Culture on Tour: Ethnographies of Travel

Bruner, Edward M.

ISBN 10: 0226077632 / ISBN 13: 9780226077635

Published by University of Chicago Press, 2004

The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine. Seller Inventory # GOR013202829

Synopsis:

Recruited to be a lecturer on a group tour of Indonesia, Edward M. Bruner decided to make the tourists aware of tourism itself. He photographed tourists photographing Indonesians, asking the group how they felt having their pictures taken without their permission. After a dance performance, Bruner explained to the group that the exhibition was not traditional, but instead had been set up specifically for tourists. His efforts to induce reflexivity led to conflict with the tour company, which wanted the displays to be viewed as replicas of culture and to remain unexamined. Although Bruner was eventually fired, the experience became part of a sustained exploration of tourist performances, narratives, and practices.

Synthesizing more than twenty years of research in cultural tourism, Culture on Tour analyzes a remarkable variety of tourist productions, ranging from safari excursions in Kenya and dance dramas in Bali to an Abraham Lincoln heritage site in Illinois. Bruner examines each site in all its particularity, taking account of global and local factors, as well as the multiple perspectives of the various actors—the tourists, the producers, the locals, and even the anthropologist himself. The collection will be essential to those in the field as well as to readers interested in globalization and travel.

About the Author: Edward M. Bruner is professor emeritus of anthropology and criticism and interpretive theory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has written numerous articles on tourism and has coedited three previous volumes, including International Tourism: Identity and Change.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Culture on Tour: Ethnographies of Travel
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication Date: 2004
Binding: Paperback
Condition: Good