Community-Owned Tourism: Pushing the Paradigms of Alternative Tourisms? Item Type text; Electronic Thesis Authors Renkert, Sarah Rachelle Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 07/10/2021 07:07:51 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/625309 1 COMMUNITY-OWNED TOURISM: PUSHING THE PARADIGMS OF ALTERNATIVE TOURISMS? A CASE STUDY IN THE KICHWA AÑANGU COMMUNITY By Sarah Renkert _____________________________ Copyright © Sarah Renkert 2017 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the SCHOOL OF ANTHROPOLOGY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2017 2 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR The thesis titled Community-Owned Tourism: Pushing the Paradigms of Alternative Tourisms? prepared by Sarah Renkert has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for a master’s degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission, provided that an accurate acknowledgement of the source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: Sarah Renkert APPROVAL BY THESIS DIRECTOR This thesis has been approved on the date shown below: 5/4/2017 Dr. Maribel Alvarez Date Associate Research Professor of Anthropology 3 Community-Owned Tourism: Pushing the Paradigms of Alternative Tourisms? A Case Study in the Kichwa Añangu Community Sarah Renkert Thesis - Masters of Arts School of Anthropology University of Arizona 2017 4 Table of Contents Abstract / 5 Acknowledgments / 6 Prologue / 7 Chapter 1: Introduction / 9 Chapter 2: Opportunities for the Future of Global Tourism? / 13 A Critical Look at the Tourism Industry / 13 Alternative Tourisms? /18 Chapter 3: A Brief Overview of Anthropology and Tourism / 22 Chapter 4: Tourism and Indigenous Peoples / 27 Tourists and Indigenous Tourism / 27 Indigenous Tourism: Economic Livelihood, Environmental, and Cultural Perspectives / 34 Chapter 5: Indigenous Tourism: Community Agency and Self-Determination / 43 Indigenous Community Agency and Collectivity / 43 Indigenous Self-Determination / 47 Chapter 6: “All you need is Ecuador:” The Politics and Ethics of Tourism in Ecuador / 51 Chapter 7: The Kichwa Añangu Community: An Overview / 63 Chapter 8: Tourism in Añangu / 69 Chapter 9: In the “Field:” An Overview of Research Methods / 74 Chapter 10: Livelihood and Tourism / 81 The Petroleum Conundrum / 81 Keeping the Kids Home / 83 Family Income / 87 Community Projects / 89 The Yasuní Kichwa Ecolodge / 94 Chapter 11: The Environmental Stewardship and the Ecotourism Story / 96 “For our Children” / 96 A Changing Relationship with the Environment / 98 Environmental Vulnerabilities / 105 Environmental Education / 108 Chapter 12: Cultural Reclamation / 113 Thoughts on Cultural Reclamation / 113 A Visit to the Kuri Muyu / 118 Questions of Authenticity and Reclamation? The Guayusada / 126 Foodways in the Kichwa Añangu Community / 131 Chapter 13: Concluding Thoughts: Community-Owned Tourism in Añangu? / 143 Bibliography: / 157 5 Abstract The Kichwa Añangu Community lives in Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park. As a community, they have chosen to dedicate their livelihood to community-owned tourism, or what is commonly called turismo comunitario in Ecuador. Tourism brings multiple, ongoing challenges to the Añangu Community. Shifting market demands, growing regional and transnational competition, and large-scale climate events each present ongoing vulnerabilities. Furthermore, the Añangu do not own rights to the petroleum reserves quietly resting under their land. Nonetheless, they persist in their tourism project and have become recognized as a model for community-owned tourism in Ecuador. In part, this thesis seeks to explore why the Añangu Community has chosen to not only pursue, but expand their involvement in community-owned tourism. This research will demonstrate that tourism is locally embraced as a vehicle for livelihood wellbeing, environmental stewardship, and cultural reclamation. The key question then becomes, why is the Añangu Community’s tourism project successful? Here, I argue that through community agency and governance, the Añangu Community is able to practice economic, environmental, and cultural self-determination via their local control of the tourism project. Añangu 2016 Photo Credit: Pancho Tapuy 6 Acknowledgements I want to start by thanking the Kichwa Añangu Community and all of the staff at the Napo Cultural Center, the Napo Wildlife Center, and the main office in Quito. Thank you for not only helping me in completing this research, but for also giving me the opportunity to teach. Most importantly, thank you for your friendship and all of the knowledge you have shared with me. To the Mamakunas, thank you for welcoming me into the Kuri Muyu, for teaching me how to dance, sharing your chicha and being wonderful guides and teachers. Mama Vicky, Silvia, Erika, Judith, Midia, Elisa, Alisa, Sara, Silvia, Maribel, Enma, Bety, Eva, Silvania, Kimena, Micaela, Indira, Lida, Violeta, Maria, Janet, and Flora, I will never forget you. To Eladio, Rolando, Abel, Fredy, Pancho, Edwin, Andres, Luis Miguel, Jairo, Jairo, Jairo, Jose Manuel, Magdalena, Jheynson, Joffre, Rene, Darwin, Fidel, Eber, Deisy, Priscila, Stephanie, Benancio, Sergio, Veronica, Diego, Jonas, Daniel, Daniel, Cristian, Cristian, Orlando, Kevin, Ronny, Johnnny, Luis, Edison, Anderson, Fausto, Nelson, Mauricio, Javier, Mariano, William, David, Remilio, Guido, Cain, Fredy, and Jiovanny, thank you for all of the stories, guidance, support and ongoing help, in addition to being wonderful students. I apologize if there is anyone’s name I forgot to include. To Stalyn Ortega, thank you for the emotional support and incredible friendship. I also want to thank Doris Galdamez for all of your efforts in supporting my research and stay in the Añangu Community. I want to thank my Committee Chair and Adviser, Dr. Maribel Alvarez. As you know, I was ready to leave graduate school after two weeks. You encouraged me to stay for at least two years and as of now, I have successfully made it to three. No matter what my academic future holds, I will always be grateful for your emotional and academic support. To the rest of my committee members, Dr. Marcela Vásquez-León, Dr. Ronald Trosper, and Dr. Mamadou Baro, thank you for taking the time to read this thesis and academically supporting me these last few years. I hope you will see how your classes have shaped my thinking throughout this paper. I also want to thank Dr. Linda Green and Dr. Tracey Osborne who as professors, have tremendously pushed and shaped my understanding of this research. I am grateful to all of the agencies who have helped fund this research and supported my conference presentations. This includes the Kichwa Añangu Community, Yasuní-Amazona, the Tinker Foundation, the Willian and Nancy Sullivan Scholarship Fund, GPSC, the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, and the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. Lastly, I want to thank my family for all of your support, both academically and emotionally. To my mom and grandma, I will always be grateful that you took the time to come visit me in Añangu. You were able to see firsthand why I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work in such a special place. 7 Prologue Story 1 In the fall of 2008, I embarked on my first journey as an ecotourist, spending four days immersed in Peru’s upper-Amazonian region. While there, I watched pink dolphins dance through the Amazon River, stared in awe at the gravity-defying acrobatics of spider monkeys, and guiltily enjoyed eating the piranhas who were snipping at my fingers only hours before. On the final day of this ecotourism excursion, I visited a Yagua community which performed a rendition of their “traditional” culture by wearing grass skirts, teaching tourists how to use a blowgun, and selling locally crafted artisanal products. Before arriving, I asked my tour guide whether these “traditional” practices were still the norm for the Yagua community we would be visiting. He hesitantly conceded that they were not. As we entered the community, I felt uneasy when I saw “Western” clothing drying on clotheslines inside of homes, hidden away from the tourist gaze. While “cultural commodification” was not yet a phrase I routinely used or understood in 2008, what was evident to me was that culture was being sold to tourists, eager to purchase it as a consumer good. I further realized that there was an explicit and performed attempt to obscure the gap between lived realities and the Indigenous fantasies imagined by visiting tourists. Nonetheless, there were many questions I could not answer at the time. Why was this community engaging in performative, cultural tourism for strangers? Did they enjoy it? What was the relationship between the community and the ecotourism agency who brought me there? Did the community receive sufficient benefits? My trip to this Yagua community was the first time I really began to critically question whether being a tourist might cause more harm than good. 8 Story 2 Eight years later, I was again in the Amazon; this time, at an ecolodge in Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park. The Napo Culture Center is owned and operated by the Kichwa Añangu Community. For the second consecutive summer, I was there doing ethnographic research and teaching English.