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Valley specifically, where the draw is Inca culture, shamanism is seen as an easy way to attract tourists. The

shaman is seen “as the embodiment of ancient culture and spiritual authority,” and as such, the image of "the

spiritual Inca" has become a trope of Peru's global tourist market” (Gómez-Barros, 2012, p. 71). There’s a

grand commodification of indigenous culture that subsequently marginalizes them (Hill, 2008). Tourists want

the idealized vision of indigenous culture that commercialized shamans give them and not the actual thing,

due to convenience and the glorification of an “authentic” experience. A photo or shamanistic cleansing in a

commercialized setting becomes a story for a tourist to romanticize, without actually creating a connection

with the culture they are idealizing. Tourists go in with preconceived notions about how a shaman should act,

and with the belief that this is how they have acted for thousands of years (Fotiou, 2010). Therefore, it has

become in the interest of those in the industry to play up such images in order to be seen as more unique or

indigenous to tourists. Many times, the idea of what is authentic is actually constructed by the shamans

themselves based on what they believe tourists expect, such as jungle location, rejection of syncretic

Christianity, and ceremonial dress (Fotiou, 2010). Most shamans that try to distance themselves from such

theatrics purposefully wear normal clothes and embrace syncretism by exhibiting Catholic iconography.

However, those that play up the idea of increased Inca or Amazonian culture create an inauthentic experience

that becomes a commodity in the industry. “When natives try to conform to tourists’ expectations of

authenticity, said authenticity is immediately lost,” essentially creating the opposite effect, though not always

in a way that is recognizable (Fotiou, 2010, p. 134). The number of people claiming royal Inca heritage to gain

consumers leaves many tourists acutely aware of the pandering that occurs in cities such as Cusco, a city that

largely relies on tourism.

All of these practices create an image of Peru that instead looks fraudulent and detracts from its actual

rich cultural beauty. The idealized version of Peru that is formed through commercialization specifically

relates to shamanism in the form of spiritual tourism. The idea of mysticality and finding one’s self is

extremely attractive to those searching for more adventurous or alternative vacations experiences. In this

mystic view the “Primitive is turned into primordial, wild into ecological, magic into mystic, makeshift into

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