Cyril Isnart

Tourism and transformation: negotiating metaphors, experiencing change

The article introduces this special issue on tourism and transformation. After offering a brief review of the place and significance of ‘transformation’ in social sciences studies of tourism – from ‘impact studies’ to ethnographies of tourists and, more recently, ‘tourist media studies’ – we propose to take one step further and focus our attention on the performativity and reflexivity of ‘transformation’. Our main argument is that much may be gained analytically by considering how notions and experiences of transformation are addressed, negotiated and purposefully deployed in tourism contexts. We conclude with an outline of each of the contributions to this special issue, stressing that the collection re-opens the issue of transformation in tourism and provides new insights into how experiences-turned-metaphors and metaphors-turned-experiences influence both the travel experience and the development of theory.

“Savages Who Speak French”: Folklore, Primitivism and Morals in Robert Hertz

Hertz’s analysis of the Alpine cult of Saint Besse apparently marks a break from his studies of death, sin and the left to folkloric studies. This analysis helps one to understand the personality of Robert Hertz. His sociological curiosity about folklore reveals his ambiguous position in social sciences at the beginning of the twentieth century. His text appears to be a variation from the Durkheimian norm, but another reading could suggest that Hertz continued and went beyond Durkheimian thought to something between sociology of the modern world and engaged socialism. Through this study, Hertz linked his political ideals, his work in ethnology and his desire for social involvement. The cult of Saint Besse perpetuated as much religious tradition as local identity. The Alpine people were presented in the text as wilful perpetuators of an ideal social order, whose loss for his contemporary city dwellers Hertz feared. The alpine Other, marked by a material and moral backwardness, represented for activist and socialist Hertz one of the paths of balanced social organization that stabilized the identity of a group across time if it fit rather well into the folkloric stereotypes of the beginning of the twentieth century. Finally, by linking events in Herz’s life (e.g., the accidental Alpine death of his father), this article suggests that the legend of Saint Besse embodied several recurring motifs in Hertz’ career: the accidental deaths of saint and father by falls, the military role of the saint and of Hertz himself.

Changing the face of Catholicism in a tourist context: heritage care, ritual dynamics, and the rhetoric of transformation of a religious minority in Greece

In Rhodes, the capital of the Greek Dodecanese archipelago, one thousand or so Roman Catholic people are currently settled and deal with the Orthodox Church and with one million tourists during the summer. One of the principal activities of the local priest is to enhance the role played by the Catholic Church in this complicated and negotiated public life. In developing a heritage activity and adapting the liturgy to the tourists, he is also demanding recognition for the work that he is doing to change the image of this religious minority. This paper situates the Catholic communitys pragmatic programme within the tourist context of Rhodes. It provides a description of material and conceptual transformations of Catholic memories and places and of the ritual patterns used in engaging with tourists. The aim of the paper is to show how the priest and his closest staff adopt the rhetoric of tourist change and how the changing local context is paradoxically inscribed within an explicit formulation of continuity. The island of Rhodes constitutes a perfect site to reveal the local Catholic Church as part of the wider process of transformation that has taken place on the island.

The mayor, the ancestors and the chapel: clientelism, emotion and heritagisation in southern France

In the political organisation of the villages of southern France, the mayor is one of the most important elements of the clientelist system. He builds an affective link with local people, through his knowledge of collective history and local identity. In this context, heritage is used by politicians as a legitimate tool of local power, especially during the official speeches of the patron saint festivals. In what way does the heritage discourse contribute to the empowerment of the mayor? How does the political speech link the affective dimension of the mayor–people relationship with the heritage discourse? Based on fieldwork in a border village between France and Italy, I analyse the relations connecting individual political power, public heritage policies and affective patterns of clientelism.