This article evolved from a disappointing holiday I had in Tahiti. First, I present my Tahitian experience in a storied form. Then, after condemning Tahiti as an unworthy leisure resort, I examine my own expectations as a Western woman and trained ethnographer. I discuss how I longed for an exotic, unspoiled, Pacific pleasure paradise in a distant periphery and how I searched for something in Tahiti that I defined as authentic. I discuss how these expectations reflect a stereotypical Western cultural bias toward a binary, hierarchical understanding of the world—a worldview that as an ethnographer, I was consciously trying to avoid. Because I am mainly concerned with issues of self-reflexivity in ethnographic research, this article focuses on the relationship between researcher's Westernness and tourism.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Appadurai, A.1988. Putting hierarchy in its place.Cultural Anthropology3:36-49.
2.
Ballerino Cohen, C.1995. Marketing paradise, making nation.Annals of Tourism Research22:404-421.
3.
Baudrillard, J.
1983. Simulations.New York: Semiotext(e).
4.
Benson, P.
1993. Anthropology and literature.Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
5.
Boon, J. A.
1990. Why museums make me sad. In Exhibiting cultures: The poetics and politics of museum display, edited by I. Karp and D. Lavine, 255-278. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
6.
Boorstin, D.
1961. The image: A guide to pseudo-events in America.New York: Harper.
7.
Bourdieu, P.
1977. Outline of a theory of practice.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
8.
Bourdieu, P.
1984. Distinction: A social critique of the judgment of taste.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
9.
Bruner, E. M.1991. The transformation of self in tourism.Annals of Tourism Research18:238-250.
10.
Bruner, E. M.
1993. Introduction: The ethnographic self and the personal self. In Anthropology and literature, edited by P. Benson, 1-26. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
11.
Bruner, E. M.
1995. The ethnographer/tourist in Indonesia. In International tourism, edited by M.-F. Lanfant, J. B. Allcock, and E. M. Bruner, 224-244. London: Sage.
12.
Clandinin, D. J.
, and F. M. Connelly. 1994. Personal experience methods. In Handbook of qualitative research, edited by N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln, 413-427. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
13.
Clifford, J.
1988. The predicament of culture.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
14.
Clifford, J.
, and G. E. Marcus. 1986. Writing culture.Los Angeles: University of California Press.
15.
Connerton, P.
1989. How societies remember.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
16.
Crick, M.1985. “Tracing” the anthropological self: Quizzical reflections on field work, tourism and the ludic.Social Analysis17:71-92.
17.
Crick, M.
1995. The anthropologist as tourist. In International tourism, edited by M.-F. Lanfant, J. B. Allcock, and E. M. Bruner, 205-223. London: Sage.
18.
Davis, J.
1979. Yearning for yesterday.New York: Free Press.
19.
Denzin, N.
1989. Interpretive biography.Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
20.
Eco, U.
1986. Travels in hyperreality.San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
21.
Featherstone, M.
1991. Consumer culture and postmodernism.London: Sage.
22.
Feifer, M.
1985. Going places.London: Macmillan.
23.
Flears, A.
1991. Beyond the mosaic: Minorities and the media in multiracial/multicultural society. In Communications in Canadian society, edited by B. D. Singer, 344-367. Nelson, Canada: Scarborous.
24.
Harkin, M.1995. Modernist anthropology and tourism of the authentic.Annals of Tourism Research22:650-670.
25.
Hawkins, G.
1990. Too much fun. In Sport and leisure: Trends in Australian popular culture, edited by D. Rowe and G. Lawrence, 209-231. Marrickville, Australia: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
26.
Lanfant, M.-F.
1995. International tourism, internationalization and the challenge to identity. In International tourism, edited by M.-F. Lanfant, J. B. Allcock, and E. M. Bruner, 24-43. London: Sage.
27.
Levi-Strauss, C.
[1995] 1963. Tristes tropiques. Translated by John Russell. Reprint, New York: Atheneum.
28.
MacCannell, D.
1989. The tourist.New York: Shocken.
29.
Mascia-Lees, F. E.
, and P. Sharpe. 1994. The anthropological unconscious.American Anthropologist96:649-660.
30.
Meisch, L.1995. Gringas and Otavalenos.Annals of Tourism Research22:441-462.
31.
Morris, M.
1995. Life as a tourist object in Australia. In International tourism, edited by M.-F. Lanfant, J. B. Allcock, and E. M. Bruner, 177-191. London: Sage.
32.
Nash, D.1981. Tourism as an anthropological subject.Current Anthropology22:461-481.
33.
Picard, M.
1995. Cultural heritage and tourist capital. In International tourism, edited by M.-F. Lanfant, J. B. Allcock, and E. M. Bruner, 44-66. London: Sage.
34.
Pretes, M.1995. Postmodern tourism.Annals of Tourism Research22:1-15.
35.
Pruitt, D.
, and S. LaFont. 1995. For love and money.Annals of Tourism Research22:422-440.
36.
Rojek, C.
1993. Ways of escape. Modern transformations of leisure and travel.London: Macmillan.
37.
Rosaldo, R.
1989. Culture and truth: Remaking the social analysis.Boston: Beacon Press.
38.
Rose, D.
1993. Ethnography as a form of life: The written word and the work of the world. In Anthropology and literature, edited by P. Benson, 192-224. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
39.
Rossell, P.
1988. Tourism and cultural minorities: Double marginalisation and survival strategies. In Tourism: Manufacturing the exotic, edited by P. Rossell, 1-20. Copenhagen: IWGIA.
40.
Said, E.
1979. Orientalism.New York: Vintage.
41.
Slowikowski, S.
1993. On “primitive” physical culture in civilized places. In On the fringes of sport, edited by L. Laine, 181-188. Sankt Augustin, Germany: Academia.
42.
Snyder, E. E.1991. Sociology of nostalgia: Sport halls of fame and museums in America.Sociology of Sport Journal8:228-238.
43.
Stratton, J.
(1990). Crossing the border: Tourism as leisure. In Sport and leisure: Trends in Australian popular culture, edited by D. Rowe and G. Lawrence, 244-261. Marrickville, Australia: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
44.
Urry, J.
1990. The tourist gaze: Leisure and travel in contemporary societies.London: Sage.
45.
Volkman, T. A.1990. Visions and revisions: Toraja culture and the tourist gaze.American Ethnologist17:91-110.
46.
Wallerstein, I.
1979. The capitalist world economy.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
