Rethinking indigenous people as tourists: modernity, cosmopolitanism, and the re-invention of indigeneity

Abstract

This paper starts from the observation that the literatures on indigenous tourism tend to perpetuate the assumption of indigenous people as suppliers and objects of tourism experiences and services, while there is a dearth of research as to how to theorise indigenous people as tourists, and how to study the tourist practices of indigenous people. This paper argues that to take indigenous people seriously as ordinary tourists just like others would enrich the concept of indigenous tourism on the one hand, and on the other, advance theoretical perspectives on the translocal constitution of indigeneity. Our empirical study addresses the arguments by investigating the touristic practices of the ethnic minority Mosuo, who reside in the Lugu Lake area in southwest China.