El desarrollo local y su interdependencia entre los medios rural y urbano

Abstract

The complexity of Tourism and its incidence in territory, are factors which must be taken into consideration to determine possible impacts of Tourism in indigenous communities. In fact, the present investigation prioritizes those elements which go beyond touristic planification in lands considered as ancestral. Social inequity and disparities in shuar communities has triggered commerce of what is sacred to them, with touristic purposes, decontextualizing real meaning and uprooting their local identity. The main question that remains under such circumstances, is to determine the benefits and factors that could alter their social structure in which these communities develop due to the introduction of tourism. Furthermore, a critical analysis regarding the commercialization of ancestral knowledge will be carried out along with the possible cultural shock between visitors and locals. As a matter of fact, on the one hand, the communities are immersed in a process of cultural transformation, in which, taking Tourism as a means is willing to recover part of that essence. However, they find themselves at risk of dramatizing their identity in order to get the visitors´ attention. On the other hand, there are the adventurers, who are in constant search for the sacred, translated in the practice of rituals carried out in the communities open to visitors, causing struggle due to the appropriation of a space which turns into an object of touristic consumption. Part of this investigation focuses in delimiting and establishing which part of the shuar territory can be considered as touristic, and how it should project itself from new commercial tendencies to strengthen models of local development contributing to recover shuars´ ancestral knowledge, without the need of commercializing them and protecting their cultural values. In fact, some strategies thought to help promote a more responsible tourism towards the intangible heritage will be detailed in order to avoid the improper use of image as an exotic object. On the contrary, new modalities of tourism are suggested, which are articulated with investigation and mental health, thanks to the existing biodiversity found in the Ecuadorian Amazon. A touristic planification coherent to the local reality of shuar communities is the first step to face the complexity of tourism, as an articulating element between the necessities of the territory and the motivations of the demand to access these territories. Finally, the problem raised will be overlooked as a tool for future investigations which could be willing to deepen in the study of these territories.