Week 6: This Week I had Too Much Time to Think

This week has been quiet. Very quiet. With the other volunteers away in Aceh (Sumatra) I have been spending quite a lot of time alone. I dont mind solitude - I can be impressively antisocial when I want - but it does tend to result in me over-thinking things. This week I have been thinking, in predictable anthropological fashion, about cultural tourism.

It all began when I started to look back over my week and consider all the things I had done. This week I went shopping, went to a yoga class, went swimming, watched a couple of DVDS, finished my book - all things that I routinely do at home. When this realisation hit me I was immediately racked with guilt. I am a bad traveller, I thought to myself, and - worse - a bad anthropologist. After all, why come to the other side of the world to do what you do at home? I should be doing what Indonesian people do. But when I tried to think of what this might entail I realised that this is exactly what I had been doing. Life in Jakarta simply isn't that different to life at home (attitudes to time management and saturated fat aside). Why, then, did I feel like there must be this 'Indonesian culture' above and beyond the daily lives of Indonesian people?

Well, personally, I blame the Lonely Planet Guide. Indonesia is a popular tourist destination. People come here for a variety of reasons - the weather, the food, the surf etc - but perhaps the biggest appeal is Indonesian culture. The Lonely Planet Guide to Indonesia is explicit on this point. Their recommendation? Get out of Jakarta as soon as possible and head to Bali or Tana Torajah. Indonesia might be an eminently cultural place, but some parts of it are clearly more cultural than others (have you spotted the sarcasm yet?)

Anthropologists are rightly critical of this attitude. In anthropological circles cultural tourism has come to resemble something of a dirty word. For one thing, the idea that one culture is more cultural than another is clearly absurd. Lesson 1 of an anthropology degree: culture is not a quantifiable substance that you can have more or less of. Lesson 2 of an anthropology degree: cultural 'authenticity' is an ideological construct, albeit a powerful one. The idea that some beliefs and activities are more authentic - or more cultural - than others, is pervasive, increasingly globalised and seemingly intractable.

Anthropologists are also critical of the impact that tourism can have on the host culture. Tourism leaves an indelible mark, not only in the economic relations it creates, but also in the ideological shift it engenders. Cultural tourism encourages local people to view their activities and traditions as part of a cohesive whole - culture - which endows them with new value. It also provides an economic motivation for preserving cultural traditions, at least nominally. Tourism contributes to the reification and the romanticisation of culture. It can lead to the absurd scenario of cultural practices being maintained purely for the benefit of foreign observers, devoid of their original meaning.

It is often the case that we find personality traits in others irritating because they remind us of the more unsavory aspects of our own character. The same principle can be extended to the relationship between anthropology and tourism. For anthropologists, cultural tourism is just that little bit close to home. There is a cartoon by Gary Larson that depicts some tribal people running away from their village clutching TVs shouting "quick, hide the electrical appliances, the anthropologist is coming!". In making 'culture' their object of study anthropologists contributed to the reification of culture long before tourism had been invented. Cultural tourism is sort of like the bastard child of anthropology.

It is possible to criticise an outlook without entirely removing yourself from it. I too succumb to the fictions I have been discussing. I am as suceptible to the illusion of cultural authenticity as anyone else. I would feel slightly cheated if I stayed in Jakarta for sixth months; I too want to watch traditional dancing in Bali and observe a Tarajan funeral procession. Perhaps the only difference between a tourist and a tourist with an anthropology degreee is a tendency towards self-relfection. I had to laugh the other day when I found myself persuading Kamran that when we go to Tarajah we should visit tau taus (effigies to the dead), not only because they are of cultural interest, but because tourism has transformed their meaning; what we once perceived to be recepticles of spirits are now seen as mere artistic representations. This is obviously absurd: tourism is one thing; the tourism of tourism quite another. I find myself getting caught up in the fascination of 'traditional' culture and then berating myself for it. For instance, Jenna and I are hoping to go and visit Papua, famous for its tribal culture, but I can't help but be slightly repulsed by the adverts for 'indigenous tribal cultural tours'.

Basically, I think I have just had a little too much time for contemplation this week. I am resolved to enjoy Jakarta and stop feeling like I am somehow missing the 'real' Indonesia. I am also going to give in to my inner tourist and stop feeling bad about it. Anthropology, as interesting as it is, has a tendency to draw you into furstrating intellectual quagmires. Sometimes it is best just to enjoy experiences for what they are rather than over-analysing them.