engleski

Cultural Heritage and Symbolic Borders on a Croatian Island – The Falkuša of Vis

This paper will address the issue of the role of cultural heritage in the creation of symbolic borders on the island of Vis, Republic of Croatia. More specifically, we will focus on falkuša (or gajeta falkuša) – a traditional Dalmatian fishing boat, which has been revived in the last several decades as a prime representative of the island’s authentic cultural heritage. We take cultural heritage in general to have two major roles in an island setting: 1) self-identification, i.e. cultural positioning with respect to the “others”, and 2) a form of cultural capital, a resource used for the articulation of the “tourist gaze” in the process of tourist consumption, which is a significant source of income for all island communities. On the example of falkuša, we will demonstrate the interconnectedness of these roles and argue that both significantly affect the way an island community structures its symbolic borders. The (problematic) notion of authenticity is crucial in this respect, since it plays an important role in the legitimization of cultural heritage both as an expression of identity and as an example of a “genuine” tourist attraction.

islands; cultural heritage; identity; falkuša

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