“COME TO LIFE”: AUTHENTICITY, VALUE, AND THE CARNIVAL AS CULTURAL COMMODITY IN TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

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Abstract
This essay explores the tension between processes of cultural commodification and processes of authentication in the marketing of the Trinidad Carnival. The Trinidad and Tobago Industrial Development Company, the National Carnival Commission, and the University of the West Indies have worked with the travel business in Trinidad and Tobago and abroad to appeal to both “cultural tourism” and “sun, sea, sand, and sex tourism” markets while maintaining what they see as Trinidad's cultural uniqueness. The presentation demonstrates the tense, sometimes contradictory, sometimes complementary relationship between competing desires for cultural integrity and economic autonomy. This essay explores how concepts of authenticity, processes of cultural objectification, and international marketing are intertwined in the name of economic and cultural nationalism.

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