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Paper short abstract

This paper shows how an Alpine linguistic minority community tackles marginalization through ethnic self-representation. Walser ethnic claims operate as a tool to further heritage tourism, paradoxically exerting counter-hegemonic resistance through the now hegemonic language of heritage-scape.

Paper long abstract

This paper draws on the findings of ethnographic research conducted in Carcoforo, a small municipality in the upper Sesia Valley in the Western Italian Alps. The cultural and historical-demographic trajectory of this village shows how those inhabiting marginal areas, such as mountain communities, strategically deal with various institutional levels. Paradoxically, this involves resorting to the resources flowing from the economic and political centres to the peripheries to perform counter-hegemonic resistance against the increasing marginalization that affects mountain regions. The community composition is highly stratified, including permanent residents who live in the village all year round and those who live there intermittently. This coexistence shapes local social relations and fosters different – sometimes conflicting – ways of imagining the village. However, a common recourse to ethnic self-representation as a tool for defining the community emerges. In fact, Carcoforo is a protected Walser community under Italian Law 482/99 “Rules for the protection of historical linguistic minorities”, although the traces of the medieval migration of German-speaking settlers from Valais are now faint. Thus, Walser ethnicity does not derive from a linear process of cultural transmission. Rather, it is the result of a recent path of ethnic self-representation grafted onto folk revival dynamics, which have made the recovery of Walser cultural traits a driving force for identity assertion and local tourism promotion. The economic entanglements of this ethnic claim are particularly evident nowadays, as adherence to the heritage-scape hegemonic language is increasingly aimed at gaining access to economic and symbolic platforms for promoting tourism.