Paper long abstract:

As grounded into a long term fieldwork undertaken in the Dogon land (Mali/West Africa), this paper addresses the issue of the material culture of tourism and in particular, the process of commodification of Dogon culture as an object of tourist desire. This occurs through the production and selling of 'traditional' objects that are crafted by one of the blacksmith of a village located in the Bandiagara escarpment, a highly touristified place classified in 1989 by UNESCO, as a world cultural heritage site. The art of the blacksmith who paradoxically is not of a Dogon origin, consists of the duplication and subsequently the treatment of Dogon 'traditional' material forms to increase their value and therefore to meet the expectations of the tourists in quest of authenticity. His work is displayed in the village 'shopping centre' and more recently in its craft centre or 'centre d'artisanat'. This constitutes an initiative of the Mission Culturelle of Bandiagara (a governmental organization) that deals -in that particular project- with the promotion of the craft of cast people of the village. Hence, by focusing on the carving and smithing of a series of artefacts as well as the sites of their display, I propose to examine the reshaping process of Dogon material culture and therefore the making of a Dogon material identity. This is based upon the wants, expectations and desire of the tourists as well as it responds to a national economy that consolidates through tourism.

E-paper: this Paper will not be presented, but read in advance and discussed