Robert Wood, a tourist in Southeast Asia
Archived article from Oct 23, 1998
By Caroline Yount
Sulawesi, Indonesia, is home to two distinct ethnic groups -- the Torajans and the Buginese -- living in close proximity, but with very different cultures. The Buginese, a coastal Muslim people, had always seen themselves as civilized and advanced, viewing the mountain-dwelling Torajans as pagan savages.
Then something changed. In the 1970s, tourists discovered the Torajans and became fascinated with their way of life and their elaborate funeral rituals. Boosted by this interest from outsiders, the status of the Torajans underwent a radical shift. No longer viewed as second-class citizens, they were recognized as a local treasure and their architecture was featured on the national currency.
This, says Robert Wood, associate professor of sociology at Rutgers-Camden, is the power of tourism -- the world's largest industry.
The study of tourism has grown over the years from a simple discussion of whether it is good or bad for the natives into a more complex analysis of global issues of identity and ethnicity.
One of the reasons for this shift in thinking is that tourism is no longer viewed as a "juggernaut that flattens pristine Third World cultures," Wood says. "The natives are an increasingly diverse group and tourism can be as much of a boon to one as a problem to another."
As in the case of the Torajans, local ethnic groups are now using tourism to strengthen their positions in national societies. "Here is a new twist on old rivalries," Wood says. "The Torajans are explicitly getting revenge on the Buginese."
Governments, in turn, may use tourism to domesticate ethnic differences. "If these differences become nothing more than a variety of dances given for tourists, they pose a much less dangerous challenge to the state," he says.
"The latest research emphasizes that people make active responses to tourism. It can change groups' identities and their own and others' perceptions. For many cultures, tourism isn't just a way to make money."
Co-editor of the book "Tourism, Ethnicity and the State in Asian and Pacific Societies" (University of Hawaii Press), Wood became interested in the tourism of Southeast Asia through his research on development. He has traveled extensively throughout most of the region and in 1989 led a Rutgers study tour to Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. A Fulbright to Thailand the following year led to an intensified look at the effects of tourism.
He says that while the field is being taken more seriously these days, researchers who study tourism can still be a little defensive about their chosen topic. "It's not a trivial subject," Wood says. "Indeed, tourism is both a major form of globalization and a major arena in which the effects of globalization are being played out."
Furthermore, the discovery of tourism's importance doesn't merely apply to exotic locales.
"We find identical processes right in our own backyards," he says, pointing to the growing popularity of ethnic festivals, which celebrate immigrant cultures. "People mostly attend those to affirm their own heritage. They increasingly consume their own identities."
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