tourism-intro.html

ETHNIC TOURISM

Introduction

The "quest for the other" is at the heart of ethnic tourism. Modern America -- and modern does not necessarily mean better or worse here -- is caught up in a whirlwind of motion -- a maelstrom of change, as Marshall Berman would say. Ethnic tourism is of key importance as the tourist industry grows larger and becomes more and more popular; also called cultural tourism, it should be of interest to the anthropologist for many reasons. It brings with it a whole host of issues: perhaps most notable are the concepts of authenticity, tradition, and modernity which are all components of social change. The world we live in is becoming more and more hectic. We are hounded by time, because it is always so evasive and slipping through our fingers. We run around madly trying to get task after task accomplished, although we do not always feel that sense of accomplishment.

Life seems to be so much about "getting somewhere" -- getting up in the morning, getting to class on time, getting to work on time, even getting to bed so you can get up again in the morning. On time. In fact, time is of the essence; time is money. And with that money we can buy endless amounts of everything -- and we have to because practically every time we look up, our toothbrush has already become obsolete. There is always a "new, better and improved" version of everything. Time requires change, yet we expect the Other to resist change. Change occurs in our own culture at such a rapid rate that it overwhelms us. We seem to have an obsession with improvement; improvement here is practically synonymous with change. In our own culture, tradition represents lack of imagination -- it is stagnant and uninteresting. We are forced to change, to love change, because we are modern. Modernity cannot mourn the forgotten traditions, but must push ever forward. Everything has become a commodity -- not a fixed meaning or stationary object, but a commodity driven by a mindset that cannot rest. So it seems almost a natural step to turn culture in to a commodity.

Perhaps it is this constant and relentless fluctuation of our surroundings that leads us to search for stability in the Other. Stability suggests a sort of timelessness that is so absent in our own society. Tourism is the ultimate journey toward the Other. What we want to see least in them is an image of ourselves. We want the Other to remain exotic and strange, but at the same time we want to be part of it all. We want to be that lens on the world -- creating and shaping notions of the Other through our own unique experiences This idea of "off the beaten track" has a kind of romantic, adventurous sentiment to it, though the irony of it is that once you do go off the beaten track, you're only creating a new path for others to follow. Pierre Van Den Berghe writes:

Tourism is a product of modernity. Modernity produces homogenization, instability, and inauthenticity, and thus generates in the most modernized among us a quest for the opposite of these things. The tourist searches for authentic encounters with the other. The greater the otherness of the other, the more satisfying the tourist experience. At the limit, this makes anthropology the ultimate form of tourism (Van Den Berghe, p. 8, italics mine).

We are all reluctant to be called or to call ourselves tourists. The label "tourist" carries with it some ugly images of loud, insensitive people that we generally do not want to be associated with.

The ethnic tourist indeed "searches for authentic encounters with the Other, " and authentic is the key word here. This idea is present regardless of conscious intent. The authentic here is the opposite of packaged commodities. This is what allows the tourist to administer labels of "fake" or "real" when in fact these are entirely subjective terms. The ethnic tourist wants to see peoples and places untainted by outside influences. This type of tourist is awarded some sort of purity medal; they are hailed as true adventurers conquering the great unknown.

Owning Modernity
The Ambiguity of Tradition
Shaping Images of "Us" and "Other": National Geographic and Mass Media
The Effects of Tourism: Indonesian Dance
Shopping For Culture & Bringing It Home
Bibliographic Materials on Tourism