Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of St Andrews, February 2010.

This thesis is an ethnographic analysis of kinship among the Kuna of the San Blas Archipelago of eastern Panamá, which focuses on the creation of bodies and persons. San Blas island villages are characterized by a compact layout and a burgeoning demographic concentration in relation to space. Despite land is available on surrounding mainland areas, the Kuna continue living in nucleated villages, emphasizing kinship as the value of a life in spatial and social concentration. By describing quotidian life in one Kuna community, this thesis considers what it means to live in concentration from a Kuna perspective, and how wellbeing is created through daily practices and rituals aimed at contrasting the social disengagement, that people consider an effect of domestic splitting, the ramification of collateral ties, and illnesses inflicted by invisible pathogenic beings. My analysis focuses on two main lines of enquiry: 1) the progression of social relations from close to distant. Beginning from the house, where the bodies of co-residents are made consubstantial through commensality, the thesis analyses marriageability as the management of social distance, and the celebration of communal drinking festivals as the re-patterning of relations with different types of non-kin (e.g. non co-resident kin, the dead, and pathogenic spirits) for the regeneration of fertility and wellbeing. 2) It focuses on the person and discusses how adults make sense of babies and processes of body and kinship making in relation to non-human beings. By describing how ritual and micro-quotidian practices operate according to patterns of density and repetition, this thesis demonstrates that concentration and saturation are the core notions of sociality and personhood for the Kuna. The thesis argues that saturation is interior to the ongoing creation of kinship.

This essay has examined how the local community is involved with the tourism development on the San Blas islands and how it effects the destinations development. The method of choice has been a qualitative interview with an operator that offers trips to the destination. Also there has been made a literature study where previous research about the San Blas and the subjects of choice is being presented. During the writing process of this essay it has become obvious to us that the local community (Kuna Yala) is very much involved in everything that concerns the destination. We can thereby establish that the local community of San Blas can be placed on the top step of Arnsteins (1969) “Ladder of Participation”. This comprehensive involvement brings both positive and negative effects on the destinations development. On the negative side we can se that the service level sometimes is low due to lack of knowledge and communication amongst the Kunas. The positive effects however shows that the destination is perceived more unique when the visitors gets to experience the real Kuna lifestyle that also creates a sustainable social environment. Many Kunas make their living on the tourism industry, which secure that the visitors money stays at the destination. The destination itself has not followed any traditional curve regarding destination development, which makes San Blas problematic to apply in Butlers model about the destination lifecycle. / Denna uppsats har undersökt hur lokalsamhället på San Blasöarna involveras i turismnäringen och hur det påverkar destinationens turismutveckling. Valet av metod har varit en kvalitativ intervju med en aktör som erbjuder resor till destinationen. Vidare har också en litteraturstudie genomförts där tidigare forskning kring destinationen och ämnesområdet presenteras. Under arbetet med uppsatsen har det blivit tydligt att lokalbefolkningen (Kuna Yala) involveras i allra högsta grad i San Blas och påverkar alla beslut som har med destinationen att göra. Vi kan därför konstatera att San Blas lokalbefolkning kan placeras på de övre stegen i Arnsteins (1969) modell över medborgarnas deltagandegrad. Den stora involveringen för med sig både positiva och negativa konsekvenser för destinationsutvecklingen. Det negativa är att servicegraden ibland blir väldigt låg till följd av bristande kunskap och kommunikation bland lokalinvånarna. Bland de positiva effekterna nämns bl.a. att destinationen upp levs unik av besökarna som får komma nära Kuna Yala och uppleva deras levnadssätt vilket skapar ett hållbart socialt förhållande. Sysselsättningen blir även högre då många inom Kuna Yala livnär sig på turismnäringen och den höga deltagandegraden minskar läckaget vilket gör att mer pengar stannar kvar på destinationen. Destinationen i sig har inte följt någon traditionell kurva över turismutvecklingen vilket gör att San Blas blir problematisk att applicera i Butlers modell över destinationslivscykeln.