SC286 Week Nineteen Handout
Anthropology of Latin America
Ethnotourism
· Introduction
· Marketing ethnicity
· Effects of tourism
· Taquile (Peru)
· Otavalo and Quimsa (Ecuador)
Introduction
What is tourism?
Read from Pierre van den Berghe (1994) The Quest for the Other: Ethnic tourism in San Cristóbal, Mexico, p. 9, 10
The ethnic tourist is the one who actively searches for the ethnically exotic, in as untouched, pristine, authentic a form as he can find it. This tourist wants unspoiled natives, not bilingual waiters and beach boys. The native is not merely a host, a provider of creature comforts, a servant, but becomes, quite literally, the spectacle. The native becomes… the “toureee”. As an object of curiosity, the touree is on show, whether he wants to or not; he must make a spectacle of himself. But he remains authentic only as long as he does not consciously modify his behaviour to make himself more attractive to tourists. Therein lies the great irony of ethnic tourism: it is self-destroying. The presence of tourists spoils the tourees. The tourists must forever push beyond the waves of spoilage created by their intrusion, in search of more and more remote Shangri-las, just beyond the reach of the bulldozer and on the heels of the missionary and the anthropologist. The live fringe of ethnic tourism is the outer reach of the second-class bus. Like the advancing line of a savannah fire, it consumes the commodity it searches: the authentic other…
In a sense, ethnic tourism represents the last wave of exploitative capitalist expansion into the remotest periphery of the world system, to use Wallerstein’s (1974) terminology. Fourth World peoples who were first pushed back into regions of refuge – the “native reserves” of the colonised – are now being “rediscovered” as a tourist resource. Their prior isolation from the mainstream of their respective dominant societies has transformed them into objects of curiosity and nostalgia for the affluent in search of the exotic. Now even poverty becomes an exploitable commodity if it is colourful enough. The most inaccessible cultures and peoples are being commoditised.
1. How is ethnotourism exploitative?
2. What are the tensions and contradictions inherent in ethnotourism?
3. How is ethnotourism similar and different to anthropology?
Marketing ethnicity
Questions: What do you think tourists are looking for when they go to see ethnic ‘others’?
http://www.lovethatstuff.co.uk/as.html
Look at the text: what is being sold here?
Fair Trade from Artesania Sorata, Bolivia
Artesania Sorata, formerly registered with IFAT (International Federation of Fair Trade) are a Bolivian producer group, largely comprised of women. A small team started in 1978 in a rural area on the inhospitable Eastern slopes of the Andes, a place the conquistadors never settled, and now there are over 300 rural and urban artisans.
They still follow their original goals, which are to make traditional textiles and artwork to celebrate their Andean way of life and earn a reasonable living to support themselves and their families. Their way of life has not changed greatly except they now have more choice: the children can go to school; the women have classes in health, crafts and literacy; and they can buy healthier food.
All the steps in making the goods are done by hand and the wool comes from alpaca and sheep. The natural dyes create gorgeous colours with muted or striking contrasts, reflecting the individual woman's view of her Andean life. The quality of the work is exquisite.
Buy some of their lovely things and allow yourself a window on their wonderful, awesome landscape and a share in the joy that emanates from their work.
Effects of tourism
Taquile
Read from Elayne Zorn (2004) Weaving a Future: Tourism, Cloth, and Culture on an Andean Island.
Tourism on Taquile suffers from the classic problem of “leakage”. The vast majority of money made in tourism does not to the source destination, as numerous studies of tourism attest (Gmelch 2004:10). Furthermore, an increasing percentage of the inputs for restaurant meals (soft drinks, beer, trout, oil for frying, flour, etc,), as well as construction materials for building or improving a restaurant, must be bought off-island. These are common problems in regions that experience mass tourism, but they are exacerbated in impoverished regions and, especially, on islands. Mitchell and Reid roughly estimate that less than 10 percent of all income from tourism actually stays on the island (2001:132).
The presence of tourists seems to require Taquileans to “freeze” their culture to conform to visitor expectations. Communities involved in ethnic tourism may cease to “evolve naturally” (MacCannell 1992:178) since they come to think of themselves as representatives of something – of Incas, of Indians, of the authentic Peru – rather than as people. Every decision that was previously determined by other criteria now has potential economic repercussions. Virtually every aspect of daily life is potentially commodified. “The tourist requirement that a group internalize an ‘authentic’ ethnic identity, even if the promoted images is widely held to be a positive one, is no less a constraint than the earlier form of a negative ethnic stereotyping” (ibid.:179).
Questions:
1. What might the consequences be of pressuring a culture to freeze?
2. What are the contradictions in preserving this type of authenticity?
3. How is the demand for authenticity “no less a constraint that the earlier form of a negative ethnic stereotyping”.
Effects of tourism
Ecuador
Read from Mary Crain ‘The Ecuadorean Tourist Market
One of its managers proudly commented to me regarding the exclusive ambiance encountered solely at the Hotel Rey:
We strive to offer our guests a certain feel for a genteel way of life. In more common hotels one may not encounter the ‘gente de categoría’ (people of certain pedigree) that you find here. Among our clientele, both foreign and Ecuadorean nationals, are those who can appreciate certain distinguishing features, that minute attention to details that makes our hotel stand out as unique. Beyond a doubt, the warmth and hospitality of our cheerful women of Quimsa [near Otavalo], arrayed in their folkloric apparel, enrich the hotel environment, adding a colourful, personal, dimension to all of our services. And for any of our gests who may be unfamiliar with our nation’s ancient heritage, the Quimseñas’ presence provides them with an instant lesson regarding Ecuadorean history.
It was not just the Quimseñas’ labour but, above all, the cultural meanings they embodied that were appropriated by the hotel. The incorporation of the Quimseñas underscored the hotel management’s desire for capturing such coded differences as ‘the rare’ and ‘the exotic’. Quimseñas were the ‘authentic’ cultural products conspicuously exhibited to demonstrate the hotel’s high standards of taste. As an ideological construct deployed in this hotel discourse regarding native women, ‘authenticity’ carried connotations of ‘cultural purity’ and ‘timeless tradition’. Following the logic of the narrative recounted by the hotel manager, Quimsa women, as persistent reminders of Ecuador’s pre-Hispanic heritage, were neither coeval with the hotel management nor its guests, but were located in some remote primeval time situated in a distant past….while on duty at the hotel, the ‘authentic dress’ Quimseñas were required to wear did not conform to any of the everyday dress codes commonly encountered in the rural community. Instead, ‘authentic’ dress as mandated, by the hotel management was an aesthetic purification of tradition. It most closely approximated the extravagant, regal dress that only wealthy Quimseñas can afford, an attire reserved solely for festive occasions in the home community. At the hotel, this festive ‘uniform’ was combined with the starched white apron, that once indicated Quimseñas’ status as ‘servants’ on the hacienda.
1. What do the Quimseña women represent to the hotel guests, do you think?
2. What is the hotel selling its clients?
3. What are the positive and negative effect of this way of marketing ethnicity?
Conclusions
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