic historic event or site is one that has been
scientifically and objectively situated in the original time period, setting
materials of the era” (Jamal and Hill, 2002, p. 84). Objective authenticity
places emphasis on both the integrity of the materials and the context with-
in which an object is made (MacLeod, 2006). In Kazakhstan, visual arts
have existed in the country in the form of rock drawings, or petroglyphs,
since the Neolithic Age. The archaeological landscapes of 'Tamgaly' por-
traying nomadic petroglyphs were added by UNESCO on the list of World
Heritage sites in September 2005, and are nowadays visited as 'authentic'
cultural tourism products by local and international visitors.
CONSTRUCTIVE AUTHENTICITY
Constructive authenticity is relative and negotiable (Cohen, 1988) and con-
text dependent (Salamone, 1997). For Mcleod (2006, p. 184), authenticity
is a
dynamic process
that changes over time, as “reality is a constructed
phenomenon created in our own minds, which are influenced by our per-
sonal worldview and external social, cultural and political factors.” Thus,
the notions of what is authentic are not static but evolve over time and are
relative and negotiated. According to Wang (1999, p. 355) “authenticity is
thus a projection of tourists' own beliefs, expectations, preferences, stereo-
typed images and consciousness onto toured objects, particularly toured
Others.” From this perspective, authenticity can be
linked to an experience
of collective identifications made by
the individual. The analysis of rituals
and the research on how such experiences are constituted can reveal how
authenticity is influenced
by subjective and collective views on consensus,
creativity and existentialism in the tourist role (Olsen and Timothy, 2002).
Constructed authenticity can also be the result of projected dreams, stereo-
typed images or expectations from the consumed objects or what Culler
(1981) calls 'symbolic authenticity.'
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