Abstract:
Benedict Anderson points to three institutions of power which metamorphosed
"in form and function as the colonized zones entered the age of mechanical reproduc-
tion, namely: the census, map and the museum" (163). I will push the map, or the cartographer's
domain, further by venturing into the cultural studio of peopled and landscape postcards.
It is easy to dismiss postcards as mere commodities of capitalism or markers of and for
tourism, or even as glorified places that are neither real nor authentic. Using Barthean
semiotics as my mode of inquiry, I will show how these cultural markers are a powerful
analytical tool in the context of colonial history and contemporary tourism. More
specifically, I will illustrate how these postcards may be seen as: a site of power; a
legitimizer of institutions; an arena of experiental contradictions and "parodic repre-
sentations" of authorized transgressions (Hutcheon, 2003: 97). The experiences of
Baguio City, Benguet as an American colonial hill station, Sagada, Mountain Province
and Banaue, Ifugao, reputed gateways to the Cordillera will figure prominently in
determining if and to what extent the colonial imaginings have been transcended or
if new representations are emerging in the light of tourism's serious bid to lead the
service-led economies of the 21st century.
