Margaret Mead and Tourism: Anthropological Heritage in the Aftermath of the Bali Bombings
Author(s)
Hitchcock, Michael
Abstract
Anthropological research is influenced by government in various ways, not least through the requirement to seek official permission for fieldwork in Bali. In turn, the government’s decision to develop Penglipuran into a tourist attraction will have been influenced, if only indirectly, by anthropological accounts of the area. This paper asks some pressing questions in relation to this tourist site – questions which have been of concern in Bali since the 2002 bombings. What is the scope for anthropological intervention, given the ongoing use of stereotypes – some of them derived from early anthropological accounts – in the way the mountain Balinese are represented in tourism? Why do governments and anthropologists appear to share a common interest in similar kinds of villages? Given the pros and cons of tourism, should ethical guidelines continue to recommend ethnographic pseudonyms?
