tourism-tradition.html

The Ambiguity of "Tradition"


The ethnic tourist actively seeks what he or she can label "traditional," yet the very term is confusing. By whose standards do we judge something traditional or non-traditional? Just as modernization is so often equated to Westernization, tradition often means, in the context of third world travel, authentic, real, or pure. Traditions are indispensable, but they are seldom adequate. Traditions change because they are never good enough for all the people who have received them. Some traditions die, others grow. Change does not always mean that something is destroyed or decaying (Murguianto, p. 131). When we look at our own culture, it is difficult to locate tradition. In our own society, change is progress, yet in the Other, change is destructive. This ties back to the need for the West to own progress, as if it were a commodity, an invention of the Western world.

What the tourist often lacks is the ability to realize that (s)he applies different definitions to the term "tradition" depending on the location. Advertisements in America are taking a turn toward the concept of tradition. For example, with the growth of the micro-brewery, beers are now claiming to be tradition. "The last real beer" amongst the new beers, the tried and true product. (I would love to have that Coors ad placed somewhere in here: "The Last Real Beer") We project tradition on to relatively meaningless products (i.e. beer) in an attempt to rediscover tradition. Yet the irony is that "tradition" itself is becoming a commodity. It is a clever advertising ploy for the shopper who is overwhelmed by the endless variety of choices. It lacks any real meaning or tie to time. But when we step away from our own society, tradition is assigned another meaning. Tradition should be linked to the past. It should be repetitious, meaningful and significant in a way that beer can never be. It should be the real thing, not a product of and response to capitalism (or tourism).


Owning Modernity
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