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Visions and revisions: Toraja culture and the tourist gaze
Author(s) -
VOLKMAN TOBY ALICE
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1990.17.1.02a00060
Subject(s) - vision , tourism , indigenous , representation (politics) , ethnic group , state (computer science) , gaze , sociology , aesthetics , ethnology , media studies , political science , anthropology , art , law , psychology , ecology , algorithm , computer science , psychoanalysis , politics , biology
Ethnic tourism, a consummate form of “collection,” presupposes processes of ob‐jectification that extend to “culture” itself. Such processes are not simply imposed by the demands of the international tourism industry; actors include indigenous peoples who are both “tourist objects” and reflective critics, whose cultural visions (and revisions) are shaped in part by a distinctive “tourist gaze” and in part by a dialogue with the state. These processes are explored in the Toraja highlands of Sulawesi, Indonesia, where indigenous media (houses, effigies, and ceremonies) are being recomposed, using a range of new media, as obyek turis. [tourism, representation, public culture, art, ritual, Indonesia]