ABSTRACT

The commodification of culture is a major anxiety for cultural tourism scholars. Many articles have been written concerning this subject. But it seems that the concept is related to a lot of variables (like the economic situation of hosts, the importance of the ceremony or other parts of culture etc.). Ab-Ask, a mountainous village in Mazandaran in the north of Iran is one example of the hosts resisting in front of the commodification of culture, by prevention of the tourists’ presence. In the one of the early days of May, two related ceremonies are done in Ab-Ask: Varf Chal (Pour Snow in the Pit) by the men in the country, and Zan Shahi (Kingdom of Women) in the village. According to tradition, the ceremonies must be done on the second Friday of Ordibehesht, an Iranian month which corresponds to April and May. But after disturbances in the holding of the ceremony caused by the presence of tourists in the past years, the hosts annually change the time of the ceremony, hiding it from tourists. In this chapter, after explaining the ceremonies, the reasons for the resistance to performing them in front of tourists were analysed. The main methods for gathering data depend on participant observation, interviews and also the use of some documents regarding the ceremony. Finally, it showed that the rate of venerability and importance of an event plays the main role in the acceptance or resistance of the tourists by hosts.