The attractiveness of ‘marginal settlements’
The formation of ‘authentic’ narratives on the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and the
Bushmen villages of Namibia
Bachelor scriptie Culturele Antropologie & Ontwikkelingssociologie
Marthe Singelenberg
Begeleider: Dr. Karen Witsenburg
6096247
Tweede lezer: Dr. Gerben Nootenboom
marthsingelenberg@gmail.com
03-06-2014
Introduction
In the summer of 2013, I went on safari through the deserts of Namibia with my family. Our guides strongly advised us to not only focus on experiencing the extraordinary wildlife but to also pay a visit to the ‘oldest people of the world’: the Bushmen.1 They told us that the Bushmen were little people with big hearts that
would warmly welcome us into their village and show us their traditions. It took us hours to get to the Bushmen village and after we had crossed several sandy roads, we finally saw a small stripe of smoke coming out of the bushes. Just as our guide assured us we had reached the Bushmen village, he suddenly had to jump on his brakes to avoid a body lying horizontally across the road. He did not seem shocked but immediately tried to hush the situation by explaining that this was a Bushman who had become so drunk he just fell down here to sleep on the road: ‘He just needs to sleep through his drunkenness, he’ll be fine’.2
He promptly turned his car off the road and simply passed the motionless body through the high yellow grass. Approximately hundred meters down the road lay the Bushmen village, where we were warmly welcomed by three Bushmen. The men had large white teeth and were small and agile with friendly, open faces. Nobody seemed to pay any more attention to the drunken Bushman lying down the road. The elder of the village took us on a ‘Bushwalk’, whereby he showed us how to collect food, find water and build traps. After this, the four of us joined him and the women of the village for a performance of two of their songs, that we were told to bring us good luck on our travels. The whole experience, containing both the shock of the motionless drunken Bushman-body and the lightness and beauty of the Bushwalk and the songs, had made an impact on all of us. Our guide explained how the alcohol problems of the male Bushmen were an outcome of their forced migration from a nomadic lifestyle into villages, whereby they had lost their purpose in life: hunting and gathering. Still, these villages enabled them to share their traditions with tourists and with the next generations of Bushmen. I could not let go of the double
sidedness of this experience: what did we want to experience at a people whose original lifestyle had been lost but who still light-heartedly performed their traditions for us?
The urge to discover this double sidedness has formed the inspiration for this thesis, which focuses on places that are seen as ‘marginal settlements’ and as attractive tourist destinations at the same time. To describe this phenomenon, the favelas of Rio de Janeiro are involved as a second case study since they, as will be argued in chapter one, have undergone a similar processes of marginalization and attraction. The 1
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0102/feature6/fullte xt.ht ml (05/04/2014)
2
Conversation with JB, who was our guide in Namibia in the summer of 2013.
histories of marginalization of both the favelas as the Bushmen villages have formed the basis for the growth of cultural tourism in these places. Chapter two will investigate what tourists wish to experience in both places that drives them to take tours to these places or to involve in voluntary work. The narratives that exist about both places will be analyzed to discover which aspects cause the attraction of tourists. These aspects will be reflected on with the use of relevant anthropological theories. Chapter three will show how narratives form the most important tools to make sense of experiences and relationships with other people. These narratives also influence the way reality is created and experienced. I will use narratives that I’ve heard from informants, the ones I’ve experienced myself, the ones I’ve seen in movies or documentaries and the ones I’ve read on the websites of tourist agencies, in newspaper articles and in literature. Scientific and journalistic literature forms the base of this thesis, but shared and own experiences are its inspiration. For without my own visit to the Bushmen of Namibia and the stories I’ve collected on the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, I would not have gained the insights provided to apply the right anthropological concepts to the phenomenon of the attractiveness of marginalized spaces.
Chapter 1
Processes of marginalization and the attraction of tourism in the favelas of Rio de
Janeiro and the Bushmen villages of Namibia
The aim of the first chapter is to show how the marginalization of both the favelas and the Bushmen villages has been accompanied with similar forms of cultural tourism. I use the term marginalization since these places have been described in both media and literature as characterized by marginalization. Sociologists Peattie and Aldrete-Haas referred to the favelas as one of the ‘marginal settlements’ that appeared where cities were growing rapidly and the population could not afford standard housing (1981: 157). The
inhabitants of these settlements were seen as marginalized caused by an economic structure that denied them ‘adequate, stable and reasonably paid jobs’(ibid.: 165). Perlman stated that in the favelas, ‘the poor feel more marginalized than ever’(2007: 2). The Bushmen have been described as marginalized by several scientists and human rights institutions (O’Keefe and Lavender 1989; Thondhlana et al 2011). In 2013, the U.S. State Department on Human Rights called the Bushmen ‘marginalized economically and politically’, and stated they still did not have sufficient access to their traditional land.3 I will elaborate on the processes
of marginalization for both places and show how they have been accompanied by the growth of cultural tourism over the past decades. Cultural tourism is defined as ‘tourism where the commodity being sold to tourists is not merely leisure …, but people themselves’(Garland and Gordon 1999: 270). The processes of marginalization and the attraction of tourists that are described for both places contain significant similarities that show how the popularity of visiting marginalized places had become a general phenomenon.
3
http://www.survivalinternational.nl/news/10109 (05/04/2014)
Picture 1: Rock paintings of the Bushmen in the Kalahari desert, photo by MS.
The Bushmen villages of Namibia
The Bushmen have been described in the National Geographic magazine as ‘people with an ancient past but with almost no recorded history’. 4 They are estimated to have arrived in Southern Africa about
10000-25000 years ago, from where they have spread out into the lands of the present countries of Namibia, Botswana, Angola, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia (O’Keefe and Lavender 1989: 255). The only evidences of their ancient presence are the various rock paintings of animals, human figures and water holes that are found wide spread in the Kalahari desert (picture 1). The Bushmen of Namibia know a long history of conflict with other groups using the lands they live on. The website of the UN Refugee Agency shows a chronology of the Bushmen’s struggle over land since the German colonization of South West Africa (later Namibia) in 1884.5 Short after the colonial invasion, 75% of the Bushmen population were killed in the
wars between the Germans and the Herero people. At the end of WWI , South West Africa was annexed by South Africa and remained under its governance until 1990. During this period, the Bushmen had become 4
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0102/feature6/fullte xt.ht ml (05/04/2014)
5
http://www.refworld.org/docid/469f38c 1e.ht ml (05/04/2014).
marginalized by the race classification legislation designed by the South African apartheid government in 1955 (Thondhlana et al 2011: 4). Their nomadic lifestyle had become threatened by the invasion into their lands by farmers of both African and European origin, who were protected by laws that forbid the Bushmen to hunt for their cattle. The Bushmen did not know any distinction between wild and domestic animals in their hunting, which resulted in ‘heated conflict and the gradual extinction of Bushmen bands’ (O’Keefe and Lavender 1989: 255). After these conflicts the Bushmen sought refuge in the Kalahari desert, where they could continue their hunting and gathering techniques, though in a less fertile environment. But even in these dry deserts the Bushmen lifestyle became threatened, as modern irrigation systems enabled the land to be used for agriculture and cattle and goats were introduced at the expense of the wild-life on which the Bushmen were depending (ibid.: 255). At the same time, the independence movement SWAPO had started a violent war against the South African government that lasted from 1966 -1990, when the SWAPO won the first democratic elections of the nation that became Namibia. 6 The Bushmen were accused of spionaging
for the South African government, which led to the prosecution of many Bushmen and to the further marginalization of the whole group.7 On top of this, many Bushmen groups had been forced to leave their
Namibian lands during the independence war and had fled to the neighboring countries of Botswana and Angola. By that time, 60% of the land was white owned, 15% was set aside for land reservation and 25% was black owned. The Bushmen had no legal rights to use any of these lands for hunting and gathering and were therefore forced to move into villages.8 They were now dependent on labor provided by the farmers
which, according to a South African research group:
.…contributed to the particularly marginalized identity of the San, …, and led to the erosion of their culture and way of life resulting in their transition from a highly independent, resilient group of people to one with
high dependency on the state and problems with substance abuse, poverty and low self-esteem (Thondhlana et al 2011: 4).
For their food and water supplies the Bushmen now needed money, which they mostly spent on alcoholic 6
http://www.refworld.org/docid/469f38c 1e.ht ml (05/04/2014).
7
Conversation with JB, who was our guide in Namibia in the summer of 2013.
8
http://www.refworld.org/docid/469f38c 1e.ht ml (05/04/2014).
beverages that in some cases even replaced normal food intake (O’Keefe and Lavender 1989: 255). O’Keefe and Lavender investigated the consequences of these new eating patterns for the health of a specific group of Bushmen in the north of Namibia and concluded that for this group, ‘nutritional depletion was
universal’(ibid.: 257). Alcohol abuse and vitamin deficiencies were common and tuberculosis was found among 82% of the Bushmen patients as opposed to 10% of the Herero patients, a neighboring ethnic group. These results were found to be so alarming that the researchers raised serious doubts about the survival of the Bushmen (ibid.: 257). In 1992, Bushmen representatives gathered in the Namibian capital Windhoek, to ask for assitence from both the government and international human rights organizations in order to gain legal rights to the Namibian lands that they used to live on. This resulted in the approval of the Namibian government for parts of the Bushmen people to return to their lands, which had shrunken from 12,000 square miles to 3,000 square miles. Since then, ongoing protests of the Bushmen people have taken place, supported by human rights organizations. The last UN Refugee Agency report dates from 1999, when the Namibian government was accused of ‘discriminating against the Bushmen, who face poverty, illiteracy and disease’. 9
The emergence of tourism in the Bushmen villages of Namibia
The marginalization of the Bushmen has been present in the narratives that existed about them in western societies ever since their colonization. In the fine arts book Design, that was published in the U.S.A. in 1937, the Bushmen’s art was displayed and described as follows:
Even though the Bushmen have been described as the most degraded of the whole human family, nevertheless, they must be credited with producing some of the most remarkable of all primitive sketches
known to us (Anonymous 1937: 1).
What is striking here is of course the contrast between on the one hand, their mentioning in a book for the fine arts, but on the other hand to be called ‘the lowest in the scale of advancement of any of the African tribes, if not of all the primitive people of the world’(ibid.: 1). In this way, the writer has created a
contrasting image of the Bushmen as extremely primitive survivors yet surprisingly skilled craftsmen that contains both their marginalized and their attractive image. It seems that what makes them so attractive is exactly that what causes them to be marginalized, that is, their low scale of development. This statement is confirmed by social scientists Huncke and Koot, who state that the Bushmen are attractive because they are seen as ‘unspoiled, genuine, untouched and traditional’ people living close to nature’ (2012: 672). Garland 9
http://www.refworld.org/docid/469f38c 1e.ht ml (15/05/2014).
and Gordon stated that cultural tourism around the Bushmen culture has led to the ‘further exploitation of people who are already among Namibia’s poorest and most marginalized’ (1999: 270). Tourism around the Bushmen started in the beginning of the 20th century. Television shows of expeditions in the Bushmen lands in the 1920’s and more recent movies like The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980) and A Far-Off Place (1993) have made the Bushmen one of the most famous trademarks of ‘authentic African culture’ (Garland and Gordon 1999: 268). In 1999, tourism had become the third largest economic sector in Namibia and was rapidly growing. While the extraordinary wildlife still formed the biggest pull factor for tourists to visit Namibia, cultural tourism was booming and because of their unique nomadic lifestyle, the Bushmen were to become the main figures in this new form of tourism (ibid.: 267). The next chapter will investigate present developments in tourism in the Bushmen villages and describes the most important aspects that make the Bushmen so attractive to western tourists.
Picture 2: The favelas of Rio de Janeiro, photo by MM.
The favelas of Rio de Janeiro
The first favelas - ‘self-built settlements erected by the poor on illegally occupied lands’ - appeared on the edges of Rio de Janeiro at the end of the 19th century (Pino 1996: 419). Its inhabitants existed of the indigeneous people from Brazil, African former slaves and rural workers from different backgrounds that
were attracted by the promise of jobs in the manufacturing industries of Rio de Janeiro. Only 30% of these migrants ended up working in manufacturing, while the rest were deemed to unstable jobs in construction work, housekeeping or commerce (ibid.: 422). The favelas could then already be seen as ‘marginal
settlements’ since they were located on the outskirts of the city and most of its inhabitants could not afford standard housing (Peattie and Aldrete-Haas 1981: 157). The favelas have followed the pattern of Rio de Janeiro’s expansion from the 1940’s onwards and are still growing in size and number today (Perlman 2007: 6). Throughout their existence, the favelas have been officially unrecognized and illegal parts of the city, which has had a great impact on the way its inhabitants have been and still are treated by the Brazilian government (Perlman 2010: 10). In the 1940’s, the favelas were rapidly growing as more and more rural workers had lost their jobs during the crisis of the 1930’s and were looking to gain wealth in the big city. The government tried to stop this expansion by prohibiting the favela residents to construct new or reconstruct old houses around the city, which forced them to build their houses high up the mountainsides surrounding the city, at a safe distance from the police (Pino 1996: 428). The chief of the Rio de Janeiro police in 1950 called the favelas an ‘evil threatening the security of the entire community’(ibid.: 419). This quote
characterizes the conflict between the favela residents and the government that has existed ever since the favelas were build (Perlman 2010: 10). While most of the residents were not involved in crime, criminality was seen as inherent to the favelas. From the 1980’s onwards, armed criminal groups with drug trafficking as their core business gained territory in the favelas. This has resulted in violent conflicts between rival gangs and the police, who responded to the gang wars with 'militaristic tactics'. Between 1999 and 2003 the number of people killed during police operations in Rio more than tripled from 289 to 1,195, of which most were young black favela residents (Fernandes 2013: 12). By 2001, more than one million Brazilians were living in the favelas, about 20 percent of the total population of Rio de Janeiro. This led to severe overpopulation that has caused ‘an unprecedented social crisis’.10 The average favela resident follows
education for only four years compared to ten years for Brazilians born in the wealthier zones of Rio de Janeiro. Life expectancy rates for favela residents are 13 years lower and child mortality rates are five times higher than outside the favelas. 11 Recent developments that have caused the intensification of the conflict
between the favela residents and the police are the government’s plans for the ‘pacification’ and
deconstruction of certain favelas. The reason for these plans are the upcoming sport events that will take place in Rio de Janeiro, the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016. Some favelas need to be removed 10
http://www.irinnews.org/pdf/in-depth/tomorrowscrisestoday-chapter6.pdf (12/05/2014).
11
http://www.irinnews.org/pdf/in-depth/tomorrowscrisestoday-chapter6.pdf (12/05/2014).
to make place for these events, and others are ‘pacified’ by the police by ‘whiping out’ the armed drug gangs that reign there (Fernandes 2013: 12). The 2013 documentary Hill of Pleasure shows the friction between the local police and the favelas residents caused by the pacification plans. None of the interviewed inhabitants spoke positively about the acting of the police: where some thought the police men did not have enough knowledge of favela culture to solve any of the violence problems, others accused them of bribing and therefore only magnifying the influence of criminals on life in the favelas. On the side of the police, the head commander demonized the favela residents in the speech for his team:
These people have no rules or any feel for morality. We are here to show them that crime and illegal activities are bad. 12
Fernandes argues that through this policy of pacifying, the Brazilian state plays an active role in
marginalizing the urban poor. In this process of marginalization, the state uses discourses that demonize the favela residents and promote their punishment, humiliation and elimination (Fernandes 2013: 12).
Throughout their existence, the marginalized reputation of the favelas has been critically reflected on within the social sciences. Where many researchers at first followed the Brazilian state in the view that the favelas were dangerous and immoral places, a number of them have changed their opinions during the 1960’s and argued against the state’s prejudices (Pino 1996: 419). In her 1976 book The Myth of
Marginality, Janice Perlman discovered that these stereotypes were ‘empirically false, analytically misleading and invidious in their policy implications’ (1976: 2). Instead, the favelas were to be seen as a functioning urban community with residents who valued work, family life and responsibility for their environment. Therefore, she argued that they were not to be viewed as marginalized (ibid.: 2). Peattie and Aldrete-Haas discussed the different viewpoints on the marginalization of the favelas and discovered that while many academic writers saw them as representing ‘creative coping, city-building, and the construction of new institution’, policy making was still led by marginalization (1981: 159). Also Perlman, who returned to the favelas in 2007, radically changed her opinion and stated that violence, unemployment and illiterary rates had grown so high that the marginalization of the favelas was no longer a myth, but had unfortunately become reality (2007: 7, cursivation mine).
Tourism in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro
Over the last decades, interest in the favelas in both media and literature has exploded. After the success of the Brazilian movie Cidade de Deus(2002), that shows the violent war between two drug gangs in the 12
Documentary: Hill of Pleasures by Maria Ramos, 2013.
biggest favela of Rio de Janeiro, their dangerous reputation has become world famous (Perlman 2007: 3). This image has led to the demonization of the favelas by the state on the one hand that has been discussed above, and to a growing interest in the harsh life in the favelas on the other hand (Fernandes 2013: 12). This fascination, combined with ‘the desire to observe and help disadvantaged communities’, has led to the growing popularity of the so called ‘favela tours’(Williams 2008: 485). Again, as what seemed to be the case for the Bushmen villages, what makes the favelas marginalized is exactly that what has caused their
attraction. The website of one of these favela tours promotes it as ‘an illuminating experience if you look for an insider point of view of Brazil’. 13Another website states that on their offered tour, ‘favela resident guides
will show you the Real Rio de Janeiro.’14 In 2004, around 2,000 favela tours per month were offered in the
favelas of Rio de Janeiro, accompanied by an increasing number of hostels and bed and breakfast facilities (Williams 2008: 485). Also, the desire to help has led to a form of more community-based tourism, whereby visitors are involved in voluntary work . (ibid: 482) About both forms of tourism will be further elaborated in chapter 2. 13 www.favelatour.com.br (15/05/2014) 14 http://favelaexperience.com/favela-tours/ (15/05/2014)
Chapter 2
The attractiveness of marginalized places like the favelas and the Bushmen villages
So far, several similarities within the processes of the marginalization of the favelas and Bushmen villages have come to the forth. Both places are located in peripheral areas: the favelas were build on the outskirts of the city and the Bushmen villages lie in the deserts where no other group wishes to live. Both have been subject to state interventions that are characterized by oppression and exclusion . They share a history of struggle over lands of which they have never had no legal rights. These processes of marginalization have been accompanied by the growth of two tourism industries that promote a same form of cultural tourism. Tourists can book tours to these places that promise to take them on a special experience, indulging into the lives of the locals. Also, a more community-based tourism has arisen, whereby visitors participate involuntary work in order to help the local community (Williams 2008: 487, Huncke and Koot 2012: 672). This chapter will investigate why both forms of tourism have attracted growing numbers of visitors during the last decades. To explain this development, the narratives that exist about both places will be analyzed to discover what tourists wish to experience at the favelas and the Bushmen villages.
Authenticity: the self, the other and the experience
To discover what aspects cause the attraction of tourists in the favelas and the Bushmen villages it is useful to first analyze the way cultural tourism in both places is promoted by travel agencies. The favela resident Marcelo Armstrong was one of the first to organize guided tours to the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and has brought thousands of tourists on his tour since he started his travel agency in 1992 (Williams 2008: 486). On his website, he promotes his tour as ‘an illuminating experience if you look for an insider point of view of Brazil’. Also, he states that his tour is attracting more and more visitors every year, offering them ‘a much better understanding of local society and the day by day life in Rio’. 15 A similar experience is promoted by
15
http://www.favelatour.com.br/ing/whatis.htm (15/05/2014)
travel agencies offering tours to the Bushmen villages. One tour was described by the travel agency as ‘learning about Bushmen culture by joining the family as they go about on their usual gathering sorties’, whereby the Bushmen would show visitors how they were collecting foods and hunting for animals. They were not allowed to hunt or gather anymore but these traditions had still remained intact and were performed not only for tourists but also for the next generation of Bushmen. It was emphasized that the Bushmen were not presented as an ‘attraction’ and that there was a good relationship between the villagers and their employers.16 In both tours to the favelas and the Bushmen villages, visitors are offered an inside
look into the daily lives of their inhabitants. Why is this inside look so important that it is promoted on the websites of the travel agencies? Williams states that by visiting the favelas, tourists expect to discover ‘the truth’ of a place that is unknown to them (2008: 487). In the case of the Bushmen villages, the tourists expect ‘an authentic experience’ of the life and culture in the villages (Hunkce and Koot 2012: 672). This vocabulary implies that the tours are offering an insider view into both places that will enable tourists to discover ‘the truth’, to have ‘an authentic experience’. I will argue how these promises can be connected to the quest for authenticity in tourist experiences.
Lindholm defined ‘authentic’ as the leading subject in a whole of values that includes ‘sincere, true, honest, absolute, basic, essential, genuine, ideal, natural, original, perfect, pure, real, and right’(2013: 362). These descriptions imply that the authentic transcends the ordinary and that it should be seen as a special, positive character. According to Lindholm, almost everything can be regarded as authentic, varying from food products to persons to cultures (ibid.: 363). Wines are viewed as authentic when they have been bottled in a traditional way and when their grapes have grown in the ‘original’ region. A house is seen as authentic when it is built in a specific style that characterizes the history of the region it originates in. Also people can be regarded as authentic individually or as a group, by ‘being true to their heritage and
themselves’ (ibid.: 364). Guignon has described how the ideal of ‘being authentic’ came into being and how it has become central to the modern worldview. He states that ‘the basic assumption built into the ideal of authenticity is that, lying within each individual, there is a deep, “true self”- the “Real me”- in distinction from all that is not really me’ (2004: 6). There is a contrast between something ‘real’ and something ‘less real’ that leads the quest for authenticity. Where the ‘real self’ is to be found within, the ‘false self’ lies outside, in the social world. Guignon showed that this distinction between inner and outer was only made 200 years ago. Ancient Greek thinkers had applied a ‘cosmocentric’ worldview, whereby humans were regarded as parts of a wider cosmic whole. To know oneself meant to above all know one’s place in the scheme of this whole: self-centeredness was not appreciated and personal desires and feelings were 16
http://www.expertafrica.com/botswana/central-kalahari-ga me -reserve/edos-camp/bushman-village
(22/05/2014)
regarded as negative traits (ibid.: 13). In early Christianity, a ‘theocentric’ worldview came into being, whereby the self was connected to God. In this thinking, one’s ‘true self’ could be found in the achievement of becoming ‘one with God’. Still, God represented a same sense of the whole as existed in the cosmocentric worldview (ibid.: 17). Guignon stated that both the cosmocentric as the theocentric worldviews provided for a strong sense of belongingness, ‘a feeling that one is part of a larger whole’ (ibid.: 18). The highest goal in life was honor, which could be achieved by properly fulfilling one’s duties for the functioning of this whole (ibid.: 24). There was no distinction between an inner self and an outer self, since both selves were seen as a part of the same whole, be it God or the cosmos. Therefore, in pre-modern thinking, there was ‘no basis for formulating a conception of “authenticity” as we understand that notion today’ (ibid.: 24).
During the sixteenth century the ‘modern worldview’ emerged, that differentiated from pre-modern thinking in three ways. Firstly, new forms of protestant Christianity proclaimed that one had to look for God within oneself, where a real self was found in contrast with a false self that was expressed in the outer world. This led to a religious individualism that replaced the view that one was part of a larger whole (ibid.: 27). A second development was the rise of modern science, that claimed that ‘the truth’ did not belong to God anymore, but could be discovered by human ratio (ibid: 32). This led to a further distancing of the self from the outer world, since the self came to be seen as ‘a subject, a center of experience and action, set over against a world of objects that are to be known and manipulated’ (ibid.: 32). The world had become disenchanted and the rational self was starting to replace the authority of God, which meant that the control over one’s life was not held by a higher power but only by the self. The third change that led to the rise of the modern worldview was the new idea that society was something made by man, something unnatural, where the individual could distance him- or herself from. This further magnified the distinction that was made between the ‘inner self’ and the ‘outer world’ and changed the general life goal from serving the whole into taking care of the self as good as possible (ibid.: 29). For the modern individual that
emerged in this way, the ideal of freedom came to have a special significance. Since in order to be the master of their own lives, people needed the freedom to make their own decisions (ibid.: 44). This quest for freedom, since once achieved it is no longer a goal but a way to achieve new goals, became soon
accompanied by the quest for happiness, which Guignon defined as follows:
…. happiness today has come to be regarded as a specific sort of feeling – a pleasurable and enduring sense of well-being – no matter what the cause of this feeling might be. (2004: 46)
Since a human being cannot attain power over the events that will make up his life, this feeling of happiness can be reached by looking inward, where the authentic self lies. The ideal, as promoted by popular self-help culture and new age philosophy, is that when you are truly at one with yourself is when you feel most happy (ibid.: 3). It is within this context that the quest for ‘the authentic self’ emerged. Lindholm has summarized this quest by stating that ‘the search for authenticity is the most salient and
pervasive consequence of the threats modernity makes to our ordinary reality and sense of significance’ (2002: 337)’
The modern distinction between a ‘true self’ and a ‘false self’, where the true self represents an authentic, inner self and the false self a less real, outer self, can also be made for tourist settings. Dean MacCannell applies Goffmann’s distinction between ‘frontstage settings’ and ‘backstage settings’, whereby the frontstage functions as the place where hosts and guests meet and the backstage enabled the hosts to rest in between the performances they do for their guests on the frontstage. Examples of the frontstage are hotel lobbies, foyers and information desks, and examples of the backstage are kitchens, staff rooms and the like (1973: 590). The frontstage of the touristic experience is seen as less real and therefore as ‘false’, and the backstage part as more real and therefore as ‘true’. This is why tourists look for the backstage, ‘true’ tourist experiences: that is where authenticity is found (ibid.: 601). In this way, the search for a ‘true self’ is connected with the search for an ‘authentic experience’ by tourists.
In Namibia and Rio de Janeiro, tourist companies are promoting their tours as a way to ‘explore the truth of Brazilian society’ (Williams 2008: 487) and ‘an exclusive insider point into the lives of the Bushmen’ (Gordon and Garland 1999: 271). This vocabulary implies that these places can provide for authentic
experiences that stand in contrast with something fake, something less ‘real’. Following MacCannell, this suggests that the favelas and the Bushmen villages form a backstage which guests are permitted to enter. Life in these places is promoted not as a performance but as it really is, whereby the hosts can be observed in their ‘natural habitats’. Because of their backstage character, these places are seen as authentic places. MacCannell states that when tourists share the same backstage with their hosts, they can experience intimacy and closeness and therefore feel ‘at one with them’(1973: 592). Garland and Gordon describe how being in close contact with the Bushmen enabled tourists to get in touch with their true selves (1999: 272). Its seems that the ‘true self’ of the tourist can be found not only by looking within, as Guignon’s ‘modern worldview’ preaches, but also by looking at ‘the other’. This means the Bushmen not only offer an authentic experience, but embody something that is authentic too. Garland and Gordon confirm this by stating that ‘through exposure to the authentic Other, the Self shores up a sense of its own authenticity’ (1999: 272). They argue that the ‘authentic otherness’ of the Bushmen exists in relationship with the western self, offering the authenticity that the westerner is looking for (ibid.: 272). Zerva states that this ‘authentic other’ has been connected to ‘the primitive’, that is seen as more pure and untouched by the negatives of modern society (2013: 923). The first to glorify the characteristics of the ‘authentic Other’ was the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who believed that every human being was born with an authentic self that became lost when exposed to the rules of modern society (Guignon 2004: 55). He argued for the evolution of the human being from ‘primitive purity’ to ‘modern corruption’. In order to recover his authentic self, modern man needed to return back to his origins by following the example of the ‘primitive man’ (ibid.: 55). In this way, Rousseau suggested that ‘primitive man’ stood closer to his authentic self than modern man did and
therefore, following Guignon, should be regarded as more happy. Following this line of thought, visiting primitive cultures means visiting people that are closer to their authentic self and therefore know more happiness.
Another way to find authenticity, as both Lindholm and MacCannell have argued, is within the sacred. Lindholm stated that cultures with a closer connection to the sacred contain more authenticity (Lindholm 2002: 331). In western societies, this connection has vanished as a result of the rise of modern science, which has caused the loss of a belief in authentic religious rituals and objects. Whereas in medieval times, relics and rituals could be verified as sacred by the offices of the Holy See, modern science could only historically trace their sacred status. There was no devine authority anymore that determined the
authenticity of sacred objects. As isolated groups were less influenced by this disenchantment in modern consciousness, they had a more solid conception of the authenticity of the sacred. In these societies, there was a firm belief in the realness of religious rituals (ibid.: 332-333). In western societies, people needed to create their own sacred to hold on to. Modern culture therefore existed of constantly negotiating about what was to been seen as ‘really’ sacred (ibid.: 337). Without any certainty of ‘the real’ it became more pressing to look for an authentic feeling that could be found in cultures with a closer connection to the sacred. MacCannell adds to this that in ‘primitive’ societies, religious rituals provide for a stronger
connection with the community and therefore with ‘the authentic self’ (1973: 590). Modern westerners are only connected through functional relationships and must therefore find authenticity through
‘institutionalized social experiences’ instead of in religious rituals. He argues that tourism is a social experience that replaces some of the social functions of religion in western society and that sightseeing must be seen as a ritual (ibid.: 591). He has made a connection between pilgrimages and sightseeing, since both are quests for authentic experiences. Where pilgrims want to visit places of religious importance, tourists look for places of social, historical or cultural significance (ibid.: 593). Both theories argue that authenticity can be found in the sacred and that ‘primitive’, ‘more isolated’ cultures have a closer
connection to this sacred. The next paragraph will explore to what extent the ‘primitive’ and the ‘sacred’ can be found in the favelas and the Bushmen villages and how they are interconnected.
The ‘primitive’ and the ‘sacred’
Marianna Torgovnick defined ‘primitive’ as the condition of societies before the rise of the modern state. She argued that the term ‘primitive’ stands in contrast with the term ‘the West’ and could not have
emerged without the existence of the West. (Torgovnick 1990: 20-21) According to Gordon and Garland, the Bushman’s identity of the ‘primitive Other’ forms the biggest pull factor in attracting tourists, together with the hyping of the Bushmen as a vanishing culture (1999: 271). This image was promoted in the movie the Gods Must Be Crazy, that came out in 1980 and created a hype around the Bushman culture (ibid.: 268). The
movie starts with images of the Bushmen villages in the Kalahari desert of Namibia, accompanied by a narrating voice describing the lives and habits of the Bushmen people:
No one can survive in the Kalahari desert but these beautiful, elegant little people. They must be the most content people in the world. They have no crime, no punishment, no laws, no police or judges. Nothing is
bad or evil, not even a snake.17
These first lines show how the Bushmen are contrasted with ‘civilized men’ in all their habits: where civilized men has adapted his environment to suit him, the Bushmen are living in full harmony with nature and can therefore survive in the desert. They are presented as happy, innocent and naïve, not knowing about the negatives of western society. In this latter society, people are suffering stress from the busy life they are leading and all the rules they must obey to, while in the Kalahari desert ‘there is no such thing as time’.18
The narrator goes on to describe that within their complete isolation, the Bushmen are unaware of the existence of other people in the world. As an example of this naivety, an airplane is showed that crosses the village high up in the sky and is excitingly welcomed by the Bushmen as ‘a sign from God’. The plane drops an empty Coca Cola bottle, which is picked up by a Bushman, who believes that God has given him a special gift. As the bottle soon appears to function as the most useful tool the Bushmen have ever had, the first fight ever in Bushman history over the possession of a material object starts. In this way, the seemingly innocent Coca Cola bottle serves as an obvious metaphor for the cruel intervention of western society into the harmonious life of the village. The ‘primitive’ lies in the characterizing of the Bushmen as pure, naïve and in complete harmony with nature, contrasting with the artificial bureaucratic societies of the ‘civilized’. The ‘sacred’ is present in their belief that the plane and the Coca Cola bottle are both ‘real’ signs from God. The Bushmen have a firm belief in the authenticity of the sacred of these signs. The western ‘intervention’ in the form of the Coca Cola bottle represents the disturbance of both this authentic belief as the
community feeling that comes with this belief. The Bushmen were for the first time ‘mad’ with their Gods, as one of them embarks on a journey in order to ‘return’ this disturbing object.19 The Gods Must Be Crazy
has created an image of the Bushmen that still exists in cultural tourism in the villages today: 17
Movie: The Gods Must Be Crazy by Jamie Uys, 1980.
18
Movie: The Gods Must Be Crazy by Jamie Uys, 1980.
19
Movie: The Gods Must Be Crazy by Jamie Uys, 1980.
The dominant image is still that of “unspoiled, pristine, genuine, untouched and traditional” Bushmen people living close to nature – an image based on the views of European settlers, anthropologists,
filmmakers, media and the tourism industry (Huncke and Koot 2012: 672).
This image was confirmed by the tour guide with whom I’ve traveled to a Bushmen village in the summer of 2013. He stated that a visit to the village was essential for us to see the ‘original lifestyle’ of Namibia, thereby emphasizing that the Bushmen were ‘one of the last people with real traditions’.20 But originally, as
was explained in chapter one, the Bushmen did not live in villages. They were forced to move into villages, thereby losing the right to hunt animals and gather food (Thondhlana et al 2011: 4). Our guide explained that outside of the tourist experience, the Bushmen were living in small huts made of corrugated iron and for grocery shopping, went to the nearest super market. Picture 3 shows their ‘modern’ financial
administration. Still, the performance we were about to see was based on real traditions and on top of that, a way for the Bushmen elders to pass on their traditions to the next generation. Confirming the statements of our guide, Garland and Gordon argue that the Bushmen must be seen as having a ‘double nature as both primitive cultural objects and modernizing tourism producers’ (1999: 275). A new form of tourism has emerged, focusing not only on their primitive authenticity but also on their integration in the modern, globalizing world. The last paragraph will elaborate on the growing popularity of this ‘community tourism’ (Huncke and Koot 2012: 671).
20
Conversation with JB, who was our guide in Namibia in the summer of 2013.
Picture 3: Financial administration by the Bushmen. Photo by MS.
On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, lie different forms of ‘the primitive’ and ‘the sacred’ that attract tourists from all over the world. Steinbrink states that the slum as a tourist destination should be seen as a ‘place of the ethnic pre-modern Other’ (2012: 228). This implies that Torgovnick's ‘primitive’ can be found in the favelas too, though rooted in an urban environment. Still, according to the narratives of western tourists as collected by Williams, the favelas were subject to ‘the unstoppable, ever-growing forces of nature’ expressed in the multiple presence of plants, birds and ants (2008: 490). Tourists were also struck by the lack of electricity, running water, asphalt roads and the cheap building materials that were used for the houses in the favelas. They also referred to the chaotic character of the favelas, in contrast with the order of their own environments (ibid.: 490). Van de Port states that the lack of order and public facilities in Brazil may be viewed as the failure to reach the standard of civilization (2011: 106). Still, one of my informants spoke positively about the chaotic character of the favelas:
Other parts of Rio were also nice, but more neat and fancy. I found that boring, I'd rather be in the chaos of the favelas.21
21
Conversation with MM, who visited Barraco #55 and the favelas in the summer of 2012
She contrasted the exciting of the favelas with the boring of the neat parts of Rio, but also with her own, western environments. Picture four shows one of the photo’s she took of street life in the favelas. She stated that in the favelas life was more passionate than back home, as music was playing all day and people were dancing on the streets until late at night. No one sat at the office all day, performing boring nine-to-five jobs. No one whould tell her what to do and what not to do, since there were no rules. But the aspect she most liked about the favelas, that also came to the forth in the case of the Bushmen in The Gods Must Be Crazy, was the lack of strict time rules. She expressed a feeling of being imprisoned by time:
I hate our obsession with time: don't be too late, don't forget about the time, go to bed on time. In the favelas, people worry not so much about time. One could easily arrive two hours late for an appointment,
that's no big of a deal. 22
Picture 4: Street life in one of the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Photo by MM.
22
Conversation with MM, who visited Barraco #55 and the favelas in the summer of 2012
Williams also describes this romanticizing of the life in the favelas in western literature, whereby ‘the primitive’ of the favelas is presented as ‘the lowest form of dwelling in life, a form which in Europe or North America is quickly vanishing’ (Zweig in Williams 2008: 491). Also by other authors, the ‘primitive’ lifestyle of the favelas is seen as providing a ‘simple’ level of happiness that has been lost in western society (Williams 2008: 491).
The favelas are not only credited with a more ‘primitive’ lifestyle; they are also seen as having a close connection to the sacred. Van de Port has showed how the Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian spirit possession cult, has become an impotant part of the authentic experiences of tourists. Most favela residents are both catholics and followers of the Candomblé, that has been brought to Brazil by former African slaves and intermingled with catholicism (Guidry 1998: 6). Van de Port described how he was ‘only one of the many anthropologists, journalists, New Age travelers and the like that came to Brazil to discover “the real”of Candomblé’ (2011: 13). The priests of the cult stated that the ‘deep knowledge of Candomblé’ could not be discovered by studying but had to be experienced through religious practice for at least seven years. It was exactly because of this mysticism that outsiders became ever more determined to unravel the truths of the Candomblé (ibid.: 14). Many travelers Van de Port encountered were very positive about the cult and expressed that they strongly identified themselves with it (2011: 100-101). This identification was connected with a sense authenticity of which these outsiders wanted to be a part. Still, the cult was also called ‘primitive’ by one of Van de Ports informants in a negative way, referring to the slaughtering of animals and drinking their blood in religious rituals (ibid.: 103). Van de Port analyzed this perception as follows:
His insistence on Candomblé being a sign of the ‘primitive’ probably sought to express his awareness that the world he so loved and courted is not a museum, tourist playground, culture zone, or potent anti-depressant …, but produces beauty as well as ugliness; wisdom as well as the empty headedness and ignorance that is born from poverty; carefully polished traditions as well as brutal violence. (ibid.: 103) This perspective of ‘the primitive’ of Candomblé contains positive as well as and negative narratives, by which Van de Port’s informant was trying to create awareness of the deeper layers that lied behind the general view of Candomblé. As Torgovnick noted, ‘primitive’ is a fluent concept that has been formed and reformed by its creators (Torgovnick 1990: 70). It can be used for the purpose of the narrator and doesn’t exclude values that are seemingly contrasting. The Bushmen can be regarded as ‘primitive’ and
‘modernizing agents’ at the same time. The favelas are regarded as failing to keep up with the standards of civilization, but at the same time, they represent a lifestyle that is attractive to western tourists. As Garland and Gordon argued, these contrasting views can exist at the same time and form no damage to their authenticity (1999: 281). I want to follow them in the statement that it is more about the quest for authenticity than about the places being authentic: ‘so long as the quest for authenticity is to be
aspects of the hosts that strike the tourists as authentic and with the aspects they are familiar with. In this way, they can compare their ‘authentic selves’ to the ‘authentic others’.
Marginalization
The marginalized status of the favelas and the Bushmen villages can also be seen as having a double nature, since it both attracts and repels tourists. The research done in chapter one on the marginalization of the Bushmen villages and the favelas showed that both places are subject to poverty, social exclusion and bad health circumstances. Both have no legal rights to the lands they live on and are subject to continuous state intervention that forces them to move. In the case of the favelas, violence caused by the conflicts between the police and the drug gangs also forms a big part of their marginalization. The aspects that are at the root of the marginalization of both places, as was concluded in chapter one, seem to be exactly those that attract tourists.
The favelas’ image of poverty, social exclusion and violence has become well known through cultural products such as films and music (Williams 2008: 485). These products became famous through ‘the language of street slang, fashion, community projects and craftwork’ from the favelas (ibid.: 493). The blockbuster Cidade de Deus mentioned before has played a big role in spreading this image. Also, famous artist Michael Jackson shot his music video accompanying the hit They Don’t Care About Us in the Dona Marta favela of Rio de Janeiro in 1996, thereby showing poverty and violence in the favelas (ibid.: 492). These ‘fictional narratives’ talk of extreme marginalization, violence and poverty (ibid.: 487). Although these narratives have scared off many tourists from the favelas, they have also attracted new tourists who are interested in experiencing dangers, seeing poverty or participating in voluntary work (Williams 2008: 485). Within the narratives Williams collected among visitors of the favelas, notions about poverty, disease and the poor state of public space where the most common. The respondents expressed their admiration for the favela residents since despite they were living in very poor circumstances, they were so friendly and seemed to have much joy in life (ibid.: 490). Out of these narratives a ‘discourse of separatism’ was created that positioned the favela as another world, whereby the Self of the narrator was contrasted with the Other of the favela resident (ibid.: 490). As Guignon stated, in western societies happiness became the main goal for modern man. A focus on material belongings in order to gain temporary satisfaction has led to the rise of an anti-movement arguing that possession causes unhappiness (Guignon 2004: 48). Visits to people who have very little material possessions can therefore be experienced as relieving and relativizing (Garland and Gordon 1999: 271). Tourists seem ‘attracted’ by poverty in order to reflect on their own lives. Garland and Gordon described the Bushmen as providing an ‘almost natural foil for the individuated materialism of Westerners who visit them as tourists’ (1999: 271).
Still, poverty not only called for appreciation in tourist but also caused shocking, uncomfortable experiences (Huncke and Koot 2012: 682). Huncke and Koot wrote that tourists did not expect to see
poverty in the Bushmen villages and were shocked when they saw people sleeping on the floor in huts build of plastic (2012: 682,684). The Bushmen, on the other hand, described themselves as ‘poor’ but did not perceive their situation as desperate as the tourists, of whom some even cried during the village walk (ibid.: 683). The tourists had expected primitivism but were not prepared to see poverty (ibid.: 672). The same counted for the experience that was described in the introduction: the drunken Bushman laying horizontally on the road was something me and my travel companions had not expected and were shocked by. It did not match the imaginations of ‘pristine Bushmen living close to nature’ and made us reflect on the experience as well as on our own lives. JZ described a similar experience he had in the favelas, where he had seen a dead body lying on the streets of the favela he visited, surrounded by locals and police men. It turned out the body had belonged to a young favela resident who appeared to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. He expressed how this event had made him realize that he was so lucky not to have grown up in the favelas.23 Also, it had caused his loving of the simple life in the favelas to make place for a feeling of
discomfort:
I started to feel uncomfortable with my position there. For me, there was a way out of this shit while for them, this was reality.24
The ethic values of visiting marginalized places have also been reflected on in both media and literature. In the New York Times, a debate around this recent form of tourism has emerged. Where some stated that the only reason to visit poor places was ‘to make Westerners feel better about their own situation in life’, others said that not visiting these places meant just ignoring poverty and therefore ‘the very denial of humanity’ (New York Times, 2008). According to Frenzel and Koens, tourism has played a positive role in changing the image of the favelas since tourists get to see how the favelas really are instead of just reading newspaper articles on violence and crime (2012: 197). The next paragraph will further elaborate on a type of tourism that is provided as the answer to these ethical questions: community-based tourism.
Looking for connections
23
Conversation with JZ, who visited the favelas in the summer of 2013
24
Conversation with JZ, who visited the favelas in the summer of 2013
In the case of the Bushmen, Huncke and Koot have argued that not all tourists seek to observe the
‘authentic, primitive Bushman’ that was mentioned in the second paragraph, but there are also those who ‘look for contact with people of a different culture on an equal level’ (2012: 672). For these visitors
community-based tourism provides an answer. This is a new form of tourism that offers a combination of more ‘traditional’ experiences such as the Bushwalk and performances in dancing and singing and more ‘modern’ experiences, whereby the tourists are showed how the Bushmen ‘really’ live and how they have partly adapted to the modern lifestyle (ibid.: 684). Hereby, the Bushmen are presented as ‘pristine cultural objects’ and ‘active agents and participants of the tourism industry’ at the same time. Community-based tourism claims that the Bushmen are ‘modernising agents’ who choose to benefit from commodifying themselves (ibid.: 672). The guide who took me and my travel companions on the bushwalk confirmed this by stating it enabled them to earn money which they could spend on modern equipments.25 Garland and
Gordon stated that community-based tourism enables tourists to visit authentic others and at the same time to feel good about themselves ‘by helping out those less economically advantaged then they’ (1999: 276). They are looking for connections by helping out people that are ‘less developed’ than them, and at the same time are trying to position themselves at the same level with their hosts by viewing them as
‘modernising agents’.
Williams stated that the urge to help the poor people of the favelas has driven tourists to
participate in voluntary work (2008: 485). Voluntary work provides for an authentic experience by getting into close contact with the locals and by aiming for a positive effect to their lives (Garland and Gordon 1999: 276). This is confirmed by the statement of one of my informants about her voluntary work in the favelas:
What I liked so much about helping out at Barraco #55 was that we really got to know the local people. Community work gives you a more insider view into the favela.26
Over the last couple of years initiatives have arisen that strive to make connections between tourists and favela residents. In 2011, my informant FT decided to set up a hostel in the favela Complexo do Alemao called Barraco #55 that could function as a meeting point for both tourists and favela residents. The idea of the project is that communal activities such as dancing, painting and construction work motivates people to get to know each other and in that way improve the social cohesion of the favela.27 Another important goal
25
Conversation with JB, who was our guide in Namibia in the summer of 2013.
26
Conversation with MM, who visited Barraco #55 and the favelas in the summer of 2012.
27
is to ‘bridge the gap between rich and poor’, as is stated on the website of Barraco #55.28 Both of my
informants who visited Barraco #55 were very positive about the atmosphere and expressed to have experienced a sense of community feeling in the favelas. JZ told me that he has specifically enjoyed the parties in the favelas:
The parties in the favelas were the best I’ve been to in Brazil. People are so nice, no one cares who you are or what you look like. I could really be myself around them.29
He contrasted this experience with the social environment of his home, where he said that ‘people are so busy with making themselves look better and judging other people’. In this way , making connections with the favela residents provided for a stronger connection with the self.
MacCannell has argued that tourism functions as a social institution that enables tourists to make connections with others and that the touristic way of getting into contact with the locals is to enter into a quest for authentic experiences, perceptions and insights (ibid.: 590). Wang has defined an authentic experience as ‘one in which the individuals feel themselves to be in touch both with a “real” world and with their “real” selves’ (1999: 351). It seems that in western societies, there is a longing for the cosmocentric worldview that existed in pre-modern times, whereby one felt ‘connected to the whole’ (Guignon 2004: 13). By looking for connections in authentic experiences, tourists are able to rediscover their relationships not only with themselves, but also with the world around them. Comparing themselves with the others they encounter, they discover that their own authenticity is connected to the authenticity of their hosts. By looking at the authenticity of the Other, tourists can explore their own authenticity (Garland and Gordon 1999: 272). The next chapter will show how this quest for authenticity influences the narratives that are formed about places traveled.
Conversation with FT, who is the co-founder of Barraco #55
28
http://barraco55.org/ (15/05/2014)
29
Conversation with JZ, who visited Barraco #55 and the favelas in the summer of 2013.
Chapter 3
How narratives about the favelas and the Bushmen villages become versions of
reality
The question to be answered in this chapter is how the narratives on the favelas and the Bushmen villages were formed. Narratives are formulations of personal life events that actually happened or that could happen, expressed in speech, actions and images (Ochs and Capps 1996: 19). They emerge early in the development of communication and are ‘a fundamental means of making sense of experience’ (ibid.: 19). The narrative forms an integrated whole with the self, since both are formed by experience and give shape to experience. ‘Self’ is here defined as becoming aware of one’s being in the world and making sense of one’s past and future. We get to know ourselves by using narratives to understand our experiences and to form relationships with others (ibid.: 21). Therefore, the narratives on the favelas and the Bushmen villages can be seen as important tools to make sense of experiences and relationships with the ‘others’ that live there. Chapter two showed how comparing the self with the other is done by tourists to find their own authentic selves. What mattered most in this quest for the ‘real self’ was the authenticity of experiences and relationships, which meant that these needed to be ‘sincere, true, honest, absolute, basic, essential, genuine, ideal, natural, original, perfect, pure, real, and right’ (Lindholm 2013: 362). Authenticity not only functions as an attractive aspect for tourists but also as a value that indicates whether something is to be experienced as ‘true’ or ‘false’. So the narratives that remained of the quest for authenticity had to be
regarded as real, as ‘versions of reality’ (Ochs and Capps 1996: 21). The aim of this chapter is to discover how narratives become versions of reality and why some experiences come to be a part of this reality while others are forgotten.
Memories, expectations and habitus
Ochs and Capps argue that narratives must be seen as versions of reality, representing one or more points of view instead of an objective truth (1996: 21). Van de Port has stated that ‘reality does not comply with our narrations of it’ (2011: back cover). Narratives are subject to memory and forgetting, whereby some events are remembered while others are forgotten. In this way, our lives become ‘the pasts we tell
ourselves’ (De Botton 2002: 21). In his book The art of travel, De Botton describes how after traveling, only a limited number of memories of the time spent at a place remain. Comparing the human brain to a hard drive, there would simply not be enough space to save all the information. Short after a journey of twelve hours for example, one can maybe remember six events that happened during his journey. After a few days, only a few remain (ibid.: 16). People remember separate events that they connect to construct their
narratives. Some memories recall a feeling that was felt at the time the memory was formed such as
happiness, boredom or anger. These feelings influence the way the place was experienced. For example, the beach that you found so beautiful during yesterday’s sunset doesn’t touch you anymore when you cross it just after a fight with your partner. Still the next day, when you’ve made up with your partner, the sun is shining more brightly than ever on the sparkling white sand of the same beach where you felt so miserable yesterday (ibid.: 22). Out of the memories of feelings and experiences arises a summary of the journey that must provide for the formation of the narrative of this journey. This means many experiences and feelings had to be put aside as irrelevant (ibid.: 16). The memories that may play a part in forming this judgment are crucial, since they determine the narrative that is formed about the place visited. The questions remains why certain experiences of a journey survive the processing of memories, while others are simply forgotten.
De Botton states that hopes and expectations form a significant part in creating narratives about the places yet to be visited. Narratives have been already partly formed before departure. He described how expectations of the places to be traveled to can be formed just by one picture in a tourist brochure. A picture of a golden beach, palm trees and a blue sky can make you imagine a whole world around this one picture that can become so lively that you can almost smell the sea and feel the ocean breeze (ibid.:9). Imagining being in this environment can cause an intense sense of longing to be in this future image and not where you are at the moment. This can lead to enormous dissapointment, since the imagined place always contains aspects that were not a part of the expectations. For example, one could have imagined a beautiful white beach, but did not know about the skyscrapers and highways that lay behind this beach (ibid.: 10). Expectations that are projected on travel destinations can be so strong that they form a part in creating the
narratives that not only exist beforehand, but remain important long after the journey has been ended. They have not only been formed by travel brochures, but also by for example films, newspapers and collected stories of others. Williams has described how ‘representations of favelas are already imbued with preconceived ideas garnered from sensational newspaper headlines, hysterical live news reports or skillfully produced films’ (2008: 489). Huncke and Koot described the influence of expectations on the experiences tourists had in the Bushmen villages. While some tourists aimed for the ‘insider point of view’ that has been discussed in chapter two, others were not so much interested in the backstage of the Bushmen village but more triggered by the frontstage image of ‘authentic Bushmen’ as promoted in the tourist brochures (2012: 679) and the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy.30 Those who entered the backstage expected a Bushman that
was more adapted to modern society, and therefore perceived a ‘dual nature’ of both a primitive and a modern Bushman (ibid.: 684).
The most important consequence of having expectations is that they influence both what people do and notice while traveling and how they perceive these things. The way they act upon and react to the world is strongly dependent on their habitus. Bourdieu has defined habitus as the presentation of the individual towards his environment and his way of dealing with his environment. The habitus can be expressed in for example taste, speech, body language and ambitions. Bourdieu has argued that these expressions should not be seen not a conscious choice of the individual but as an adaptation to the environment he has grown up in. The habitus of an individual is dependent on his social, cultural and economic capital and closely connected to class. 31 The habitus decides what choices are made that
determine which events will be experienced and how they will be experienced. A tourist can for example choose to eat at the bigger, cleaner and European food serving restaurant at the main square, or he can choose to walk a few alleys and eat at a small restaurant with a more local cuisine. There, he can decide to interact with the waitress or not, he might be invited to the local festival the next day, which he might or might not attend. How the tourist acts and reacts upon his travel destination will strongly influence the experience he will have. Not only experiences, but also the narratives that evolve out of these experiences have been formed by what Bourdieu has called the habitus:
30
The Gods Must Be Crazy
31
Niko Besnier, Lecture History of Anthropology, November 2011
Spinning out their tellings through choice of words, degree of elaboration, attribution of causality and sequentiality, and the foregrounding and backgrounding of emotions, circumstances, and behavior,
narrators build novel understandings of themselves-in-the-world (Ochs & Capps 1996: 22). In this way, Bourdieu would argue, narrators use their habitus to express the events and feelings that were experienced. But at the same time, as the narrative provides them with a new understanding of themselves, the habitus can be reformed. Still, as Bourdieu stated, the habitus can only be reformed within the existing structure of society, since it is a product of society en reproduces it at the same time. 32 An example of the
effect of habitus on tourist experiences is the distinction Gordon and Garland make between ‘tourists’ and ‘travelers’, who have different ways of acting and reacting to the world they are visiting. The travelers are concerned with arriving ‘in time’, to explore the backstage of these worlds before they have been ‘spoiled’ by globalization and mass tourism. Tourists, on the other hand, are looking for both new, strange and exotic experiences as well as for more comforting experiences that fit in their western value system. Gordon an Garland argue that both types of visitors look for authenticity, but in different ways. They state that
travelers find authenticity in the idea that their hosts have remained untouched by modern society, whereas for tourists, their hosts can be authentic and modern at the same time. (1999: 280)
Creating reality and experiencing the ‘real’
Chapter two has showed how the quest for authenticity has helped forming the narratives about the favelas and Bushmen villages. So the narratives that remained of this quest had to be regarded as real, as ‘versions of reality’ (Ochs and Capps 1996: 21). Authenticity therefore not only functions as a set of values that determines if something or someone is to be seen as ‘sincere, true, …, real, and right’ (Lindholm 2013: 362); it helps forming reality. The significance that is ascribed to authenticity in tourist experiences proves that its part in forming reality should be significant too. Wang has distinguished between three types of
authenticity in tourist experiences: objective, constructive and existential authenticity. Objective
authenticity can be ascribed to toured objects such as art, festivals, rituals, cuisine, dress, housing, and so on that are labeled as ‘authentic’ when they are made or performed by ‘local people according to custom or tradition’ (Wang 1999: 350). For this form of authenticity, objective criteria can be used to measure the authenticity of the tourist experience. Constructive authenticity claims that the authenticity of toured objects can not be measured by objective criteria, but is socially constructed. Expectations, hopes and 32
Niko Besnier, Lecture History of Anthropology, November 2011
