Global Nomads: Techno and New Age As Transnational Countercultures
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1111 2 Global Nomads 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 A uniquely ‘nomadic ethnography,’ Global Nomads is the first in-depth treat- 3111 ment of a counterculture flourishing in the global gulf stream of new electronic 4 and spiritual developments. D’Andrea’s is an insightful study of expressive indi- vidualism manifested in and through key cosmopolitan sites. This book is an 5 invaluable contribution to the anthropology/sociology of contemporary culture, 6 and presents required reading for students and scholars of new spiritualities, 7 techno-dance culture and globalization. 8 Graham St John, Research Fellow, 9 School of American Research, New Mexico 20111 1 D'Andrea breaks new ground in the scholarship on both globalization and the shaping of subjectivities. And he does so spectacularly, both through his focus 2 on neomadic cultures and a novel theorization. This is a deeply erudite book 3 and it is a lot of fun. 4 Saskia Sassen, Ralph Lewis Professor of Sociology 5 at the University of Chicago, and Centennial Visiting Professor 6 at the London School of Economics. 7 8 Global Nomads is a unique introduction to the globalization of countercultures, 9 a topic largely unknown in and outside academia. Anthony D’Andrea examines 30111 the social life of mobile expatriates who live within a global circuit of counter- 1 cultural practice in paradoxical paradises. 2 Based on nomadic fieldwork across Spain and India, the study analyzes how and why these post-metropolitan subjects reject the homeland to shape an alternative 3 lifestyle. They become artists, therapists, exotic traders and bohemian workers seek- 4 ing to integrate labor, mobility and spirituality within a cosmopolitan culture of 35 expressive individualism. These countercultural formations, however, unfold under 6 neo-liberal regimes that appropriate utopian spaces, practices and imaginaries as 7 commodities for tourism, entertainment and media consumption. In order to understand the paradoxical globalization of countercultures, Global 8 Nomads develops a dialogue between global and critical studies by introducing 9 the concept of ‘neo-nomadism’ which seeks to overcome some of the shortcom- 40111 ings in studies of globalization. 1 This book is essential reading for undergraduate, postgraduate and research stu- 2 dents of Sociology, Anthropology of Globalization, Cultural Studies and Tourism. 3 Anthony Albert Fischer D’Andrea has recently earned a PhD in Anthropology at 4 the University of Chicago, where he is Research Associate at the Transnationalism 45111 Project. 1111 2 Global Nomads 3 4 Techno and New Age as transnational 5 6 countercultures in Ibiza and Goa 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 Anthony D’Andrea 4 5 6 7 8 9 20111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30111 1 2 3 4 35 6 7 8 9 40111 1 2 3 4 45111 First published 2007 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2007 Anthony D’Andrea This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-96265-6 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0–415–42013–X (hbk) ISBN10: 0–203–96265–6 (ebk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–42013–6 (hbk) ISBN13: 978–0–203–96265–7 (ebk) 1111 2 Contents 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 List of figures vii 4 Acknowledgments viii 5 6 7 1 Introduction: neo-nomadism: a theory of postidentitarian 8 mobility in the global age 1 9 Global nomads: instance of cultural hypermobility 1 20111 The significance of expressive expatriation: circuits of 1 2 mobility and marginalization 7 3 Globalization: network, diaspora and cosmopolitanism 10 4 Aesthetics of the self: post-sexualities in a digital age 17 5 Neo-nomadism: postidentitarian mobility 23 6 Nomadic ethnography: methodological challenges 31 7 Book overview 36 8 9 2 Expressive expatriates in Ibiza: hypermobility as 30111 1 countercultural practice and identity 41 2 Introduction: ‘fluidity of experiences’ in Ibiza 41 3 Ibiza contexts: entering the field 44 4 Spatial and inner mobility: traveling and nomadic spirituality 47 35 Expatriate media: ‘people from Ibiza’ 58 6 Expatriate education: ‘international schools’ 61 7 8 Expressive lifestyles 65 9 Conclusion: the aesthetics of centered marginality 75 40111 1 3 The hippie and club scenes in Ibiza’s tourism industry 78 2 3 Counterculture and commodity 78 4 Utopian sites under siege: Punta Galera 80 45111 The hippie scene: autonomy and tourism 81 vi Contents The club scene: underground and industry 94 Bohemian working class 113 Ibiza imaginary: transgression, nostalgia and diaspora 120 Freak diaspora: the centrifuge island and orientalism 127 4 Osho International Meditation Resort: subjectivity, counterculture and spiritual tourism in Pune 131 Osho movement: counterculture and commodification 131 Institutional and ideological contexts: the world’s largest meditation center 134 ‘Osho International Meditation Resort’: practices, trajectories and rituals 139 Culture of expression: psychic deterritorialization and institutional control 159 Charisma and rationalization: sex, counterculture and tourism 166 Conclusions: ‘enlightenment guaranteed’ 171 5 Techno trance tribalism in Goa: the elementary forms of nomadic spirituality 175 Introduction: the psychedelic contact zone 175 The Pune-Goa connection: rebel sannyasins 179 Goa, tourism and ‘hippies’ 181 Day Life: the social organization of the trance scene in northern Goa 185 Night Life: nomadic spirituality in psychedelic rituals 204 Psychic deterritorialization: madness in India 214 Conclusion: nomadic spirituality and smooth spaces 220 6 Global counter-conclusions: flexible economies and subjectivities 222 Notes 228 Bibliography 234 Index 245 1111 2 Figures 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 2.1 Ibiza map 42 4 2.2 Expatriate children 48 5 3.1 Punta Galera beach 80 6 3.2 Drum party 82 7 3.3 World’s largest nightclub 94 8 3.4 British bar workers 113 9 3.5 Postcard of Ibiza 121 20111 4.1 Osho meditation resort 131 1 4.2 Sannyasins socializing 139 2 5.1 DJ and sadhus 175 3 5.2 Trance party in Pune 179 4 5.3 Anjuna hippie market 185 5 5.4 Crystal healing practice 202 6 5.5 Techno bike Amazon 207 7 5.6 Trance party near Anjuna beach 210 8 9 30111 1 2 3 4 35 6 7 8 9 40111 1 2 3 4 45111 Acknowledgments This book is based on a doctoral research conducted over the course of several years, places and multidisciplinary incursions. I would like to thank Elizabeth Povinelli, Saskia Sassen, Joe Masco, Kesha Fikes, Tanya Luhrmann, Arnold Davidson and Arjun Appadurai for their advice at former and latter stages of my education at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago. From the field, I am grateful to Gary Blanford, Kirk Huffman, Ronnie Randall and Nora Belton for their contribution to the development of this project. I also thank Georgia Taglietti, William Crichton, Antonio Nogueira, Roberta Jurado, Peter Hankinson, Tirry and Toni for their generous support to my fieldwork in the club scene of Ibiza. In India, I wish to thank Swami Prasado and Boyan Artac, as well as Dilip Loundo and Alito Siqueira for interactions at Goa University. I am also grateful to other friends and colleagues, in particular to Graham St John and Adam Leeds, who have read parts of my manuscript and made important comments. I also appreciate the kind permission of Ronnie and Stephen Randall, Ekki Gurlitt and Krishnananda Trobe to use photos and an extended quote. Finally, I thank John Urry for allowing that my work be available in book form. This research was indirectly funded with a CAPES Foundation fellow- ship to conduct my doctoral studies at Chicago. I also thank the Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies and the Gay and Lesbian Studies Project, both at the University of Chicago, for sponsoring segments of my fieldwork with travel grants. While grateful to the sedentary dwellers of Goa, Pune, Ibiza and Chicago, I wish to dedicate this book to global nomads – expressive expatriates, New Agers and Techno freaks – who enabled me to learn something about their lines of flight. Anthony Fischer D’Andrea Chicago, January 2007 1111 2 1 Neo-nomadism 3 4 A theory of postidentitarian 5 1 6 mobility in the global age 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 ‘The nomad does not move.’ 4 Deleuze and Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus 5 6 7 Global nomads: instance of cultural hypermobility 8 9 Ibiza island (Spanish Mediterranean), summer 1998 – We left Café del 20111 Mar in the busy touristy town of Sant Antoni, and drove north toward 1 a secluded lighthouse where a ‘Goa trance party’ was scheduled to happen. 2 ‘Goa trance’ is a potent subgenre of electronic dance music developed by 3 Western neo-hippies (‘freaks’) on the beaches of Goa state (India) in the 4 early 1990s. My companions that night were four UK and US expatri- 5 ates who resided in Ibiza or visited the island regularly: two yoga teachers, 6 a jewelry trader and a journalist, women in their thirties and forties, 7 wearing light hippie, gypsy-like clothes and a crystal dot on the forehead.