6533b82afe1ef96bd128ca37

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Reconsidering cultural tourism: an anthropologist's perspective

subject

description

After returning home from fieldwork on the Guarani reservation in Misiones, Argentina, the author was approached by one of his colleagues and asked about the difference between ethnography and ethnic tourism. The immediate response was, what do you mean by ‘ethnic tourism’? After a moment of silence, he responded that, to him, ethnic tourism meant people traveling to interact with indigenous people and experience their lifestyles and customs. This thought process brought about the interest in writing this reflective research note. This short opinion piece teases out the importance of aboriginal peoples and their culture as heritage attractions and proposes the role of anthropology in creating conditions of neo-colonialism in the tourism context.