“Our Future is Ancestral:” The Micro-Revolution of Ethno-Tourism
Getting to know alternative cultures can open our minds to slow, collective change and help counter the polycrises of our time.
By Post Growth Fellow, Mariana Madureira
As a tourismologist, one who studies tourism as a social and economic phenomenon, I often hear that tourism can make people and places better. But is that really the case?
Over-tourism and tourism-phobia are hallmarks of our century, as more and more people dislocate to visit the same gentrified place, generating a huge ecological footprint. We keep moving (and traveling) in search of meaning — even when it’s hidden behind public acceptance for keeping up with the Joneses and posting selfies in trendy spots. Sadly, the meaning gets destroyed as we move thoughtlessly towards more, ruining what could be better.
This perspective of places as objects of consumption arises as a result of a previous separation between humankind/culture and nature as binaries or opposites: a process that has been referred to as “desacralization of nature” by Edgar Morin and other European authors such as Moscovici and Latour. I prefer how Airlton Krenak, a Brazilian Indigenous author, describes it: that White people treat nature not with the deference of a mother, but as a storage room from which they can simply take whatever they desire, existing solely to meet their needs.
As we examine our misguided view of nature and its purpose, we realize how much we need to learn from people that retain their sacred bond with Her. And guess what? Tourism might be able to help guide us back.
Ethno-tourism is a specific type of tourism that involves visiting Indigenous villages and engaging in various forms of intercultural exchange. Brazil is home to 1.7 million Indigenous people from 266 different cultural groups — an impressive number, but still just 0.8% of the country’s population. Tourism in Indigenous lands was regulated by the Brazilian government in 2015 and since then the number of experiences available for visitors has been increasing.
One of the legal obligations for tourism in Indigenous land is a Visiting Plan, which needs to be built collectively and approved by the whole community. This plan contains rules such as not allowing alcohol, only authorized photos, a collective resolution on what may be sold (handcrafts, for example) by whom and how, among other both strategic and practical resolutions. It’s especially important that groups decide in which parts of the territory and times of year they are willing to accept visitors, so they can protect privacy and their way of life. Opening a community for tourism without a very delicate process — including choosing a tour operator who takes responsibility in selecting and preparing the visitors — can bring problems such as disrespect of the culture, exoticization of the people, and exploitative practices like showing off on social media and using sacred plants as recreational drugs.
While we need to be aware of the risks and the challenges involved, opening Indigenous villages to tourists in well-organized and restricted groups can be positive in many ways. Indigenous tourism can promote 1) a broader understanding of the multiplicity of cultures and lifestyles; 2) a sacred view of nature; 3) a greater sense of what truly constitutes human needs; and 4) a deeper respect for life in all its forms.
Furthermore, we have seen that tourists’ interest in the way of life of Indigenous groups often encourages them to keep and even revive knowledges and traditions that started to seem outdated for the younger generation. As an African proverb says: “Knowledge is like a garden: if it is not cultivated it cannot be harvested”. Tourism can play the role of cultivating traditional knowledge in those who visit and reflourishing imaginaries of visitors — to use the expression of Brazilian Indigenous author, Geni Nuñez, who reminds us of the importance of diversity to create minds as flexible and boundful as forests and avoid the poverty of a monocultural perspective in which a colonized normative pattern blocks the blossom and stifles (healthy) growth.
By learning new ways of relating with the great socio-biodiversity the world still holds, we can contribute to reversing the trend of biodiversity loss — species have declined by a staggering 69% since 1970. While we cannot achieve a great transformation solely on individual levels, changing the mindset of small groups can contribute to the revolutions — in plural — the micro revolutions, as defended by Rosi Braidotti, or molecular revolutions, as proposed by Deleuze and Guattari.
Braidotti says that thinking of a revolution nowadays seems more like fascist concept, with radical change being co-opted by ultraconservative rhetoric as a call to reinstate normativity and power concentration. In contrast, micro-revolutions have nothing to do with violence, abruptness, or the territory conquest by the victors. They are about dialogue, advocacy and slow, gradual change to build a society and a planet that accommodates all. The rights of the LGBTQIA+ community exemplify a micro-revolution as a movement that has been ongoing for a long time in many different parts of the world, led by self-organized groups and individuals. This uncoordinated movement has led to positive advances, even if there are occasional setbacks.
This micro-revolution highlights an optimistic pathway beyond the polycrises we have created. When I say “we” I mean White people, people of merchandise, as Davi Kopenawa (another Brazilian Indigenous author) calls us, referring to our intrinsic and pathological relationship with consumption. The micro-revolution in this case is the dis-identification with the patterns of creation and consumption that have brought us to this point in recent decades. In this sense, getting to know alternative cultures can be a way to open our minds for a slow, collective change.
Looking back can teach us how to move forward. That’s why, to close with Krenak’s words, our future is ancestral.
Inspired by this article? Here are some related books by Indigenous authors to explore:
- Life Is Not Useful, by Ailton Krenak
- The Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman, by Davi Kopenawa
- Descolonizando Afetos, by Geni Nuñez
Find out more about the Post Growth Institute on our website.
