Tourists long for what they have previously destroyed
“New Guineans are well aware that the culture of their fathers is gone forever and can never be reconstituted. They may still respect old traditions, perform tribal rituals, and honor their ancestors, but in an essential sense, the old way is lost, if only because there has been a transfer of political and economic power, and the New Guineans can no longer act in the modern world and in their relations with outsiders as if their old culture were still intact. Many decisions previously made on the basis of New Guinean cultural premises are now made on the basis of Western premises, for there has been a transfer of power. What is ironic is that the old New Guinea culture is lost in the present, but is recovered in the tourist imaginary, in a tourist dream, and not in the real conditions of native existence. The New Guineans find themselves acting in two time frames: in a real present that the tourists do not see, and in the tourists’ fantasy of their past. …Most ironic of all is that the primitive life that the foreign visitors celebrate has been altered by a previous generation of these same foreigners. In effect, the tourists long for what they have previously destroyed, a phenomena that Rosaldo calls ‘imperialist nostalgia,’ or what might be called ‘tourist nostalgia.'”
–Edward M. Bruner, “Transformation of Self in Tourism,” Annals of Tourism Research (1991)
April 15th, 2013 at 7:43 am
Romance is the capital of capital-poor countries and most non-business travelers are romantics. What dead soul goes to a country to see its crime and poverty, its environmental degradation, its lamentable government pursuing suicidal economic policies, . . .? When you add the traveler’s self-romanticism you have covered practically everything. I am sure that some part of the impetus to travel is the fear that romance is a wasting asset and that if they don’t go soon it will be all gone. Were it not for romance and nostalgia would anyone go to Egypt?
April 15th, 2013 at 9:24 am
Nostalgic longing for the olden days is universal, I think. Western cultures are no different or better than eastern cultures about this. Reenactments, of all kinds, are quite popular in western societies. Even though those days, attitudes and practices are gone.
April 16th, 2013 at 11:17 pm
This is an observation that we are continually making as we journey. I think it’s really important as travelers to be mindful of this fact on two levels: One: we need to be where we are, in our present time, and see the world as it truly is… which is not at all “unromantic” to my way of thinking. Two: There is some benefit to these contrived “tourism cultures” in that they provide financial incentive for the history and cultures of various people groups to be curated for the next generation. They become a sort of living history. I think there is room for a lot of discussion about the best ways to achieve this. Clearly what’s happening with the Karon villages along the Burmese border with Thailand is missing the mark, but what some of the Maori communities in NZ seem to be accomplishing might be a better example of the bridge between worlds. The best example that I’ve experienced is the Plimoth Plantation Museum in Plymoth, MA, where the Wampanoag “village” is populated by registered members of the Wampanoag tribe, in traditional dress, but they speak and teach and interact with the visitors in their modern voices, allowing (encouraging) dialogue about the realities of their modern existence and the importance of preservation of the old knowledge. I’d be interested in hearing what people think about this balance, how to achieve it, and how we, as travelers, can support the efforts.