Emberá indigenous tourism and the trap of authenticity: beyond in-authenticity and invention.

Prompted by tourist commentary that describes an Emberá community in

Panama as “inauthentic” or “invented,” I examine the limitations of these

concepts when used to refer to cultural practices of indigenous communities.

To escape from a limiting, singular vision of authenticity, I argue,

attention should be paid to the multiple and overlapping meanings of the

authentic as these are negotiated in particular contexts. In the case of

Emberá indigenous tourism, the tourists’ search for an authenticity uncorrupted

by modernity inspires indigenous articulations of the authentic

related to diverse sets of cultural practices not only in the past, but also in

the present. Acknowledging this complexity can set us free from the trap

of a singularly conceived authenticity.