Of Huts and Houses – Negotiating Authenticity and Indigeneity in a Shuar Developmental Project in the Ecuadorian Amazon

Abstract

How do tourists and Shuar project staff understand, negotiate and contest notions of authenticity and Indigeneity in the context of volunteer tourism? In this article I examine infrastructure as a privileged site for projections of authenticity and Indigeneity in an Indigenous tourism project in the Ecuadorian Amazon. While referring to the same physical infrastructure and services, such as running water, electricity, sanitary installations, houses and roads, for voluntourists and Shuar it represents divergent visions of Indigenous life. A focus on the mundane reality of infrastructure lends itself to teasing out differing yet intersecting notions of authenticity and Indigeneity as negotiated and contested in the Indigenous volunteer tourism project, while further highlighting how an anthropological perspective can add hosts’ visions and perspectives to the discourse in volunteer tourism studies.