MIRA Project 2005 Courses
Ethn 576 Visual Research of Tourism Cultures
This seminar introduces the student to the tourism cultures of Yucatán
and, more broadly, to the ethnography of the region. Readings include
articles that address specific issues of tourism development in the
peninsula and focus on the cultures and tourism of Mérida,
Chichén Itzá, Pisté, Playa del Carmen, Cancun
and the Maya Riviera. The course provides the substantive ethnographic
and historical knowledge of the region that enables students to conduct
their research in the MIRA program.
This course has three distinct units that correspond to the three
tourism destinations in which we will be working-Mérida, Playa
del Carmen and Pisté/Chichén Itzá. The Mérida
unit is primarily based on the reading of one essay that works toward
mapping the cultural destinations of the region within an analytical
framing of the construction of rhetorical and practical places. This
becomes a fundamental springboard from which our ethnographic research
in the urban tourism of Mérida is conducted within the context
of the visual fieldwork methodologies course.
In Playa del Carmen we continue our work we establish in Mérida
by applying the visual methodologies in the investigation and analysis
of the representational apparatus of Playa tourism destination culture.
Beginning in Mérida we collect and read various texts provided
by the tourism industry regarding the region and specific destinations.
This reading is based on the free tourism "guides" or promotional
brochures such as Cancun Tips, Yucatán Today, Explore Magazine,
maps, flyers, and related materials that can be collected by students
and brought into discussion during seminar. Our focus here is on the
problem of pleasure - specifically visual and corporeal through the
structuring, strategies and tactics of consumption.
In Pisté, our focus shifts considerably and the seminar becomes
structured along two focal points. In this unit we will spend significant
time viewing and studying a selection of filmic materials - that is,
educational films, visual ethnographies, documentaries. Accompanying
this material are a set of reviews or commentaries that directly address
one or more these texts. The second focal point is a selection of
readings that deal with the specific visual cultures of the Maya and
their intersection with various scientific, political, and governmental
discourses as they relate to the Maya or specifically to Chichén
Itzá. This section of the course relies heavily on the written
texts of Castañeda since this work forms the primary published
analysis of tourism in the Yucatán in terms of these issues
of representation, visual cultures, and discursive formations.
Readings
Castañeda, "An Archaeology of the Tourist Landscape"
Castañeda, "Approaching Ruins." VAR 16:1-2
Castañeda, "Maya Modernity, Hybridity, and Aesthetics
in Pisté Maya Art"
Castañeda "Tourism Wars in Yucatán"
Brooke Thomas and Oriol Pi-Sunyor, (copies will be made available
in Playa)
Locally Available Free Tourism Guides to be collected by students:
Cancun Tips, Yucatán Today, Explore Magazine, airplane magazines,
flyers, tourism maps, etc.
Visual Ethnographies, Documentaries, Educational Film and Tourism
Videos
Chichén Itzá: La Palabra de Chilam Balam, from INAH
tourist video México Antiguo Series
In Search of the Mayas, from INAH tourist video México Antiguo
Series
Incidents of Travel in Chichén Itzá, by Jeff Himpele
and Quetzil Castañeda (DER Distributor)
Father Sun Speaks: Cosmic Maya Message for the 21st Century, Baird
Bryant Productions
National Geographic, Lost Kingdoms of the Maya.
Time-Life Magazine video on Maya Civilization-- ¿Blood of Kings?
Discovery Channel on the Maya of Chichén and the Equinox
Eisenstein, Que Viva México (the initial five minutes) &
Collage of Clips
Ruins: A Fake Documentary
Univ. Autónoma de Yucatán and Gobierno del Estado tourism
films (Pavarotti concert, dancing in Chichén, etc.) we will
see part of these to get the flavor of the videos.
Reviews and Commentaries on Video Materials
(all in electronic format)
Hilary Kahn, "Review of Ruins"
Luis Vivanco, "Performing
." Review of Incidents of
Travel
Castañeda, "Equinox or Eclipse? Adventurous Travel with
Simmel Among Maya Ruins"
Peter Hervik, "The National Geographic Maya" in Journal
of Latin American Anthropology.
Assignments and Evaluation
Course evaluation is based on preparation and participation in seminars.
During the component of the course in Pisté that involves the
reading and analysis of videos, students are asked to take a leading
role in the commentary and to prepare based on their discussion one
brief analysis/review/commentary on one or more of the films. In addition,
students are asked to prepare one analytical-conceptual paper that
integrates these films, visual media, the ethnographic fieldwork,
tourism literatures, and cultural performances into an analytics of
the double articulation of tourism cultures and destinations. This
last paper is based on the films as well as the entire program of
activities and learning. You are to address the crucial issues of
visual anthropology, the anthropology of tourism, anthropology of
media, Maya studies, that you have come to understand through this
program.
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