Full Description
What does it mean to study tourism ethnographically? How has the ethnography of tourism changed from the 1970s to today? What theories, themes, and concepts drive contemporary research? Thirteen leading anthropologists of tourism address these questions, focusing on the experience-near, interpretive-humanistic approach to tourism studies that emerged in the 1990s and continues to be prominent today. Widely associated with the work of American anthropologist Edward Bruner, this perspective is characterized by an attentiveness to representation, imagination, interpretation, meaning, and the inherent subjectivity of both ethnography and tourism as social practices. Contributors draw on their ongoing fieldwork to illustrate, critically engage, and build upon key concepts in tourism ethnography today—from experience, encounter, and emergent culture to authenticity, narrative, contested sites, the touristic borderzone, embodiment, identity, and mobility. Using Bruner's work as a lens for delving into the past, present, and future of interpretive-humanistic tourism ethnography, these scholars provide a critical introduction to the state of the art. With its comprehensive introductory chapter, keyword-based organization, and engaging style, this volume will appeal to students of anthropology and tourism studies, as well as scholars in both fields and beyond.
Contents
Chapter 1: Formation — Always in Process: Edward Bruner, American Anthropology, and the Study of Tourism
Chapter 2: Genealogies — On the Emergence of Identity and Borderzones as Key Concepts
Chapter 3: Influence — "So in Effect I Was Studying Myself": Knowing (Our) Tourist Stories
Chapter 4: Authenticity — "Whatever We Weave Is Authentic": Coproducing Authenticity in Guatemalan Tourism Textile Markets
Chapter 5: The Borderzone — Living in and Reaching beyond the Touristic Borderzone: A View from Cuba
Chapter 6: Constructivism — "I Can Feel Them Now, Even as I Write": Hiking Yosemite Falls with the Emergent Subjects of Tourism
Chapter 7: Identity • Mobility • Embodiment — "Being a Tourist in My (Own) Home": Negotiating Identity between Tourism and Migration in Indonesia
Chapter 8: The Self • Narrative • The Borderzone — Beyond Dialogue: Hospitality and the Transformation of Self in Southwestern Madagascar
Chapter 9: Contested Sites • Identity • Stories — "Ideologies at War" in Chichén Itzá: An Ethnography of a Tourism Destination
Chapter 10. Dialogues — (I) Taking Tourism Seriously: A Conversation with Edward Bruner and (II) Reflections
