TY - JOUR

T1 - The new mimics? Cross-cultural learning Salvador da Bahia, Brazil

AU - Eisentraut, J.E.

AU - Eisentraut, J.

N1 - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Cultural Geography on 16th August 2015, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08873631.2015.1056405

PY - 2015/8/16

Y1 - 2015/8/16

N2 - The city of Salvador da Bahia, Brazil attracts considerable numbers of visitors who spend time there in order to participate in local cultural practices, particularly percussion music, capoeira and African–Brazilian dance. This paper investigates the extent of their engagement with those practices and with the wider cultural context. It was found that such participatory cross-cultural learning, adoption and travel can be split into categories and differs markedly from conventional tourism. Theorisations of cultural interaction have frequently concentrated on colonialism or migration, where acculturation is a by-product of political, economic and even military shifts. The concept of “mimicry” as used in postcolonial theory is evoked here and considered in relation to the processes studied. One of the main differences is that the subjects voluntarily expose themselves to a measure of culture shock. Furthermore, the adoption takes place against the predominant global flow of cultural influence from the “West” to the rest. Apart from certain factors which make Bahian culture accessible and attractive, motivating factors for this voluntary movement and orientation are the perception of particular aspects of that culture as “authentic other”, as well as a weakened attachment to place, specifically to Western community and cultural origins.

AB - The city of Salvador da Bahia, Brazil attracts considerable numbers of visitors who spend time there in order to participate in local cultural practices, particularly percussion music, capoeira and African–Brazilian dance. This paper investigates the extent of their engagement with those practices and with the wider cultural context. It was found that such participatory cross-cultural learning, adoption and travel can be split into categories and differs markedly from conventional tourism. Theorisations of cultural interaction have frequently concentrated on colonialism or migration, where acculturation is a by-product of political, economic and even military shifts. The concept of “mimicry” as used in postcolonial theory is evoked here and considered in relation to the processes studied. One of the main differences is that the subjects voluntarily expose themselves to a measure of culture shock. Furthermore, the adoption takes place against the predominant global flow of cultural influence from the “West” to the rest. Apart from certain factors which make Bahian culture accessible and attractive, motivating factors for this voluntary movement and orientation are the perception of particular aspects of that culture as “authentic other”, as well as a weakened attachment to place, specifically to Western community and cultural origins.

U2 - 10.1080/08873631.2015.1056405

DO - 10.1080/08873631.2015.1056405

M3 - Article

JO - Journal of Cultural Geography

JF - Journal of Cultural Geography

SN - 0887-3631

ER -