The Tourists Gaze, The Cretans Glance: Archaeology and Tourism on a Greek Island (Heritage, Tourism, and Community) (Volume 1)

As researchers bring their analytic skills to bear on contemporary archaeological tourism, they find that it is as much about the present as the past. Philip Duke's study of tourists gazing at the remains of Bronze Age Crete highlights this nexus between past and present, between exotic and mundane. Using personal diaries, ethnographic interviews, site guidebooks, and tourist brochures, Duke helps us understand the impact that archaeological sites, museums and the constructed past have on tourists' view of their own culture, how it legitimizes class inequality at home as well as on the island of Crete, both Minoan and modern. Using the sites on the island of Crete as an example, Duke first gives a brief overview of what is known of Cretan pre-history. He then explores how the sites have been observed by mostly European and American tourists from the early nineteenth century to the present. Duke is concerned with how guides and brochures filter the archeological information to the tourists and how a specific view of the past is being presented. He concludes by encouraging academics to engage the interest of the casual spectator by making information about the sites more accessible to non-specialists. A useful appendix has a list describing each site along with comments on its current condition. Annotation As researchers bring their analytic skills to bear on contemporary archaeological tourism, they find that it is as much about the present as the past. Philip Duke's study of tourists gazing at the remains of Bronze Age Crete highlights this nexus between past and present, between exotic and mundane. Using personal diaries, ethnographic interviews, site guidebooks, and tourist brochures, Duke helps us understand the impact that archaeological sites, museums and the constructed past have on tourists' view of their own culture, how it legitimizes class inequality at home as well as on the island of Crete, both Minoan and modern CONTENTS 8 Preface 10 Introduction 14 CHAPTER ONE: Touring the Past 22 CHAPTER TWO: The Minoan Past 34 CHAPTER THREE: Tourists and the Constructed Past 58 CHAPTER FOUR: Modern Crete, Ancient Minoans, and the Tourist Experience 68 CHAPTER FIVE: Constructing a Prehistory 94 CHAPTER SIX: The Nexus of the Past 120 References Cited 124 Index 154 About the Author 156