Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

An Ethnography Of Voodoo Tourism And Heritage Sites In New Orleans, Lousiana, Bryant Long

Master of Arts in Art and Design Theses

This thesis considers how Voodoo is presented and experienced in various tourism and heritage sites within New Orleans in the present moment. A variety of visual representations, verbal narratives and multimedia performances were documented and analyzed through participant observation. Current tourism relies on the city’s ghost stories, mythology, as well as Voodoo practices and lore, raising questions about the melding of fact and fiction in the potential perpetuation of sensational ideas about the city and its African heritage. Cultural sites discussed in this thesis include Congo Square, the New Orleans Voodoo Museum, Voodoo Authentica, the New Orleans Museum of Art, …

HawaiʻI Is Not Your Escapist Fantasy: Varying Perspectives Surrounding Misconceptions And Representations Of HawaiʻI In The Tourism Industry, Shannon Hussey

Senior Theses

In this thesis, I argue that Hawai’i Tourism is dominated by idealized representations of paradise that are portrayed in hotels and resort advertising, selling an “authentic Hawaiian experience” that ignores significant parts of Hawaiian culture and the oppression of Native Hawaiians and local residents. The promotion of these exotified themes and images are seemingly used as a marketing scheme to attract consumers to view Hawai’i as merely a “tropical paradise” further adhering to individuals’ “escapist fantasy.” In delivering on this experience, the tourist industry reinforces and reifies the stereotypical images that are portrayed in the media. The systematic promotion of …

"Airbnb Go Home:" Tourism Frictions And Short-Term Rentals In New Orleans, Madeline R. Fussell

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis examines the concerns and conflicts around short-term rental (STR) properties in New Orleans neighborhoods. Using data from collected from critical discourse analysis, semi-structured interviews and social media posts, this paper analyzes the ways the city of New Orleans, residents of the city, STR hosts, and platforms like Airbnb discuss issues of safety, displacement, rising costs of living, as well as responsible STR practices. To understand the complexities of the issues people, have with short-term rental properties, this project approaches STRs from a housing and gentrification lens to understand the role these properties play within in the daily atmospheres …

Tourism, Education, And Identity Making: Agency And Representation Of Indigenous Communities In Public Sites Within Florida., Timothy R. Lomberk Ii

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

National parks have a history of complex relations with Native communities beginning with the advent of the National Park Service to representation of Native histories in the present. I will focus on two specific cases located within Florida, utilizing the lens of authorized heritage to show challenges of representation; and the range of ways that representation has been addressed and are currently being addressed with respect to Native communities in Florida. I utilize ethnohistorical and ethnographic methods to explore issues of representation in public spaces; such as museums and national parks. I am interested in critical representations of Native American …

Videogame Tourism: Spawning The Digital Into The Physical Realm In The British Isles, Heather Rebecca Brinkman

Theses and Dissertations

Video game tourism is in its infancy but growing in popularity. This dissertation is an anthropological study of gamers’ attempts to interact with the physical environments in Scotland that influenced the virtual landscapes to which they have an emotional connection. Seven of the locations I identified as potential field sites provided some form of ethnographic material. I traveled with gamers to these seven sites. While at these sites, I observed and interviewed people that I met as well as did participant observations with those I went with. This project was able to demonstrate that gamers and tourists alike attempt to …

Ethnoprimatology And Nature-Based Tourism: An Exploration Of Macaque Ecology And Behaviour At The Sepilok Orang-Utan Rehabilitation Center In Sabah, Malaysia, Lauren J. Gilhooly

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A rise in tourism revenue worldwide has included an increase in the number of travellers seeking experiences with the natural world. Commonly referred to as ecotourists, these visitors typically hail from Western countries and favour locations that allow them to connect with nature in ways that they consider sustainable and ethical. However well-meaning, these ecotourist ventures are complex because, while tourism revenue may help protect fragile ecosystems, an increase in tourists can expose local fauna to potentially deadly diseases.

Primates are a salient example of this double-edged sword because they are a popular attraction among travellers, meaning they may …

"Sir, I Cannot Entertain You": Tour Guides As Agents Of Truth And Transformation At The Whitney Plantation, Sarah Latham

LSU Master's Theses

According to the Louisiana office of tourism, one out of every nine workers in Louisiana relies on the state’s tourism industry for their wages, of which plantation tourism is a growing part (2016). This research examines the experiences of tour guides at the Whitney Plantation. How do tourists’ expectations and concepts of heritage affect the way tour guides do their jobs? What are tour guides’ experiences of being objectified by visitors? How are tour guides’ experiences shaped by race and racialized expectation? Specifically, I examined tour guides at The Whitney Plantation Museum in Wallace, Louisiana. This project drew on participant-observation …

Show Me A Sign: How Signs Embedded Within Social Media Shape And Influence Outdoor Recreational Tourists' Decision-Making Processes At Colorado State Parks, Sarah Marie Norlin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this project was to determine the ways in which signs within social media posts on Instagram and Facebook frame the way that outdoor recreational tourists make decisions about Colorado state parks' locations, services and activities. Surveys were conducted at 6 Colorado state parks in the 2018 spring, summer, and fall months. These surveys asked respondents to answer multiple choice and open ended questions about their social media habits, their outdoor recreation habits, and their opinions about images displayed on Colorado Parks and Wildlife's social media pages.

A total of 93 surveys were collected during the research period. …

A View From Within: Notes And Insight From An Institutional Ethnography Of The National Commission For Natural Protected Areas In Tulum, Mexico, Maxwell J. Martin

Graduate Masters Theses

National parks and protected areas are an integral component of the Mexican government’s long-term natural resource conservation strategy. They comprise over 90 million hectares throughout the country. However, the establishment and upkeep of these protected areas often incites conflict both between and among local actors. From poachers taking protected resources to indigenous peoples exercising their rights, protected areas have become a source of political, economic, and moral contention across the globe. In addition, their effectiveness in either ecological or sustainable development terms has been ambiguous at best.

Tulum, Mexico exemplifies this dilemma. The site of pre-Columbian Mayan architecture, Tulum is …

Sorting Crabs: An Analysis Of Tourism, Economy, Labor And State Division At Zhoushan Fish Market, Xi Bao

Senior Projects Spring 2018

This project focuses on three main topics and their “changes” in recent years. Chapter I focuses on the first topic, the relationship between the State of China and the State of Zhoushan, as well as the tension on fishing, tourism, and economic growth between these two states. Chapter II focuses on labor and class division at the Zhoushan fish market. Chapter III focuses on tourism and economy at ZhouShan. Fieldwork was conducted in two seasons: the first during the summer of 2017 at the Zhoushan fish market, and the second during the winter of 2017 at the Minsu in …

Articulated Indigeneity And Tourism In HawaiʻI, Erika Nielsen

Master's Theses

The guiding research question for this thesis asks how Hawaiian indigeneity and self-determination are articulated within tourism spaces in Hawaiʻi. This thesis research works to uncover the nuanced ways that Hawaiian indigeneity is employed to manage and regulate tourism activities in Hawaiʻi. I seek to question the narrative that Hawaiians consent to, and prosper from, the largely unregulated mass tourism complex that has become a focal point of the post-colonial state. Native Hawaiians have actively resisted the erosion of their culture, lands, and nation through strategies that employ multiple understandings of indigeneity. We should not assume that the tourism industry …

Tourism And State Violence In The Chittagong Hill Tracts Of Bangladesh, Hana S. Ahmed

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The three districts of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh have the highest military presence in Bangladesh. Following its emergence as an independent country in 1971, the military carried out a campaign of systematic repression of the Jumma indigenous people of the region. In this thesis, I focus on tourism and argue it is one of the ways by which ruling elites expropriate Jumma lands and circumvent indigenous land and cultural rights. The process is riddled with contradictions. On the one hand, violence against the Jumma has not ceased, and instead, the presence of the military has become normalized. …

The Diet And Subsistence Methods Of The Maya: Their Health And Cultural Consequences From The Pre-Classic Era To Today, Rachel E. Watson

Honors Undergraduate

The Maya, a once great civilization, seemingly vanished without an obvious reason, before the Spanish landed in the region. Some say that their downfall was a result of famine and inadequate nutrition. Surprisingly, most of the archaeological evidence surrounding the Classic Maya diet and subsistence methods indicates that they both adequately sustained the population to the point where there has been practically no change over hundreds of years. Change did not occur to the Maya diet or the classic subsistence methods until the late twentieth century when the tourism industry exploded in the area of the former Maya empire. The …

Doing Good In Guatemala: Perceptions Of Voluntourism In San Juan Comalapa, Samantha Grace Hagan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an exploration of host community perceptions of volunteer tourism in the context of a small community in the highlands of Guatemala called San Juan Comalapa. Voluntourism acts as a bridge between development aid and traditional tourism and therefore voluntourism organizations should act as both roles in the community. In this research I found that voluntourism organizations, particularly one organization called Long Way Home, can lean more towards one role than another in the eyes of members of the host community. Based on these findings I recommend that these organizations embrace these dual roles and engage the community …

What The Tides May Bring: Political "Tigueraje" Disposession And Popular Dissent In Samaná, Dominican Republic, Ryan A. Mann-Hamilton

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My dissertation is a historical and ethnographic project that delves into the conflictive relationship between the development of the Dominican state and the formation of the community of the port city of Samaná. The African diasporic community of Samaná has actively constructed the local space throughout shifting political projects, while sustaining their collective voices against the waves of dispossession crashing on their shores. Using a combination of archival research, participant observation, oral history and ethnography, I document multiple instances of state intervention to understand how the Samaná community has been coerced over time to consent to these processes. I juxtapose …

The Voluntourism Encounter: Affect, Discomfort, And Transformation In Yaxunah, Caroline Tegeler

Honors Theses

Within the massive tourism and travel industry, the niche market of volunteer tourism has risen recently in both notoriety and popularity with its promises of a more conscious form of experiencing the world and its people. I explore in this thesis project the encounter between volunteer tourist and host community by examining the motivations, expectations, and imagined roles and identities of each side of the voluntourism encounter. The volunteer tourism industry frames voluntourism as a path towards a more personal, ethical and responsible tourism, but has created experiences filled with discomfort for tourists in their encounter with the communities in …

Conflicted Tourism : Heritage Narratives, Sectarian Schism, And Economic Growth In Northern Ireland., Ashleigh Larissa Bixby

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines tourism as a politically charged facet of the economic process in Northern Ireland. While violence has abated in the region, sectarian conflict continues to affect Northern Irish society. Tourism has helped develop the economy by opening the market to visitors through the marketing of the region as unique and different. As conflict in the region is ongoing, the rise of tourism as a viable economic strategy raises the question: how does the Northern Irish tourist industry reconcile the past and ongoing conflict in order to present the region as a desirable tourist destination? The answer lies in …

Conduits Of Communion: Monstrous Affections In Algonquin Traditional Territory, Ian S.G. Puppe

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This project investigates the legacies of shifting land tenure and stewardship practices on what is now known as the Ottawa Valley watershed (referred to as the Kitchissippi by the Omamawinini or Algonquin people), and the effects that this central colonization project has had on issues of identity and Nationalism on Canadians, diversely identified as settler-colonists of European or at least “Old World” descent and First Nations, Métis and Inuit (Lawrence 2012).

Focusing on historical and contemporary political and social issues related to Algonquin Provincial Park and its establishment, this project explores; 1) Competing claims levied by First Nations Peoples, local …

Race And Inequality In Cuban Tourism During The 21st Century, Arah M. Parker

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

As the largest island in the Caribbean, Cuba boasts beautiful scenery, as well as a rich and diverse culture. Yet, throughout Cuban history, the beauty of this famous socialist nation has been marred by social inequalities, primarily affecting class, gender, and race. In the Cuban tourism sector in particular, the three aforementioned components have been prevalent since the island’s inception of tourism in the early 20^th Century. With the recent political changes marked by the attempt to restore relations with the United States, this thesis will critically analyze the theories of Black Marxism, Intersectionality, and World Systems Analysis (WSA), …

Cultural Tourism And Post-Colonialism In Hawaii, Leigh Nicole Schuler

Anthropology Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis explores tensions between tourism and Hawaiian self-representation. I discuss tensions between tourists, locals, and Hawaiians and how the role of each of these contributes to Hawaiian identity. I also discuss how Hawaiian culture exists in modernity and expose the issues that exist between the Hawaiian Kingdom and the United States and how they are perceived by each of these parties.

The Reciprocal Influences Of The Old Order Mennonite Community And Tourism In St. Jacobs, Ontario, Mingyuan Zhang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This research examines the reciprocal influences of the Old Order Mennonite community and tourism in St. Jacobs, Ontario. It is an ethnographic account of encounters between tourists and the Old Order Mennonite community who have both benefited from and been challenged by tourism development for four decades in the area of St. Jacobs. Cultural generalization and different ways of over-representing and misrepresenting the Old Order Mennonite identity has triggered tourists’ curiosity to seek the nostalgic past and social interactions with the Old Order Mennonite community. Even though tourism in St. Jacobs has been initiated and managed with the purpose of …

Tourism And Globalization In Latin America And The Caribbean: The Ethics And Concerns Of Mass Tourism And Ecotourism, Dana Kamens

Anthropology

The ethics of ecotourism and mass tourism have different implications on the local populations and environment in developing regions, such as in Latin America and the Caribbean. This paper explores the ethics related to these two types of tourism, what the advantages and disadvantages of combining them would be, how they affect the local populations and environment, and the necessary actions to successfully change and create a sustainable tourism industry. Information and examples from various authors and their scholarly research were used to formulate a discussion about the ethics of ecotourism and mass tourism. Overall, the importance of creating a …

Cultivating Change: Negotiating Development And Public Policy In Southern California's Wine Country, Laurel Dawn Dillon-Sumner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the Temecula Valley, California, neoliberal development policies were implemented that had the potential to bring drastic changes to this semi-rural area, renowned for its wine production and idyllic setting as a wine tourism destination. In order to better understand the contested nature of these development plans, I conducted ethnographic and key informant interviews and public policy analysis research with policy-making officials, local residents and other stakeholding groups that formed in opposition to the planned expansion. This applied anthropology of policy was uniquely situated to explore the tensions between various stakeholders. This thesis serves to propose interventions that could have …

Dialogic Festivity : Tourism, Diaspora, And The Hybridization Of Being And Becoming, Heidi J. Nicholls

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This research is centered on touristic performances, diaspora studies, and hyphenated identities in general and the Indian diaspora in particular. This project looks to the co-construction of identity within the Indian diaspora as is experienced by the Indian international student attending cultural events and festivities or Third Spaces, produced by the Indian diaspora at large, through a theoretical lens of tourism. In other words, this project is an investigation through ethnographic research and narrative analysis, of the interface between cultural festivals, diasporic tourism, and hybridized identities. In turn this research addresses the duality of identity negotiation in the diaspora in …

Imperial Consumption, Cruise Ship Tourism And Cozumel, Mexico, Christine Preble

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation defines cruise ship tourism in the context of a local community. The theoretical manifestations and development of cruise ship tourism are presented and analyzed. This research traces the development of the U.S.-based cruise ship industry (i.e. Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and Carnival Corporation & PLC) and its subsequent effects in one port-of-call community, the island of Cozumel, Mexico. Cruise ship tourism in Cozumel is compounded in San Miguel, the island's only urban center, at the three cruise ship piers and associated shopping centers. Defining U.S.-based cruise ship tourism in the context of Cozumel is significant as it is …

Vice In The Veil Of Justice: Embedding Race And Gender In Frontier Tourism, Daniel Richard Maher

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes how "frontier" discourses in Fort Smith, Arkansas simultaneously constitute mythological narratives that elide the deleterious effects of imperialism, racism, and sexism, while they operate as marketing schemes in the wager that they will attract cultural heritage tourists. It examines material exhibits and interpretive history programs at locations including the Fort Smith National Historic Site, Fort Smith Museum of History, Miss Laura's Visitor's Center, and the Clayton House; in texts such as the 1898 book by Samuel Harman whose title forever branded Fort Smith as Hell on the Border; in the subsequent branding and marketing derived from the …

Shifting Landscapes: The Social And Economic Development Of Aqaba, Jordan, Kimberly K. Cavanagh

Theses and Dissertations

In my dissertation, 'Shifting Landscapes: the Social and Economic Development of Aqaba, Jordan', I examine the role of the global in (re)defining the local by considering the anticipated impact of the planned large-scale urban development within Aqaba. I contend that the identities of the citizens change as the city itself undergoes `renovation' through political adjustments, globalization, tourism development, and commercialization. I argue that these transformations provide opportunities of empowerment, albeit often limited, for marginalized populations who attempt to broaden the dominant local identity by taking advantage of new economic opportunities and increasing their agency within the city. This research provides …

Last (Un)Fair Deal Goin' Down: A Case Study On The Racial Ideologies And Projects Advanced By The Blues Tourism Industry In Clarksdale, Mississippi, Kathryn Anne Radishofski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Considerations regarding the mechanisms through which cultural commodification may be woven into the fabric of racial inequity are indispensible when conducting research on African American music tourism in the United States, as white consumers and producers may attach invidious racial mythologies to such heritage, while the industries themselves often take root in communities inhabited by multiple racial groups possessing disparate social and economic power. With these bearings in mind, this thesis assesses the impact of blues tourism development on the experiences of, and between, blacks and whites in Clarksdale, Mississippi, an endemically impoverished Delta city populated by a sizable African …

Maya Cosmopolitans : Everyday Life At The Interface Of Archaeology, Heritage, And Tourism Development, Sarah Ruth Taylor

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The village of Ek'Balam is located approximately 300 meters from the ceremonial center of the archaeological zone by the same name. The ruins at Ek'Balam are some of the most impressive pre-Columbian stuccoes found in the Maya World. In 1994, the archaeological zone opened to the public, and since then this village of around 350 residents has experienced numerous changes. While residents have always had ties to the regional economy, the opening of the archaeological zone represented their first extended engagement with the tourism industry. A major agent of change in Ek'Balam is a community-based tourism project, funded primarily by …

Bartenders Know Best: An In-Depth Analysis Of The Impact Of Tourism On Local Barbadian Culture, Pearl E. Jurist-Schoen

Honors Theses

The purpose of my thesis is, through my own field research, to analyze the impact of tourism on local Barbadian culture. Caribbean tourism draws strong criticisms from anthropologists due to the region’s geographical location and environmental landscape, its history of colonialism, and the economic vulnerabilities that result from the wealth discrepancy between the local people and the tourists that vacation there. On the very small and densely populated island of Barbados, nearly every person is impacted by tourism. The focus of my ethnography is the cultural exchanges between guests and hosts, most specifically bartenders. A bar harbors many important elements …