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- Convenor:
-
Kevin Yelvington
(University of South Florida)
- Stream:
- Series B: Political economy/development
- Location:
- GCG08
- Start time:
- 10 April, 2007 at
Time zone: Europe/London
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
What can applied anthropologists a consideration of their projects contribute to anthropological theory on tourism? This panel draws upon applied practitioners to understand the state of their art.
Long Abstract:
Academic social and cultural anthropology concerned with tourism has provided thick descriptions of the tourist exchange in a number of contexts, with exegeses devoted to illustrate the sexualized Other, the appropriation of landscape, the uses of the past in the present, and the delatory effects of tourism structures on the 'host' communities. It has shown us how pilgrimages, beaches, and museums become iconic and fetishized in the tourist's gaze. Yet, for applied anthropologists concerned with the impacts of the world's largest industry on local populations, and those charged with proscribing applied interventions, do the theories generated in this tradition provide a use-value? Do those anthropologists engaged in community-centred methods such as participatory action research, and theoretical approaches through praxis, approach their subject in the same ways? Indeed, what can applied anthropologists, as such, and the consideration of applied projects, contribute to theory in anthropological research on tourism? This panel draws upon applied anthropological practitioners to understand the state of their art. Appropriate topics include studies of tourism and the spread of HIV/AIDS; tourism and nutrition; tourism and issues of cultural heritage and cultural property; the politics of representation as well as construals of audiences and media-based constructions of 'the toured'; and even critical considerations of theoretical models that might be amenable to applied anthropology.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
The paper will propose some generalisable strategies for anthropological focus group research in areas in which tourism is in its nascent stages.
Paper long abstract:
Attitudes towards tourism among host societies are influenced by many factors, personal and societal, involving both actual experience and future aspirations. This is complicated further when doing research among societies in which tourism is a future possibility rather than a present reality, necessitating the development of special tactics for the gathering and analysis of data. The proposed paper draws on experiences in conducting site research into the perceptions and expectations of locals regarding the potential development of tourism in remote and undeveloped areas of Laos. The concept of tourism as an activity, a social milieu or economic sector is completely foreign to the societies being researched. Therefore, the researcher had to develop methods for gauging opinions on a topic that was at best ill-defined for most of the respondents, and about which they had never been asked to formulate an opinion. This necessitated the adaptation of methods to acknowledge and accommodate the mixing of actual experience with aspirations in the respondents input. The paper will recount the ways in which focus group methods were adapted and customized in the course of this research to address these and other challenges, and will propose some generalisable strategies for anthropological focus group research in areas in which tourism is in its nascent stages.
Paper long abstract:
On 1st May 2004, the Republic of Cyprus entered the European Union, unaccompanied by the Turkish Cypriot population in the northern third of the island. The Green Line - the militarised border marking the cessation of hostilities in 1974 - now defines the outer edge of the European Union, creating a fluid and uncertain borderland which has become the focus for on-going attempts to construct both the new Cyprus and the new Europe. Tourism has a central and contradictory role to play in these processes. It offers an avenue for stimulating economic activity and raising income levels in the Turkish Cypriot north, and presents an opportunity to develop complementary tourism products north and south which could widen the appeal of the island as a whole and promote collaborative ventures between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. On the other hand, such developments face strong resistance from sections of the population north and south, who fear they will lead either to the legitimation and tacit recognition of the Turkish Cypriot state in the north, or to a return to relations characterised by Greek Cypriot dominance and Turkish Cypriot dependence. The paper reflects on the author's involvement in a village tourism development project in Cyprus in 2005/2006 in order to explore the usefulness of anthropological insights on the contingency of place and notions of identity and cultural property, and the potential of tourism to achieve political ends.
Paper long abstract:
Since the late 1980s, the economy of the Monteverde zone of North Central Costa Rica has been shifting from dairy farming and coffee production to tourism. Although tourism has generated employment for local people and the development of infrastructure in an area that was economically underdeveloped, it has also has an impact on social lives and health of residents in the zone. This paper will examine the role that tourism has on shaping food habits and food consumption patterns of 148 households in two communities in the Monteverde zone. The high cost of living along with seasonal employment and decreased reliance on local food production have resulted in many households purchasing commercially produced foods that are often high in saturated fat and refined sugar and low in complex carbohydrates. Moreover, many households reported having less time for food preparation and time to spend with family at meal times.
Paper long abstract:
This paper describes the involvement of young female tourists who visit rural Costa Rica for extended periods of time with gringueros (i.e., local men who actively seek relationships with foreign women). We explore the way in which the desire for sexual adventure that often drives these relations, coupled with the limited availability of condoms, leads to risky sexual behaviors which could facilitate the spread of HIV/AIDS. The findings highlight the need to use tourism-related locales to implement HIV/AIDS awareness strategies targeted at women tourists, gringueros, and local youth who participate in the tourism-based economy.