lcc liberal arts studies / 2010 volume iii - LCC International University

JEWISH ROOTS TOURISM AND THE (RE)CREATION OF LITVAK IDENTITY
Zita Darguþytë
Social Anthropology Centre,
Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
Abstract
The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate the way roots tourism works as a
personal response to the homogenising effects of global processes. This is
exemplified by the case study of Jewish roots tourists' visits to Lithuania. By
remembering, re-visiting and re-appropriating their personal and cultural Litvak
heritage in Lithuania, these roots tourists emphasized their considerable
“extraordinarity” when in comparison to other Jews and to mainstream society in
general. Consequently, these meaningful roots trips, though varying in their scope
and intensity, have nonetheless served in creating an integral “authentic” ethnic
Jewish identity vis-à-vis increasing cultural homogeneity.
Key words: Roots tourism, Lithuania, Litvak identity, globalisation
Tourism as a cause and consequence of globalisation
There are many differing attempts to explain contemporary global processes.
Probably the only agreement they can reach is an acknowledgement of the fact that
nowadays the flows of people, goods or ideas have reached an unprecedented
scale, and their impacts are hardly predictable. Also, a great deal has been said
about the globalising effects of these flows, about the contemporary world as a
“global village”, and “cultural imperialisms”, among others. Tourism, being one of
the forms of population flow, is quite often viewed as a homogenising force:
transnational hotel chains or entertainment sites have monotonous, trans-local
qualities in any country, and most often promote the consumption of certain brands.
As Michael Kearney points out, “the compression of space, the shift from
production to services, the scrambling of and the invention of traditions, and
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