In this thesis I explore the practices of ethnic tourism on three island communities of Lake Titicaca, Peru. I employ ethnic tourism to mean the process whereby communities, peoples, or bodies are produced as sites of tourist attraction (objects of touristic gaze). Through various temporal and spatial processes of othering, these formed objects are produced as performers of a ‘tourable’ difference, primarily defined by a removal from the present space of politics through their representations as objects of the past. Thus the privilege of the mobile tourist is (re)inscribed in the practice of touring the stable difference of the ‘toured’ and appropriating this into the formation of a more cosmopolitan self.
This story, which reflects a common concern for touring as a (neo)-imperial/colonial encounter (particularly in the ‘developing’ world) is, however, insufficient for accessing the intensely contested politics of local experiences of the tour. This is particularly the case when we attempt to discuss the meaning of ‘being toured’, how this identity is experienced, and its political implications. Through an exploration of the practices of local tour guides and toured communities on Lake Titicaca, coupled with theoretical concerns for critical approaches to identity, subjectivity, and agency, I begin to explore ways of talking about the toured as constitutive and active negotiators within touristic space. Specifically, I highlight how ‘difference’ is governed and contested through practices of performing and guiding. I also reflect on how these practices (re)articulate or challenge the authorization of particular ‘differences’ as objects of the tour.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/1379 |
| Date | 28 April 2009 |
| Creators | Craven, Caitlin Emily |
| Contributors | Bonner, Michelle D. |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web |
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