The diploma thesis deals with the analysis of the gender aspects of women travelling and experience of women travellers, who set out to the non-Europe destinations on their own. The thesis is based on in-depth interviews with women travellers and analyze how these journeys are important to them. The thesis tries to point out that women's solo travelling directly effects their biography as well as career and status of these female travellers. Women independent travelling is introduced as the dynamic process, by means of which they acquire or verify the gender power and abilities, applicable to their personal life and work. Using the concepts of feminist theories implemented on women's travelling, I try to show that this type of travelling is affected by history and prefers male travelling, which displaces the individual women's travelling on the edge of the social and scientific interest. This thesis is based on the anthropology of tourism, particularly on the study of backpacking and set the experience of the woman traveller in the frame of the rites of passage. Moreover the thesis contains the analysis of the public and media discourse, focused on the real case of two young women kidnapped in Pakistan. Keywords: anthropology of tourism, women independent travellers, solo travelling, backpacking,...

Within the Mormon culture, women are expected to marry, raise children, and be a "helpmeet" to their husbands. Both men and women are taught that they cannot attain the highest degree of heaven unless they are married in a Mormon temple, where they have been "sealed for time and all eternity." Although neither one can achieve this lofty goal without the other, and although there are some aspects of the Mormon culture in which there is a fair degree of equality between men and women, there is no denying that this is a patriarchal culture. Men hold the priesthood and they preside in their homes. The woman is the man's companion and counselor. Kathy Haynie converted to Mormonism when she was just eighteen, and she met and married her husband only two years later. She is committed to her religion and to her new family, and so she is as surprised as anyone when she begins to chafe under a manipulative and controlling husband. She is naive and credulous, and so she assumes that she needs to pray more, keep her mouth shut, and endure to the end. All of that changes when she attends a week of outdoor training for Boy Scout leaders, where she is one of only a handful of woman, and the only woman in her training patrol. Near the end of the week, Kathy realizes that she has been ignoring a self she has held within for fifteen years. Torn between her love of her children and her commitment to stable family life, and the increasing need she feels for genuine companionship, Kathy navigates the uncertain realm of friendship with one of her scouting friends. We watch her blossom as she gains confidence and skills to take her family out into the wilderness at the same time that she is deluding herself about her involvement with her friend. Family, faith, and friendship collide in this memoir of a Mormon wife and mother.

The call of the wilderness resonates in all of our hearts, with the desire to get in touch with nature and experience wilderness at some level. This project gives the high school teacher the practical resources necessary to share the passion of being in the wilderness with high school students.

Clothing is the primary means that wilderness backpackers have to protect themselves from injuries and illnesses that can occur while hiking in the cold. The current method of layering clothing may not meet backpackers' needs for both thermal insulation and heat dissipation, particularly in areas of the body that produce greater sweat, and during times of high physical exertion. No previous studies have addressed backpackers' needs for thermal and moisture comfort in different body areas within a single layer garment. The purpose of this study was to design and evaluate a single-layer garment of different textiles, to improve the physiological comfort of male backpackers hiking in cold winter weather conditions. The objectives of this study were to identify the physiological comfort needs of male backpackers hiking in the cold, to design a prototype backpacking shirt to improve comfort, and to evaluate the comfort and performance of the prototype over time, in comparison to a control. Male backpackers were recruited from a wilderness therapy company in Bend, Oregon, where subjects' employment duties included regularly backpacking in the cold. Qualitative data was collected by interviewing the subjects about their physiological comfort needs, types of garments and materials worn, dissatisfactions and preferences with hiking clothing, and locations on the body that need better attention to thermal and moisture comfort. Information provided by the qualitative interviews was used to develop design criteria. From the guarded hot plate and moisture management testing, results were used to select one thermal insulation, moisture management, and control fabric for the garment design. Based on the design criteria, a prototype shirt was developed. A prototype garment was constructed using the combination of the thermal, moisture, and control fabrics; while a control garment was constructed in an identical style using only the control fabric. The prototype and control garments were worn and tested by subjects while they backpacked. Additionally, comparisons of thermal insulation data between the prototype and control garment were collected on a thermal manikin. Major findings from the qualitative interviews were that subjects preferred base layer shirts made with synthetic fibers and style features that helped retain body heat. Subjects preferred to have greater thermal insulation in the chest and the arms, and less thermal insulation in the underarms and upper back area. Additionally, subjects were concerned about durability. A polyester fleece pile-knit was selected for the thermal insulation fabric and located in the arms and chest of the prototype. The moisture management fabric selected was a polyester fiber mesh knit fabric and was located in the upper back, underarms, and side seams of the garment. The control fabric was a brushed polyester double knit fabric and was located in all other body areas of the prototype and in the entire control garment. The wear test data indicated that both the control and prototype garments were perceived to be comfortable. The prototype had slightly better overall comfort than the control, and there were significant differences found between the prototype and the control in the areas of overall comfort, combined thermal comfort, and combined moisture comfort. The prototype did not consistently have better comfort performance than the control in each trial and for each subject. It was found that the prototype and control shirts could be worn without additional layers when the temperatures were above 35 ��F and 40 ��F, respectively. Thermal manikin testing results confirmed that the overall thermal insulation of both test shirts was equal, but that the prototype had greater or less thermal insulation than the control in specific body areas, depending on the placement of the thermal insulation or moisture management fabric. In summary, the prototype shirt designed in this study has accomplished the goal of providing backpackers' physiological comfort needs identified in the qualitative interviews.�� The design prototype, when worn alone, is able to keep backpackers comfortable when hiking in cold conditions, particularly in temperatures above 35��F. Although not intended to be worn as part of a layer system, the prototype also keeps backpackers comfortable when they are wearing multiple clothing layers. The use of different fabrics in different body areas satisfies the backpackers' needs of both retaining and dissipating body heat with changes in physical activity. Although both the prototype and the control shirts were found to have good thermal, moisture, and overall comfort, the prototype had slightly higher overall comfort ratings than the control.�� In addition, both the prototype and the control were perceived to be better than the subjects' own base layer shirts, and all subjects were willing to recommend the shirts to other hikers. / Graduation date: 2013

The former Transkei region of the Eastern Cape of South Africa, in common with many of the other former Bantustans, is currently facing a developmental backlog. It is one of the poorest regions of the country and is a direct product of South Africa’s history of colonisation and geopolitical nature of apartheid in which people were forcibly located onto former tribal lands, called Bantustans. Tourism is one of the few business opportunities providing employment along the former Transkei coast. The tourism industry has been identified by many worldwide as a key strategy that can lead to economic upliftment, community development and poverty relief in the developing world. The predicament however, lies in the challenge of accepting or managing the negative consequences of tourism for the potential long term benefits offered by tourism-led development. Tourism development theory reflects development theory from traditional, top-down economic-growth based models to a more wide based approach with an emphasis on bottom-up planning, meeting of basic human need and a focus on sustainable development. Consequentially new and alternative forms of tourism have emerged and can be viewed as a response to some of the negative consequences of the mass tourism-led model of economic development. Backpacker tourism is one niche of the tourism market that is providing positive local socioeconomic benefits. This thesis is presented as a case study of Mdumbi Backpackers on the former Transkei coast. Mdumbi Backpackers is a unique example of a model of tourism that is providing meaningful benefits to the people who live in this community. By going one step further with the creation of the non-profit organisation Transcape, their involvement in the community has grown significantly, encouraging positive and sustainable development in the areas of social development, education and health. Mdumbi Backpackers goes beyond the notions of locally owned and sustainable approaches and actively encourages development by setting up community organisations and initiatives in a sustainable and equitable way. This approach to tourism-led development is well suited for the needs and objectives of the community as well preserving the natural environment. This thesis presents an exemplary example from which lessons can be learned and applied to developing tourism in a sustainable and equitable way in other rural communities.