Tke nomads of Mykonos: consuming discourses of otkemess in a polysemic tourist space Tkesis submitted m fulfilment of tke requirements for tke degree of Doctor of Pkilosopky, 1998 Poliantki Bousiou, London Sckool of Economics and Political Science, University of London. UMI Number: U123019 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U123019 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 I R£££S F 8 ' j& r J 7/D45B Tke co pyrigkt of tkis tkesis rests witk tke autkor and no quotations from it or information derived from it may be published witkout tke prior written consent of tke autkor 2 ABSTRACT This thesis is an anthropological study of consumption and self­ construction on the Greek tourist island of Myk onos. The ethnographic material is collected from informants\agents of an, initially, heterogeneous cultural background and with a highly individualistic discourse, who, paradoxically, form a group. The identity of this new Mykonian group of exogenous locals7 is self-created and draws on several local7 myths. Therefore, the ethnography concentrates on the discursive making of these myths. The characteristic all these myths share is that they revolve around a common theme: symbolic 'otherness7. This discursive otherness, is initially reflected in the emerging myth of the cosmopolitan place in which it is performed, the place-myth of Mykonos. But symmetrically in our case, the myth of the place, counter-reflects the myth of its subjects. A series of invented 'heroes7 gradually prospers in the mythical space of ‘otherness7: first the reckless, unorthodox locals; then the eccentric 'first visitors7 followed by the alternative groups of the seventies, the subcultural groups of the ei ght ies and tke trikestyles of tke nineties. Tke myth of this spatial 'otherness7, apart from the peculiar groupings which it simultaneously attracts and creates, is also a propagator of self­ myths. The thesis explores the construction of selves and communities through their consumption patterns, manipulation of aesthetics, invented rituals and a distinctive set of social practices, but primarily through their discursive otherness. The myth of the idiosyncratic space is echoed in the myth of their unclassified and fetishised selves. Nevertheless, the 'anarchic7 property of the space is its only consistent pattern and, in turn, a source of communal identity. The discourse of locality that stems out of these ‘mythologies7 celebrates a highly subjective pattern of aesthetic ‘otherness7. The bonding of all these myths lies precisely in their taste for ‘difference7. The fetishisation of the self reflects upon the fetishisation of space; as much as, the fetishisation of space reflects upon the fetishisation of the self. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis is a result of a collage of discourses and a continuous dialogue between myself and the Mykoniots Selection, the protagonists of this thesis, a group of nascent ‘anthropologists7 and their patrons, and my Greek friends. I therefore dedicate this thesis to all of them: AkisAminaAndrewApostolisAriannaCharoulaChristosDespoElisavetElsaGeo rgelrahhsKalhopiKostasLefterisLeonidasMariannaMarilliMarinaMariosMarh MichalisMichalisPeterRoger Spiros S tavrosThelgiaThomas V alerieV enetiaYia nnisYiasos... I would particularly like to acknowledge Henrietta Moore without whose courage and encouragement I would have never keen akle to realise this project. Contents/'""'I ru rn m -- Tke nomads of Mykonos: consuming discourses of otkerness in a polysemic tourist space. A tkeoretical introduction. CHAPTER I. Introduction to tke etknograpky and tkeory. First Section. Introducing tke Mykoniots d ’election. Second. Section. Tke proklem of agency in tke ‘Greek’ etknograpkic sukject. Tkird Section. Tke syndrome of aestketicisation: consuming ‘cultures’, multi-sukjective selves and (trans)local spaces. Fourtk Section. Tke group of tke Mykoniots d ’election: a sukculture, a sect, or a trike-style? . Narratives of kelonging: tke Mytk of an ‘indigenous’ otkerness. CHAPTER 11. Apprenticeskip in tke Mykonian Sinafia: mytks of Mykonos and ‘maleness’. First Section. Tke two worlds of ‘maleness’ Second Section. Tke two worlds of ‘maleness: Tke etknograpky . Narratives of tke self: an eccentric mytk of otkerness. R 111. Narratives of tke self. First Section. Tke self-image as fetisk. Second Section. Narratives of tke self: 1. Tke self-image of Eleonora. 2. Tke self-image of Hercules. 3. Tke self-image of Artemis. 4. Tke self-image o f Angel os. Tkird Section. A wardroke of selves. >. Narratives of place: a spatial m ytk of otkerness. CHAPTER IV. Participation Mystique: tke poktics of tke aleatory [encounter] among tke Mykoniots d ’election. CHAPTER V. Participation Mystique, act one. ‘A ritual of our own’. Mykoniots’ version of a paniyiri: a trip to Delos. Narratives of difference: an aestketic mytk of otkerness. CHAPTER VI. Participation Mystique, act two. A Mykoniots version of a ‘traditional’ wedding -paniyiri. CONCWJIOH. M ykoniots d ’election: Nomads in a ‘queer space7? flFPENbIX I. History and topograpky of Mykonos. fiPPENbIX II. Space-mytks akin to tkat of Mykonos: A comparative translation of spatial images. flPPENbIX III. Mykoniots ani tke cult of Bkagwan Skree Rajneesk. UPPEMXW.Tke neo-pirates: Mytkologising tke local manges. flPPENbIX V. Tke symbol of ancient Delos as kalf treasury and kalf skrine. A kistorical perspective. T ransliteration note ai ai P V y g before the vowels a, o and consonants y before vowels i, e and “ipsilon” YY ng yK g initially ng medially 5 d vx d initially nd medially (except in names, e.g. Antonis) ji7c b initially mb medially (except in “synpotiasmos” si ei 0 1 oi tj i (except in Delos, delos, adelos, Deliana, Deliani) on ou n y (but after y: i) 8U ev/ef 9 f X h (except in Pascha, erchetai) 0 th 5 x 7 To protect tke identity of my informants, names as well as personal details kave keen altered. 8 P art O n e THE NOITMIblo r niKOHOJ:CGfJJWHNM M JCQ 'W JEJOF OTHEfflEJJ INA POlTJEfK TOWIJT JFUCE. A THEORETICAL INTROWKTION Chapter I. Introduction to the ethnography and theory F ir s t Se c t io n Introducing the Mykoniots d'election a. The group in its space This thesis is a study of the Mykoniots d ’election, who, as their invented1 group- designation reveals, are a group of people who have been visiting the island of Mykonos for the last twenty-five years or so and have formed an alternative community. Their constant return to the island and their insistence on living, acting, working and creating in a tourist space offers them an alternative identity, which in turn is aesthetically marked by the transient cultural properties of Mykonos, the space they have fetishised in their lives as ‘nomads’. During my fieldwork years (June 1991 to January 1993) and my subsequent returns to the island, I collected a long list of fetishised references for the Cycladic space of Mykonos. Emma, a Londoner ‘by descent’, who has been living on the island since the late sixties compares Mykonos’ image to that of the (female) womb. Mykonos for Emma and her friends signifies a place of ‘protection’ and desired ‘exclusion’. Following Dubisch’s analogous description of the nearby island of Tinos, the spatial image of an ‘island’ immediately becomes something more than a mere ‘physical setting’. Dubisch argues that ‘the very fact that it [Tinos] is an island helps to give it a unique identity’ (Dubisch, 1995: 120). For example in Mykonos’ case, the island becomes engendered, personified and unique. Emma goes on to portray the ‘travellers’ who became enchanted with and anchored on Mykonos, as mysterious individuals who have the distinctive ability to ‘incorporate’ with great ease - as if they were merely ‘passing it by’- a new collective self. This newly acquired Mykonian identity is apparently aimed at a boundless communion that ideally ♦ draws no distinction between the ‘self and the ‘other’, between ‘them’ and the ‘indigenous’. In other words, they all arrived alone as individuals, but became affiliated to the ‘magic’ properties of this small protected island and ‘transformed’ themselves into ‘mystic’ participants in an ideal socialisation. Mykonos is thus represented as a perfect 10 ‘mother’, a perfect ‘home’. Common to all members is the fact that this element of fetishisation of the Mykonian space has contributed to the development of an alternative collective self, but one which paradoxically does not contradict their uncompromising individuality. The Mykoniots d ’election might have established a collective self, but one based on a counter-collective discourse of accentuated individuality. This notion of a collective self cuts across established social categories of exclusion and belonging. The result is a struggle for ‘exclusivity’ projected onto the symbol of Mykonos. Mykonos, as an all inclusive sign of freedom and protection, has created in theMykoniots d ’election the traveller’s addiction for a space that somehow reflects her ‘transitory’ identity, a place that she can fearlessly identify with, a place that feels, at last, familiar. This thesis is about how the Mykoniots d ’election construct their illusive, and exclusive, sense of a collective self. b . Locating the group. The word Mykonos, stands for both the island as a whole and the region called Mykonos town which is the concentrated centre of the island; this urbanised centre is also traditionally called the Hora of Mykonos2. Since the sixties, tourism has been built upon a space/aesthetic myth of exclusivity and liberality, and the fetishisation of the island by the Greek media.