Dynamics Behind Persistent Images of "The Other"

In tourism, strangers meet face to face. What do Tanzanian Maasai and Western tourists think when they meet? Using a combination of methods that has never been tried before, either in anthropology in general or in the field of tourism studies, this work provides novel theoretical insights into the images hosts and guests have of each other, and how their views relate to the interactions they experience. This compelling reflexive study uses video and Q method to contribute to the epistemology of anthropological research in tourism settings and the construction of a new, more symmetrical anthropology.

"A veritable 'tour de force' through accumulated anthropological wisdom. It is fitting that the topic bears precisely on that particular moment which both calls for anthropological wisdom as well as constituting its gaze as a problematisation of difference and similarity."

Prof. Dr Elísio S. Macamo (Centre for African Studies, University of Basel)

"An important contribution to the growing field of the anthropology of tourism, an example of intense and methodical fieldwork, combined with theoretical acumen and deep reflexivity."

Prof. Dr Walter E. A. van Beek (Tilburg University)