507. Meanings of authenticity

 Authenticity is ‘being true’ to something. In personal authenticity, one is ‘true to oneself’, not passively following rules and institutions, but making choices, commitments, in developing one’s life, breaking rules if necessary. Being true to oneself may suggest that the self is given, originary, but it is a process of development. Being is not a noun but a verb: work. This is the existentialism of Kierkegaard, later taken up by Heidegger and Sartre.

 There is also a connotation of ‘originality’, being true to some origin in the past, some tradition, such as black jazz music, or folk songs, or a myth, a dance, a type of art, a way of making instruments, conduct of a craft. It can be truth of origen in the form of a place, such as Champagne, or Bordeau wine. It can be truth to an origen in the present, yourself, equivalent to creativity. That is connected to personal authenticity, in a unique life, activity or appearance.

 In tourism there is an issue of the authenticity of objects of art or craft, or events such as dances, presented to tourists. There are degrees of authenticity, and what is sought depends on the tourist. Cohen (1988: 377) made a distinction between ‘diversionary’ tourists, seeking diversion from ordinary life, vs, ‘experiential’ tourists seeking experience that diverges from their industrial or materialist societies. They seek less developed countries to be inspirational. Often., authenticity is ‘staged’ for the benefit and pleasure of the tourist, deviating from its origin.

 To analyse this further, I use the multiple causality of Aristotle that in this blog I have used before. First the efficient cause of who acts. These can be autochtonic people or people coming in for the opportunity. Then there is the goal of the activity, or final cause. That can be to express and preserve a cultural practice or to make pecuniary profit from marketing it, in what is called 'commoditisation'. Deviation from the origen can lie in the material cause of the stuff the product or costumes are made of, such as plastic instead of wood or natural wool, or in the formal cause of how the product or activity is made, such as abbreviating it or translating it, or other ways of making it easier to absorb or understand. The exemplary cause, which is imitated, serves as a model, usually is the original, fully authentic thing.

 Such deviations are not necessarily bad. They may still be sufficiently authentic in the experience of the diversionary tourist. They may help to preserve at least part of traditional culture.

 Can such relativation also apply to incompletely authentic personality? One can compromise on rules and institutions by deviating from them only occasionally or in part, opportunistically, when deviation is not too costly. That is what people in fact do, some more uncompromisingly than others. One cannot fully escape institutions and still be a participant in society.

 Authenticity can be ‘emergent’: what was artificial at first becomes authentic. Authentification takes place by certification ‘in the hands of merchants, critics, and collectors’ (Peterson 2005: 1090). For an example, Cohen (1973:380) mentions the Disney World theme parks, which were first seen as highly artificial, but have come to be seen as a genuine part of American culture.

 Cohen, E. (1988), ‘Authenticity and commodification is tourism’, Annals of Tourism Research 15: 371-86.

 Peterson. R. (2005), ‘In search of authenticity’, Journal of Management Studies, 42/5: 1083-94.