Tourism and representations: Of social change and power relations in Wadi Ramm, Southern Jordan

摘要

Taking the approach of social and cultural anthropology, the aim of this article is to look at how various representational systems and modes interact with each other when the logics of international and national tourism development come to meet the vernacular versions of place and identity. This process is studied by describing, analysing and criticising the power struggle between competing representations of place and local culture in Wadi Ramm (Southern Jordan), an area not as desert as Western visitors expect it to be, inhabited by a Bedouin community not as “traditional” as portrayed by the tourist media and whose inhabitants harbour their own ideas about place and group identity.