Primitive and remote

“PRIMITIVE

AND REMOTE”

Hill Tribe Trekking in Thailand The

Hebrew

University

Erik Cohen of Jerusalem, Israel

Abstract: MacCannell’s concept of “staged authenticity” is applied to the study of “alternative tourism.” It is argued that such tourism offers entrepreneurs unsuspected chances to stage covertly the authenticity of attractions, precisely because the commodity they offer is “authenticity.” The staging, however, will consist primarily in the communicative presentation of the attractions, rather than in their substantive manipulation. The argument is examined by way of a content analysis of the advertisements of jungle-companies, offering trekking tours into the hill-tribe area of northern Thailand. The principal components of the hill tribes image, the experience offered to the trekkers, and the nature of the trekking tour itself, arc analyzed in light of independently collected factual data. Therehy, the nature of the subtle staging of the hill tribes and of the trekking tour experience itself is brought to light. Keywords: alternative tourism, touristic image, trekking, tourist advertisements, semiotics, content analysis, authenticity, hill tribes of Thailand. R&urn&: Primitif et lointain: le raid Montagnard en Thailande. On applique le concept de MacCannell de l’authenticite montee H I’itude de “l’autre” tourisme. On soutient que le tourisme peu conventionncl offre aux entrepreneurs des possibilites inattendues de monter de facon voilec l’authenticite des attractions parce que la marchandise qu’ils offrent cst, justement, “l’authenticit?‘. Pourrant, la mise en scene consistera essentiellement dans la presentation communicative des attractions plutdt que dans la manigance concrete. Cet argument cst examine par moyen d’une analyse du contenu de la publicite des organisateurs des voyages dans le jungle qui offrent des raids dans la region des Montagnards du nord de la Thailande. Les elements principaux de l’image des Montagnards, l’exptrience qui est offerte aux participants et la nature mtme du raid sent analyses a la lumiere des donnees qui ont dte rassembltes de facon independante. De cette facon on &vele la nature du montage ingenieux de la vie des Montagnards et de I’experience du raid m&me. Mots cl&: I:autre‘ tourisme, image touristique, raid, publicite touristique, sdmiotique, analysr du contenu, authenticite, Montagnards Thailandais.

THE

ARGUMENT

This cultural

paper demonstrates an ironical consequence reaction to routinized modern mass tourism.

of the counterIt shows how the

Erik Cohen is the George S. Wise professor of Sociology, and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Jerusalem 91905, Israel). He has published extensively in the area of kibbutzim, sociology and anthropology of tourism, folkarts in transition and social change in Thailand. He is currently engaged in a study of the “Hill Tribes of Thailand in Touristic Perspective.” 30

ERIK COHEN

31

quest of “alternative tourists” for the primitive and remote, authentic and unspoilt sites beyond the boundaries of the established touristic circuits, offers local entrepreneurs unsuspected opportunities for a covert and unsuspected “staging of authenticity” (MacCannell 1973). This kind of staging succeeds in “taking-in” the young tourists, despite the fact that their quest for authenticity is on the whole more serious and demanding than that of the ordinary mass tourists, precisely because it presents the sights and tours offered as an alternative to the allegedly contrived attractions of mass tourism. The paper continues a line of analysis begun in some of this writer’s previous work on authenticity (Cohen 1979b, 1979c:26ff, 1988) and on alternative tourism (Cohen 1987). It is also closely related to some recent work on the imagery and semiotics of touristic advertisements and brochures (Adams 1984; Buck 1977; Dilley 1986; Moore 1985:637-g). The empirical material for the paper is derived from a study of the penetration of tourism into the hill tribe area of northern Thailand (Cohen 1979a, 1982a, 1983).

THEORETICAL

FRAMEWORK

In a seminal paper, MacCannell (1973) proposed what later became a pivotal concept for the analysis of contemporary tourism: “staged authenticity.” His argument can be summed up in a nutshell as follows: Modern tourists seek authentic experiences which they hope to find beyond the spatial and temporal boundaries of the inauthentic present of their daily lives, in other times and other places. Their quest for authenticity, however, induces the hosts and particularly the touristic in their endeavor to enhance the entrepreneurs at the destination, attractiveness of the locality and thereby the profitability of their enterThey thereby prises, to “stage the authenticity” of local attractions. construct a contrived “tourist space,” within which the tourist is allegedly caught. From a fully developed tourist space, according to MacCannell, there is no exit. “Tourists make brave sorties out from their hotels hoping, perhaps, for an authentic experience, but their paths can be traced in advance over small increments of what is for them increasingly apparent authenticity offered by tourist settings. Adventuresome tourists progress from stage to stage, always in the public eye, and greeted everywhere by their obliging hosts” (MacCannell 1973:602). MacCannell’s thesis is highly intriguing, and exercised a considerable influence on the study of tourism in the last decade or so. It was, however, formulated on a structural level- the quest for authenticity was perceived by MacCannell as a basic theme in the structure of modern consciousness. For present purposes, however, it has to be qualified, or clarified on both theoretical and empirical grounds. First, not all tourists seem to seek authenticity, or to pursue it to the same degree of intensity (Cohen 1979b, 1988). Many “recreational” (Cohen 197913: 183-5) tourists exhibit a rather playful attitude to the authenticity of the visited attractions (Cohen 1985a). This, secondly, makes it easier for the hosts to stage the authenticity of mass-touristic attractions. Even overt and superficial staging (Cohen 1979c:26-28; Pearce 1982: 100-3) may suffice to create the illusion of authenticity where tourists willingly, and often playfully, cooperate in the game of touristic

32

“PRIMITIVE

AND REMOTE”

make-believe. Finally, at least some individuals who seriously and strenuously seek authenticity, do occasionally succeed in penetrating beyond the limits of the staged tourist space, thereby gaining some “authentic” experiences, in MacCannell’s sense. Among these are some of the “explorer’‘-tourists and drifter-tourists (Cohen 1972: 144-7, 1973), who intentionally avoid “touristic” localities and seek the experience of “untouched” or unspoilt places and spontaneous human contact with local people. The achievement of such experiences is, indeed, the aim of one variant of the contemporary quest for “alternative tourism” (Armanski 1978:90-6; Cohen 1987; Richter 1987). Paradoxically, however, precisely this quest offers touristic entrepreneurs an opportunity for a more subtle and covert form of staging, which capitalizes on the apparent “alternative” character of the attractions offered. Since the analysis of the nature of this type of staging is the principal subject of this paper, the process by which “alternative” destinations become commercialized attractions has first to be briefly reviewed. Enterprising travelers who penetrate new and as yet “unspoilt” areas, frequently become the unsuspected pioneers of the touristic penetration of these areas by less adventurous individuals, who follow in their footsteps (cf. Cohen 1972:175). As the number of tourists in the area grows, they create a demand for services which, in turn, elicits the establishment of rudimentary local tourist enterprises. Such enterprises, operating outside the boundaries of routine touristic circuits, appear to offer authentic alternatives to the “contrived” attractions of mass tourism. However, since such “alternative” enterprises are usually small and relatively easy to establish, their number soon proliferates, quickly outstripping the demand. Hence, a fierce competition develops between these businesses which, owing to the nature of their clientele, focuses less on the quality of their service, than on the authenticity of the attractions which they offer. This competition tends in turn to become the source of a more covert and more insidious form of “staged authenticity” than the one which is typical of the “tourist space” of routine mass tourism. Paradoxically, this development takes place precisely because the principal “commodity” which those enterprises offer is “authenticity” (cf. Buck 1977:200). As they seek to outdo one another in the authenticity of the attractions which each offers, they are induced to stage that authenticity in ingenuous and often not readily recognizable ways. Such staging, however, unlike that of tourist attractions on the mass tourist circuit, does not necessarily involve an actual transformation of the touristic sites. Rather, it may be embodied merely in the manner in which a site is presented and interpreted to the tourists by the guide (cf. Fine and Speer 1985), a type of communication which the author, following Goffman (1974:45ff), called “keying” (Cohen 198513: 16). Such “keying” can be also found in touristic advertisements, including those of enterprises seeking to present themselves as an alternative to routine mass tourism. The kind of staging thereby accomplished will here be called “communicative staging,” to distinguish it from “substantive staging,” which consists of the actual tampering with the site of an attraction, or of the outright creation of contrived attractions. While each substantively staged attraction, in order to be

ERIK COHEN

33

successful, is ordinarily also communicatively staged, the opposite is not necessarily the case. Communicative staging is possible without any substantive staging. This is, indeed, frequently the case in “alternative” tourism. THE

COMMUNICATIVE

STAGING

OF AUTHENTICITY

Tourist brochures, despite their ubiquity (Buck 1977) have only rarely been the subject of systematic research. Buck’s early article ingenuously uses the brochures advertising the Old Order Amish community in Lancaster County, to show how an artificial, staged tourist in Boorstin’s (1964) terminology, is produced space, a pseudo-event and so presented in the brochures as to satisfy the tourists’ craving for the experience of “authentic” Amish life. Buck demonstrates the crispness of the boundaries separating this tourist space from genuine Amish life and argues that the maintenance of these boundaries is a crucial condition for the preservation of the Amish community (Buck 1977: 205-7, 1978). In the A mish case, the brochures are crucial “markers” (MacCannell 1976:110, Moore 1985:640), which aim to convince the tourists of the “authenticity” of the sites they are about to see, although these sites are so obviously substantively staged. The brochures seem to succeed only because most tourists to Amish country are apparently not very serious seekers of authenticity and hence willing to play the game of the touristic make-believe. Adams’ (1984) analysis of touristic brochures advertising the Toraja of Sulawesi (Indonesia) deals with a touristically less developed situation. True enough, there are some substantively staged sites and performances (1984:478-80). But on the whole, the staging of the Toraja is done more by the manner in which they are presentedparticularly their ethnographically unfounded transformation into “Heavenly Kings”than through an actual construction of a staged tourist space. The tourists, who presumably have little background knowledge about the Toraja prior to their trip, are thus easily taken in by the pseudoethnography of the tourist brochures which misrepresent and sensationalize Toraja culture, even though they may well be more serious seekers of authenticity than the visitors to Amish country. While in the case of the Old Amish order, communicative staging is complementary to substantive staging, in the Toraja case communicative staging takes primacy, in a situation in which substantive staging is not very prominent. In the case of hill tribe trekking tourism in northern Thailand, the staging of the tribes is virtually exclusively communicative. In this, indeed, lies its distinctive interest. The advertisement for hill tribe trekking tours produced by small “jungle tour” companies in northern Thailand, relates to a touristically undeveloped situation: In the hill tribe area of northern Thailand there is little, if any, staging of attractions. No substantively staged tourist space, separating the “attractions” from the flow of tribal life, has emerged, except, in a rudimentary form, in one or two of the most frequently visited tribal villages. However, the area is in a process of accelerating change and incorporation into the national society, which

34

“PRIMITIVE

AND REMOTE”

seriously threatens the basis on which “primitive” tribal existence depended. The “work)) demanded from the tourist advertisements of the jungle companies, then, is not to present any substantively staged attractions as real. But rather, through their rhetoric, to convince the authenticity-seeking tourists that the tribal villages they are about to visit are indeed as “primitive and remote” as the tourists expect them to be, despite their progressive incorporation into the Thai national ecological and administrative system. Moreover, the young tourists engaging in jungle trekking are probably more concerned with authenticity than those visiting the Amish and even the Toraja; they seek adventure and “real” excitement on an unconventional tour. The latter thus becomes part of the trekkers’ “authentic” experience. The jungle companies, competing with one another, tend to stage the hill tribes communicatively; but the tours themselves become both substantively and communicatively staged. This state of affairs, however, can be revealed only by a careful analysis of the image of the hill tribes and of the tours themselves, projected by the advertisements against the background of the actual situation in the hill tribes area and the nature of the tours. TREKKING

TOURISM

IN THE

HILL

TRIBE

AREA

In the mountainous areas of northern Thailand live several seminomadic “hill tribes,” numbering about half a million people. These tribes are ethnically, culturally, and linguistically distinct from the lowland northern Thai peasants, as well as from one another. The six largest tribes have been singled out for particular attention by the Thai authorities; these also become the principal attractions of hill tribe tourism. They are the Karen, Hmong (Meo), Mien (Yao), Lahu, Lisu, and Akha (see Lewis and Lewis 1984; McKinnon and Bhruksasri 1983). Most of these tribal groups are further divided into subgroups, usually recognizable by the distinct color of one component of their costume. For example, the subgroups of the Hmong are distinguished by the distinctive color (blue or white) of the women’s batiked skirt. The hill tribe people engage traditionally in swidden (slash-andburn) agriculture on the steep slopes of the northern hills and mountains; and dry, mountain rice is their staple crop. In addition, they grow vegetables, raise pigs and poultry, gather forest-products, and hunt for meat in the jungle. In recent decades, however, opium has become an important cash-crop for several hill tribes. Though isolated on their mountain slopes and ridges, the hill tribes throughout the period of their settlement in Thailand maintained relations with the lowland people, and traded with them through the mediation of itinerant trade partners (e.g., Wongsprasert 1974: 2 18-27). However, despite the fact that they acknowledged the authority of lowland rulers and the suzerainty of the Thai king, they remained until well after the Second World War outside the scope of effective government control. They continued to live in virtually autonomous villagecommunities under local leadership. The growing attention paid by the governmental authorities to the hill tribes, and their efforts to incorporate them into the national com-

ERIK COHEN

35

munity in recent decades, were motivated by the desire to resolve several problems on a national and even international scale, of which the hill tribes were allegedly the cause. First, the tribes were alleged to devastate the northern rain-forests by their swiddening agricultural methods, thus causing environmental degradation, destroying an imand even causing damage to the national portant national resource, water supply (cf. Komkris 1978). Second, with the growing drug problem in the modern West, attention increasingly centered upon the hill tribes as important producers of opium, which is transformed into heroin in jungle factories on the borderlands of the Golden Triangle and then brought to the national and international drug market by Chinese drug dealers. Thailand came under increasing international pressure, mainly on the part of the United States, to restrict and eventually eliminate this opium production. Finally, some tribal people and particularly the Hmong, in the 1960s became involved in a communistinspired insurrection in northern Thailand, an event which drew the attention of the authorities to the need to secure the allegiance of the tribal people to the Thai state. The Thai government initiated a variety of policies to deal with these problems which are not directly relevant to our theme. However, one of the main consequences of these policies was a growing interference of the authorities with tribal life and the progressive economic, social, and political incorporation of the tribal people into the national community. Losing their virtual autonomy of the earlier period, the tribal people came to entertain a lowly and insecure position on the margins of Thai society. The opening up of the hill tribe region proceeded by military, police, and administrative means. Roads were built in sensitive regions, a Border Patrol Police was created to assist, educate, and control the tribal people (cf. Lobe and Morel1 1978:161ff), and programs were put into effect to change their swiddening agricultural techniques, to introduce market crops as substitutes for opium, to control their movement over international borders and settle them in permanent villages, and, lately, to regulate their status as citizens of the Thai state. In those hill tribe villages which became more accessible to the outside world, the “traditional” customs, material culture, and personal attitudes of the tribal people were gradually modified and in some cases considerably changed. However, the changes were not necessarily beneficial for the hill people. In extreme cases, such as that of the Akha (cf. Alting von Geusau 1983:247-8), they were even seriously detrimental, causing, perhaps unintentionally, material impoverishment and cultural decline. Even as the authorities’ efforts to control and incorporate the hill tribes into the national framework proceeded, other developments took place in the hills. Commercial exploitation by lowland entrepreneurs of the forest for timber, and particularly for teak, much of it conducted by illegal poachers, has been accelerated. Demographic pressures in the lowlands caused the progressive penetration of northern Thai peasants, in search of land, into the hills, where they denuded huge tracts of forests to grow their crops. Life in the hills is thus currently in a process

36

“PRIMITIVE

AND REMOTE”

of rapid and accelerating transformation, away from whatever idylic “primitive” conditions may have prevailed in the past. During this very period of accelerated change, from the early 1970s onwards, trekking tourism to hill tribe villages became increasingly popular among youthful visitors to Chiang Mai, the principal city of northern Thailand (Cohen 1983; Dauth 1979; Parker 1978; Willwerth 1986). The trekkers were typically a kind of “alternative” youth tourists, whose interests and traveling style differed markedly from those of routine mass tourists. However, owing to their growing numbers, a separate low-cost local “tourist establishment,” different from but paralleling that of routine mass tourism, emerged in Chiang Mai and, on a more limited scope, in the smaller northern city of Chiang Rai. This consisted of low-cost guest houses, eating-places, and coffee-shops, catering to the particular needs and preferences of this type of travelers. Such travelers sought adventure and unique experiences of “authentic” primitive life. One of them wrote: For the past five months my companion and I had been travelling around Southeast Asia and had as yet to enjoy that “unique experience” of seeing an indigenous people still living their traditional lifestyle, unspoiled by the ravages of tourism (Parker 1978:6). The author claims to have found that “unique experience” on her hill tribe trekking tour. Many young travelers arriving in Chiang Mai were similarly bent to experience “primitive” and “unspoilt” tribal life, and were critical and deeply suspicious of anything that appeared “spoilt” or “touristic.” The director of the Tribal Research Center in Chiang Mai complained to the author about the large number of young tourists who come to ask him where they could find an as yet “untouched” tribal village. However, eager as most young tourists may have been for the “authentic,” only few of these young travelers were prepared physically and psychologically for the hardships and dangers of jungle exploration. Most of them were not intrepid and hardened adventurers. Only a handful of original drifter types (Cohen 1973: 100) came to the author’s attention, who roamed the jungle by themselves, living with tribal people for extended periods of time, and working with them in the fields. Most young travelers who would have liked to experience tribal life, could not do so on their own, however strong their desire for some of the young tourists dis“authentic” experiences. Moreover, played a more playful attitude to the trip, seeking to play the adventurrather than to engage in a serious er or explorer (cf. Cohen 1985a), explorative enterprise of remote jungle villages. Others, again, were less concerned with the experience of authenticity, whether serious or playful, but rather wanted to take a jungle trip for sports, or kicks, especially to taste opium in a hill tribe village. All these young travelers were thus in need of some guidance, protection, and basic services to realize their desires. They constituted a minor, but important, segment of the local tourist market, which spurned the established tourist routes and attractions, but could be attracted by “alternative” tourist enterprises, holding out a promise of adventure and “authentic” experiences.

ERIK

COHEN

37

From the 1970s onward, freelance local guides, and, later on, small jungle-tour companies, whose stalls and offices tended to locate in or around the guest houses and eating places frequented by the young tourists, held out to them the promise of precisely that experience at very low rates. They offered to take them into remote tribal areas north of Chiang Mai, on trekking tours lasting three, five, or more days (Cohen 1983:309-l 1). These companies, with their “jungle guides” (Cohen 1982a), sought to present themselves as an alternative to the routine tourist companies and the “town guides” of mass tourism. Their simple offices and stalls were devoid of any of the trappings of tourist agencies. When one of the more successful jungle companies rented a fancier office, the jungle guides in Chiang Mai opined that young tourists would be afraid to enter there, and it will lose its business. After some time it indeed returned to simpler premises. With few exceptions, the managers and guides of the jungle companies spoke only broken English, and rarely any other European language. They dressed in a simple, rough style, often with trappings from tribal costume. All these tacitly suggested that the jungle companies had a relative advantage over routine mass tourism. They offered authentic destinations and “real” experiences of tribal life, as against the contrived “touristic” attractions offered by the routine tourist agencies. Though the prices which the jungle-companies could charge their “shoe-string” travelers were only a fraction of the price of the tours offered by the tourist agencies, and though their own profits and the income of their guides were low in comparison with those prevailing in the mass tourist establishment, the business of jungle trekking attracted growing numbers of locals. At first, the local entrepreneurs and most of the guides were northern Thais, but gradually a number of the tribesmen also entered the field. The small capital investments needed to start such enterprises and the rather minimal skills necessary to engage in routinized jungle guiding (Cohen 1982a:258), engendered a veritable proliferation of jungle companies in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The life-span of many of these was brief; new companies were started, even as old ones folded up. Existing companies frequently changed owners, and partners split to open independent establishments. Throughout the late 1970s and early 198Os, twenty or more jungle-companies normally operated in Chiang Mai at any one time, and one or two in Chiang Rai. In addition, freelance guides also offered their services to prospective trekkers. The fierce competition between the companies in turn forced them to keep their prices low. The declared prices for given types of tours were almost always identical, although many companies were willing, particularly during the slack season, to offer substantial reductions. However, the principal form of competition between the companies was qualitative. They vied with one another on the uniqueness and attractiveness of the routes and destinations they offered, the adventuresomeness and excitement of the tour itself, and the quality of their services. However, as jungle trekking in northern Thailand increased in scope and gradually gained a worldwide reputation, as allegedly one of the

38

“PRIMITIVE

AND REMOTE”

few remaining opportunities to see “primitive” peoples, a paradoxical situation developed. For, as was noted earlier, in this very period the hill tribes themselves came increasingly under the influence of outside economic, political, and cultural forces, which affected, and in some cases transformed, their “traditional” life. Moreover, tourism (including trekking) itself contributed to that transformation in some tribal settlements, even if its impact appears to have been altogether minor in comparison with that of other factors. The changes taking place in tribal life, however, are often not readily apparent to casual visitors, but can be uncovered only by more profound anthropological or economic research (cf. Cooper 1984; McKinnon and Bhruksasri 1983). The managers and guides of jungle companies could still find hill tribe villages in the northern region of Thailand which externally appeared “unspoilt,” and open them to visits of their authenticity-seeking trekking parties. The trekkers were only to be kept unaware of the deeper ongoing processes of change in the hills, to gain the impression that they indeed had a “unique” experience of visiting “primitive and remote” tribal people. Communicative staging on the part of the jungle companies sufficed for this purpose, and there was no need for any substantive staging. The situation with regard to the trekking tour itself was slightly different. Though many young tourists seek “real” adventure, and are willing “to rough it,” at least some are not necessarily eager or capable to live exactly “like the tribesmen,” even if the treks are so advertised. For example, a German journalist reporting on his jungle trek dwells upon the meager meals of beans and sardines prepared for him by his jungle guide. However, after seeing the unappetizing Akha dishes, consisting of “everything that . . crawls in the jungle:’ he admits that he became grateful to his guide for his meager meals (Dauth 1979:66). Therefore, the jungle companies had to provide the trekkers with some minimal services such as food and lodgings, to make the trek bearable and enjoyable for them (cf. Cohen 1983:315). The trekkers in fact traveled in a “mini-environmental bubble” (Cohen 1972: 171) provided by the jungle company, through its guides and the tribal hosts. However, the jungle companies frequently sought, in their advertisements, to present such services as part of the experience of the tour and not as mere amenities. Moreover, as trekking tourism grew in scope, the initial spontaneity of the visitors’ relations with their tribal hosts soon abated, and processes of routinization and commercialization set in. The goods and services provided by the tribal people to the trekking party had to be paid for by the guides, though prices remained very low (Cohen 1982: 248-9; Willwerth 1986). In the more frequently visited villages, the guides had even to pay for the exhibitions of tribal songs and dances (cf. Dauth 1979:65). The trekking tour itself thus contains some elements of substantive staging, which, however, had to be discreetly covered up by the jungle companies, so as not to disturb the trekkers’ experience of direct contact and participation and not to provoke their suspicions. The jungle companies thus faced a complex situation. They fought to survive, with often minimal financial means, a fierce competition for the youthful segment of the tourist market. They had to provide their

ERIK COHEN

39

clients with the desired experiences in a progressively changing tribal environment. Moreover, they had to make the trek itself appear as a spontaneous adventure, even as they provided the trekkers with a “mini-environmental bubble” in an increasingly commercialized touristic situation. These circumstances induced them to produce, in order to attract potential customers, apparently simple and truthful advertisements, which nevertheless embodied a considerable degree of communicative staging. The jungle companies displayed in front of their offices and stalls hand-written advertisements (Figure l), maps and photos (Figures 2 and 3) detailing, usually in English, the treks offered, and illustrating the sites and attractions to be visited on these trips. Some jungle companies also printed simple flyers advertising the attractions of jungle trekking and detailing the routes of their major tours (Figure 4). A few of these included hand-drawn route-maps (Figure 5). The present analysis of the image of the hill tribes and the trekking tours will be based on these materials. The texts of these advertisements was usually written in English; occasionally, French versions were also prepared. The English is frequently ungrammatical; orthographic and typing mistakes abound; and the text is unsophisticated in comparison with the copy on the brochures and advertisements produced by the mass tourist establishment. The following quotation from a 1981 advertisement provides a good example of faulty language: We’d like to offer you take a trip to the remote and unspoiled rained forest. Visit primitive hill tribes where the breezes from high mountains which surrounding will make you feel freshly and forget ail of your troubles.

It is possible that such language impairs the respectability of the jungle company in the eyes of some prospective customers, but it may enhance a sense of its authenticity. However this may be, some jungle companies did take care, apparently with the help of some friendly foreigner, that their flyers be in faultless English. There also appears to have been considerable borrowing, by newly established companies, of parts of text from advertisements of the older ones. Therefore, marked similarities can be found between the flyers of competing establishments. One

can

discern

three

facets

in

the

advertisements

of

the

jungle

companies: the image of the hill tribes to be visited; the experience offered to the trekker; and the nature of the trekking tour. 77~ Image of the Hill Tribes Come and experience these amazing people. Primitive hill tribe villages that are totally untouched and in their natural surroundings. See their culture and live among them in their timelessness. We will take you into the jungle away from the normal trekking areas, to the world of the black Musur [Lahu] and Karen peoples (from a 1977 advertisement on the fence of a jungle-company’s stall in a guest house in Chiang Mai).

40

“PRIMITIVE

AND REMOTE”

Figure 1. Jungle Tour Advertisement in Jungle Company’s Office (1986).

This advertisement embodies many of the basic components of the image of the hill tribes as presented by the jungle companies. These components need to be systematically analyzed. 1. Authenticity: This cardinal component of the hill tribe image is expressed by several concrete epithets attributed to the tribes in the flyers. l ‘%_&ntic”: Although this is the principal feature of the hill tribes allegedly sought by the young tourists, it is surprisingly little used in the flyers, probably because it is an abstract and intellectual term. Here are some of the few instances of its use: “ . . see Meo tribesmen and women living in . . authentic conditions” (a 1986 ad). “We, hill tribe guides will present you with excellent explanations about our authentic customs . ” (a 1982 ad). Other epithets, however, relate, in less abstract language, to approximately the same semantic field as the epithet “authentic”. l Original: “If you plan to visit original . . tribal villages your dream will become true. . ” (a 1982 ad). l “Real”: “This is a special opportunity to you those who are interested in visiting the real [hill tribe] villages. . ” (a 1979 ad). “ learn to know the real life of those people” (a 1979 ad). “DISCOVER THE REAL ‘GOLDEN TRIANGLE”’ (a 1977 ad). l ‘actual”: ” . study their actual way of life . . ” (a 1977 ad). Moreover, some other characteristics ascribed to the hill tribes conjure up their authenticity, although under different guises; the principal one among these is primitiveness. 2. Primitiveness: This characteristic can be almost seen as the touristic

ERIK COHEN

41

trademark of the hill tribes; it is the one most frequently ascribed to the hill tribes. While the term itself is frequently used in the advertisements, some other epithets also cover approximately the same semantic field. . “Primitive”: “You will see primitive hill tribe people” (a 1979 ad). “ for excellent experience [of] . . primitive hilltribe villages . . ” (a 1978 ad). l “Simple”and “Unsophisticated”: “ . . [we] will bring you to the world of simple-living and an unsophisticated culture of tribal people” (a 1980 ad). One of the jungle companies sought to illustrate the primitiveness and lack of sophistication of the hill tribes by a telling example. “Each tribe or people are difference of custom and culture, some still believed God, Spirit or Ghost” (a 1978 ad).

Figure

2. Map

of Jungle

Trekking

Tours in Jungle

Company’s

Office

(1980).

“PRIMITIVE

42

Figure

3. Map of Trekking

AND REMOTE”

Tours in Jungle

Company’s

Stall (1986).

Naturalness: This is a principal characteristic of the hill tribes, although it is presented obliquely in the flyers. It refers to the environment of the hill tribes, rather than to the people themselves. This characteristic is reflected in two epithets. l “Natural”: “See these people living in their natural environment” (a and women in natural . con1979 ad). “ . see Meo tribesmen ditions” (a 1986 ad). l Harmony with Nature: “Here the various tribes are able to co-exist with nature . . ” (a 1982 ad). The presentation of the hill tribes as authentic, primitive, and natural people is, however, not enough. To make them more attractive to prospective trekkers, some additional appealing characteristics are also emphasized in the advertisements. 4. Kzriety: The cultural differences between the hill tribes are pointed out in the flyers. l Different: “ . . an unforgettable [hill tribe] village because their lifestyle, occupation and costumes are quite different from another

43

ERIK COHEN

hilltribes” (a 1979 ad). “Each tribe or people are difference of custom and culture . ” (a 1978 ad). 5. Colorjiilness: The rich and varied attire of the tribes and subtribes is one of their principal attractions for the trekkers. It is occasionally used in the flyers to entice potential visitors. l “Colorful”: “The ‘Mountain Roads’ . will lead to visit those . . hill tribes in their colorful costumes” (a 1982 ad). 6. Exoticism: Though this is a standard characteristic ascribed to tribal and ethnic people in touristic advertisements, it was, surprisingly enough, not used in the material to describe the hill people themselves.

KAREN Opposite

If you

Suriya

feeling

TRIBAL

Theatre

TREKKING

kotchasarn

Rd.

Chiengmai

a pace....

WC’ d like to offer you take a trip to the remote and unspoiled rained forest. Visit primitive hilltribes where the breezy from high mountain which surrounding will make you feel freshly and‘forget all of your troubles. So follow us now.... 3 Nights First Day

:

4 Days

8.30A.M. Depart from Chiengmai by bus to Ban Maena Chieng dao district at 11.00 A.h‘. (Approximately). Leave our pakage at the headman’ s house, then walk around the village visit their plantation & field. Have lunch at headman’ s house which is the firstmeal included on Tour. After lundi walk up to the mountain about 2 hours. Stay overnight with thal-highlander amongst the mountain and friendly peoples. 7.00 A.M. Rise and shine; After breakfast walk to PANGMAI the walk along steeptrail takes about 3 hours. Relax and have lunch there. After lunch resume climb on the steep mountain takes about 2 hours to Meo Village where the panoramic view of wideland seen from there (About 5,000 feet above sea level). Then, look around the village see their cultural stay ovcright in their cottage,

Third I)ay

:

After breakfast say “Lar-gon” (Good-bye) to Mea Then, walk along the mountain tra;l amongst the nature forest about ; hours. get to PANG HONG where they’ TC mingle between thai & Meo.Have, Lunch, after relax resume walk to Lisu. There, the landscape very beautiful, their village settle behind the highmountain. Spend the last night here. Rise & Shine, After breakfast say “Good-bye” to Lisu, Then walk down which takes the time about 3 hours. to the popular and beautiful cave, Mean while pass the butterfly’s area where a lot of nice butterflies are there. After visiting the cave take the mini-bus to Karen Village, it’ s the last place for our trip. Then take the miniIbus to Chieng dao for waiting the bus back to Chiengmai, arriving about 4.00 P.M.

THINGS

YOU

SHOULD

BRING

b

Good Shoes for walking, Hat, Towel, Soap, Toothpaste

*

Sleeping Eag (During Winter, December-Febuary)

,*

Kaincoat (Dwing Rainy June-October)

*

Some medicine for yourself

NOT INCLUDED

IN

THE

-&- Breakfast si I b

PRICE on the Firstday

Lunch and Dinner on the lastday

Figure 4. Jungle Company’s Flyer (1981).

“PRIMITIVE

-C’ETCIi

Figure

MPP

NCT

5. Map of Trekking

IN

TC

AND REMOTE”

SCLI.E

Tours on Jungle

Company’s

Flyer (1979).

Rather, “exotic” and kindred epithets were ascribed only to the natural setting in which these tribal people live. l “Exotic “: “You’ll enjoy exotic wonders of nature ” (a 1980 ad). l “Spectacular”: “Tour . . some of northern Thailand’s most spectacular jungle country” (a 1979 ad).

ERIK COHEN

45

Further, in an attenuated vein: l “Picturesque”: “You will admire the most picturesque landscape in the northern region of Thailand” (a 1979 ad). 7. Remotemx: The remoteness of the hill tribes, both geographical and cultural, not only from the tourists’ ordinary abode but also from the itineraries of routine touristic circuits was one of the most frequently emphasized characteristics of these people in the flyers advertising the trekking tours. l “Remote”: One of the finest examples of an exaggerated emphasis on this quality is the following quotation: Travel by bus, jeep, horse and on foot (elephant optional) to visit the remote hill tribe villages of far north Thailand more than 300 km north of Chiang Rai (a 1977 ad). The exaggeration becomes obvious once one realizes that the Burmese border, which is not usually crossed by trekking tours, runs merely 30 km north of the city of Chiang Rai. A somewhat more realistic distance is given in the following quotation, emphasizing the same characteristic: “Visit the remote . . tribal villages, more than 200 km north of Chiang Mai near the Burmese border . ” (a 1977 ad). Even here, however, the distance is somewhat overstated. Chiang Mai is located only a little more than 100 km from the Burmese border. This tendency to exaggerate the distance of the hill tribe trekking areas, is even more palpably present in the jungle companies’ maps. Some companies included a hand-sketched map on the flyers advertising their trekking tours or displayed such a map in their offices or stalls in the city. These maps were ostentatiously intended to show and help explain the routes of the company’s principal jungle treks. They also performed, however, another and less explicit function. Consciously or unconsciously, some companies distorted the actual geographical distances on their maps, so as to exaggerate the distance of the destination area from Chiang Mai, as well as the distances between the principal tribal villages within it. Thereby, an impression of much greater remoteness of the hill tribes is created. To demonstrate this argument, one may depart from the standard geographical map of northern Thailand, drawn to scale, on which the major hill tribe areas and destinations of hill-tribe tourism are marked. Some of the jungle tour companies copied this map correctly onto their flyers (Figure 6). The principal trekking areas were located to the north of the Mae Hong Son-Chiang Dao-Phrao-Wiang Pa Pao-Chiang Rai line. In the late 1970s and early 198Os, the most frequently visited trekking area was the “standard jungle tour” area (Cohen 1983:3093 lo), located a few kilometers north of the Mae Kok river, about a third of the river’s length between Tha Ton and Chiang Rai. The hand-drawn maps produced by the jungle-companies show significant deviations from that map. The maps manifest a tendency towards a manner of spatial representation, which one may call “reverse perspective.” In order to explain that term, the concept and ordinary structure of “mental maps” (Gould and White 1974) has to be briefly described. When drawing a map from memory, people generally

46

“PRIMITIVE

AND REMOTE”

w

126

c-__-*--. ,’

--Q

&WE_HONG SON ii !,‘.,

Figure

PA,

‘. .\

..

c

6. Tourist

Map

of Northern

Thailand,

with

Major

Hill

Tribe

Touring

ArCaS.

tend to enlarge out of proportion the area of their immediate environmcnt, and to reduce the scale of representation of other areas, proportionately to their distance from their place of abode (cf. Gould and White 1974:38-43). A map in the office of one of the hotels in Chiang Mai (not a jungle company) illustrates that tendency (Figure 7). Here, a large scale map of Chiang Mai is set in the center of a map of the area of northern Thailand, drawn on a much smaller scale. This structure of mental maps may be called “perspectivistic,” since it resembles the ordinary visual perspective. The maps of the jungle companies, however, are inverted ordinary mental maps. They are drawn in “inverted perspective” from the point of view of the abode of the jungle companies (and the point of departure of jungle tours), namely, the city of Chiang Mai. The area around the city is drawn on the smallest scale, which tends to become progressively larger in the direction of the

ERIK COHEN

47

jungle-company’s trekking areas. The areas themselves are drawn on the largest scale, so that the distances between the individual tribal villages within the trekking areas are exaggerated significantly out of proportion. The principal trekking area in the late 1970s and early 1980s was the “standard jungle tour” area to the north of the Mae Kok river. Indeed, on most of the maps from that period, the size of that river itself and of the area beyond it is significantly exaggerated in comparison with the area between that river and the city of Chiang Mai (see Figures 2 and 5). Figure 2 is particularly interesting in that respect, since it epitomizes the argument regarding “reverse perspective.” All three major trekking areas of this particular jungle company, the first leading from the road to Phrao, the second east of Fang, and the third beyond the Mae Kok river, are all drawn on a vastly enlarged scale. Consequently, the town of Chiang Dao appears almost adjoining the city of Chiang Mai, while it is in fact located halfway from Chiang Mai to Tha Ton (compare to Figure 6). The town of Fang appears half-way from Chiang Mai to Tha Ton, while in fact it is located quite close to that locality. The actually narrow area between the Mae Kok river and the Burmese border appears to extend endlessly to the north. The same area is similarly enlarged out of proportion on the Orbit Tribal Trekking map (Figure 5). The scale of the map in the south-tonorth direction, between Chiang Mai and the Mae Kok river, is hence proportionately reduced. The company, however, has trekking areas in

Figure 7. Map of Chiang Mai and Environs in Office of a Guest House in Chiang Mai (1980).

48

“PRIMITIVE

AND REMOTE”

this region as well. Consequently, the scale of the map is exaggerated in the east-to-west direction, so that this whole region appears much wider than it actually is (compare to Figure 6). Since the trekking routes of the company run in the same direction in this region, the trekking areas themselves, and consequently the distances between the villages in them, are accordingly made to appear bigger, creating an impression of remoteness. A note on the map points out that it is not drawn to scale - and hence cannot be used without the company’s guides. The distortion of scale in this case thus also becomes a security devise which precludes the actual use of the map on the terrain by uninitiated individuals, and not just a ruse to attract prospective trekkers. A distortion of scale in the same direction, east-to-west, although only in the region to the west of Chiang Mai, in which the company offers a trekking tour, also appears in Figure 3. Here, Hod appears much more remote from Mae Sarieng, and Pai from Mae Hong Son, than they actually are (compare to Figure 6). The trekking area of the company thus appears much more remote than it is in fact. Other examples of the same kind could be presented, but those exhibited here suffice to demonstrate the argument regarding the “reverse perspective” characterizing the jungle companies’ maps. 8. Unspoiledness: The remoteness of the hill tribes is supposed to have sheltered them from the influences of the modern world. Hence, according to the flyers, they remained unspoilt. Indeed, the two epithets, “remote and unspoilt” (or “untouched”) appear in conjunction on several flyers. “Unspoilt” is an epithet particularly suited to attract young “alternative” tourists, who abhor everything “touristic.” l “Unspoilt”: “SEE MANY UNSPOILT AND REMOTE HILLTRIBE VILLAGES . ” (a 1977 ad). “ . visit . a newly discovered, unspoilt Meo Hill Tribe Village (40 km from the city [of Chiang Mai])” (a 1986 ad). “0 ne day tribal tour to the unspoilt hill tribe villages” (a 1979 ad). The use of the term “unspoilt” in the above quotations is ambiguous. It may mean, in a wider sense, that the tribal life of these villages has not been changed by outer influences; or, in a narrower sense, that these villages have not been affected by tourism. At least the last two quotations appear to be inaccurate, if “spoilt” is taken in the wider sense, since it is highly dubious that “newly discovered and unspoilt” tribal villages could be found, even in 1979, much less in 1986, in the immediate surroundings of the city. They may thus have a communicative staging affect, whether or not such an effect was intended. l “KrgZnal”: While covering approximately the same semantic field as the preceding epithets in its wider sense, this epithet was attributed to the environment, rather than to the tribal people themselves: “This is a really virgin jungle, the only one left in Thailand” (a 1980 ad). 9. Timelessness: remoteness is not a merely spatial but also a temporal quality (cf. Cohen 1986). The flyers indeed emphasize the timeless or unchanging quality of hill tribe life. l “Timeless”: “See their culture and live among them in their timelessness” (a 1978 ad). l “Unchanging”: “See these people living in their natural environment,

ERIK COHEN

49

virtually unchanged for hundreds of years” (a 1979 ad). “ . . . The various tribes are able to co-exist with nature as much as their forbears lived for hundreds of years” (a 1982 ad). The same characteristic is expressed in a more attenuated manner. “ . . their way of life has changed little in hundreds of years” (a 1977 ad). “ . . . experience their unique way of life that has changed little over time” (a 1981 ad). In view of the manifold forces of change impinging upon the hill tribes from the wider society, such statements are at least misleading, attempting to attribute a “timeless” and “unchanging” quality to people in the midst of a process of historical transformation-even though the actual exterior appearance of the people and their settlements may have changed little. Since the tourist encounters primarily these exterior traits, he may easily become convinced of the timelessness of the tribal way of life which he has had a chance to observe only during a brief visit. l Vaditionar’: This is the epithet routinely ascribed to tribal and ethnic people in advertisements for mass tourism. However, it does not figure prominently in the flyers, probably because stronger epithets are used to describe the hill tribes. A rare instance of its use is: “WE STAY IN TRADITIONAL VILLAGES . . . n (a 1978 ad). However, in an uncommon instance of irony in the flyers, the “traditional” customs of one of the tribes are described as if they were preliguring some characteristic of modern society. “White KAREN is the most modern hill tribe, the children smoke tobaco [sic!] pipe and the young girls wearing a long white clothes [sic!]” (a 1980 ad). A review of the major characteristics ascribed to the hill tribes, as listed above, renders an insight into the particular ways in which whatever staging of the tribes did take place is accomplished by the advertisements. Apparently, no substantively staged attractions were offered, under the guise of “authenticity,” to prospective trekkers. Moreover, many of the characteristics attributed to the tribes to be visited on the trekking tours were also doubtlessly veracious. The villages and the people were “authentic” and “real” enough; the tribes can certainly be classified as “primitive” and their customs as varied and colorful; and they are located in remote and not easily accessible areas. Nonetheless, a subtle communicative staging of the tribes can be discovered in the material presented. This is embodied in three specific features of their image as presented in the advertisements. (a) Selectivity. Only those characteristics of the tribes which have a touristic appeal are mentioned in the advertisements; the current problems and difficulties are generally passed over silently, with very few exceptions. Only one statement to the effect that “Today hill tribe people face the problems that modern influences bring” (a 1986 ad), has been discovered in the materials. (b) Exaggeration. The appealing qualities of the tribes are advertised in an exaggerated manner, especially their remoteness and, possibly, their “unspoiledness.” (c) Misrepresentation. Some of the epithets ascribed to the tribes are certainly misleading, and in some instances even constitute a misrepresentation. This is particularly true of the claim that the tribes are timeless or unchanging, a pair of epithets which runs completely contrary to the current policy of the authorities

50

“PRIMITIVE

AND REMOTE”

to intervene in the life of the tribes, and to the processes tion which this policy has engendered.

of transforma-

The Experience of theJungle l?ek An unusual, adventurous, cultural and discovery trip. For those who love nature and don’t mind to hike in the beautiful countryside. And for those who are interested in the HILLTRIBES of northern Thailand (a 1977 ad). This quotation alludes to most of the qualities of the touristic experience offered by the advertisements to entice prospective trekkers. 1. Adventure: This is the most common quality of the trekking tour stressed in the flyers, probably in response to the perceived desire of young tourists for non-routine experiences. l ‘Adventurous”: “Fine [find] your new life in the country side of Northern Thailand, to have an unusual adventure in your life” (a 1978 ad). “Come to a cultural, adventure trip, by bus, car, boat and on foot” (a 1977 ad). Most emphatically: “A FANTASTIC OPPORTUNITY FOR A GREAT ADVENTURE” (a 1978 ad). 2. Discovery: One of the chief attractions of hill-tribe trekking is that it endows the tourist with the sense of traveling off the beaten track, thereby “discovering” the native world by himself. Some flyers play on this motif. l “Discovery”: “A . . cultural discovery . trip ” (a 1977 ad). “A . culture and discovery trip” (a 1977 ad). 3. Fascination: A few flyers stress the fascinating or thrilling quality of the touristic experience. l “Fascinating”: “The Northern Provinces of Thailand has become very popular for the young travellers who love . . nature, adventure and fascinating various primitive hilltribes” (a 1982 ad). l “Thrilling”: “Want some thrill and adventure?” (a 1977 ad). 4. Interest: Emotionally somewhat less intense than adventure or fascination is the intellectual interest which a visit to the hill tribes will arouse in the trekker. l “‘Interesting”: “The culture of these people is complex and interesting” (a 1978 ad). “[A 5 or 6 day trek] is more difficult walk [than a 3 day trek] but more interesting . ” (a 1978 ad). 5. E?joymmt: A more diffuse quality of the touristic experience, which is frequently suggested in routine mass touristic advertisements, is enjoyment. This, however, is only rarely mentioned in the flyers. l “Enjoy”: “[A 5 or 6 day trek] is . more enjoy [than a shorter trip]” (a 1978 ad). 6. Escape: Finally, another common motif in routine mass tourism, which is also only rarely used in the flyers, is escape. l “Get Away”: “An adventurous ‘get away’ trip . ” (a 1977 ad). Or, feel freshly and forget all of your troubles” (a more obliquely: “ . 1981 ad). The relative absence of the qualities of enjoyment and escape in the advertisements for hill tribe tourism is in itself significant. This kind of

ERIK COHEN

51

tourism is not intended to be merely enjoyable or escapist, but rather to be a worthwhile effort, testing the trekker’s stamina. Its salient point is “getting there,” to the remote hill tribe people, rather than “getting away” from everyday life-which is a major motif of routine mass tourism. The experience offered to the prospective trekkers is thus one that conjures up that of the explorer-it is intended to play on their quest of adventure and excitement, which the tours of routine tourism are allegedly lacking. Since jungle trekking tours, in fact, also became progressively routinized, some communicative, and even substantial, staging of the tour itself was necessary to convince the prospective trekker that he will indeed gain the promised experience. How this has been accomplished will be shown in the next section.

The Nature of the Trekking Tour It is convenient, for purposes of analysis of the nature of the trekking, to distinguish between the roles of the three principal components which constitute that tour, as these emerge from the advertisements: the jungle company, the jungle guides, and the trekkers themselves. Each of these will be discussed separately.

1. Thejungle company. [STT] is the only taking [trekking] company run by tribesmen and speak several tribal languages we go to an area not covered by any other trekking company. On our trek you will visit the homes of our friends and relatives and experience their unique way of life that has changed little over time (a 1981 ad). The jungle companies actively discouraged and fought individual trekking by enterprising individuals. They claimed that such trekkers exposed themselves to dangers and only sought drugs, and were therefore the main source of the troubles caused by tourists in the hills, as well as of the bad reputation which jungle trekking has acquired in the eyes of the authorities. Such discouragement of individual trekking has not been entirely disinterested. It was also motivated by the companies’ desire to monopolize jungle-trekking. Consequently, the jungle-companies strove to present themselves as competent, experienced and reliable enterprises, through whose mediation the problems caused by individual trekking can be avoided. This self-presentation was directed not only to prospective customers, but also to the Thai administrative and touristic authorities, who did not always look upon jungle tourism with a benign eye. While emphasizing their competence and reliability, the jungle companies also sought to distinguish themselves from ordinary touring agencies as well as from one another, by the particular nature and ambience of the tours they were offering. Both of these motifs are central components of the image of the jungle companies and of their guides, as projected by the advertisements. l Competence: Trekking in the jungle is a risky business. Prospective

52

“PRIMITIVE

AND REMOTE”

may be worried by its dangers, or trekkers, though “adventurous:’ afraid that they may not get to the right places or gain the experiences they hoped for. The jungle companies seek to project an image of competence and experience: We are the first and original trekking tour-operator in Chiang Mai Backed by over 5 years of experience (a 1977 ad). OUR [name] TOURS & TRAVEL TIME AGO (a 1986 ad).

[company]

SETTLED

LONG

Since 1972 we organized several excursions for our clients by standard service and honesty therefore we are recommended by tour agencies in Asia and Europe (a 1979 ad). DISCOVER THE REAL ‘GOLDEN TRIANGLE’ WITH ORIGINAL “GOLDEN TRIANGLE EXPERT” (a 1977 ad).

THE

One characteristic which is frequently emphasized as a warrant of the competence of the jungle company, as well as of the authenticity of the trekking experience it offers, is the fact that the company is itself run by tribal people: “We are the only Jungle tour company in Chiang Mai which [is] run by tribesmen” (a 1980 ad). This point will be discussed later. l Uniqueness: The jungle companies stress in their flyers the uniqueness of the trekking tours they offer, in contrast to both routine tourist tours, as well as those offered by their competitors in the field of jungle trekking. Especially

not a touristic area (a 1979 ad).

We will take you into the jungle away from the normal areas, to the world of the hill tribe people (a 1979 ad).

trekking

we would like to introduce a new trail which we have just surveyed recently. This trail, untrodden by other tourists, has never been known to other touring companies (a 1980 ad). WE ARE DIFFERENT. go (a 1979 ad).

We do not trek to areas where other Tours

All of the above advertisements emphasize the uniqueness of the trekking tours, with respect to those offered by other touring and trekking companies to&reign tourists. In at least one instance, this uniqueness is pointed out even with respect to Thai domestic tourism. “Even few Thai people are familiar with MAE HONG SORN Province hidden away amidst rugged jungle clad hills alongside the Burmese border” (a 1982 ad). The trekker to Mae Hong Son is thus given an opportunity to gain an advantage not only over other foreign tourists but also over the natives of the country which he is visiting. One cannot easily check the veracity of the claims to uniqueness of the itineraries offered by the various jungle companies. This would necessitate a detailed check on the number of companies offering each trek at the time at which it has been advertised. As trekking became popular, many jungle companies sought to establish themselves in their

ERIK

COHEN

53

“own” trekking areas, over which they have claimed a kind of monopoly (Cohen 1983:311). Their offer was thus at least initially “unique,” in the literal sense, in that only this company trekked in that particular area. To the extent to which other companies infringed upon its area, this uniqueness was diminished. However, the company which proudly announced in capital letters “We are different,” in fact offered a tour of the standard trekking area beyond the Mae Kok river, to which the majority of jungle companies at that time used to take their trekkers on a “three days two nights” trek (Cohen 1983:309-10). In this instance, the claim to uniqueness is incorrect and misleading. This, then, is a verilied case of communicative staging of the tour by a company. 2. Thejungle guides. The “jungle guides” (Cohen 1982a) are an occupational subgroup whose appearance, conduct, and values have been formed in contrast to the more urbane and conventional “town guides,” who conduct routine tourist excursions in and around Chiang Mai. The most important functions of the jungle guides are the “instrumental” onesguiding the trekkers in the jungle, and mediating between them and the hill people at the destinations. However, they also perform an important communicative function in that they provide the trekkers with some -often rather rudimentary - information about the tribal people. They also care for the morale of the trekking party and the needs and desires of its members. As jungle trekking became routinized, the itineraries fixed, and the tribal hosts used to their foreign visitors (Cohen 1982a:258-9), these latter functions increased in importance relative to the former ones. The flyers generally emphasize the competence and experience of the guides in jungle trekking: “[We have guides] who have long EXPERIENCE with these tribes” (a 1977 ad). However, the guides’ competence and experience are not presented as merely professional qualifications. Rather, they tend to be integrated into an image of the guide as an authentic component of the trekking experience. Many companies point out that their guides are themselves tribal people, a fact which is meant to warrant the authenticity of their knowledge of the tribal people, as well as their competence in guiding the trekkers and communicating with the tribal people. Tribal guides are presented as being uniquely placed to explain “their own” customs to the trekkers: “We, Hill Tribe guides will present you with excellent explanations about our authentic customs, culture and way of life” (a 1982 ad). This claim to an authentic knowledge about the tribes, warranted by the guides’ origins, is one of the principal means of communicative staging in hill tribe tourism. As it turned out, many of the tribal guides have left the tribal environment a long time ago, know little about the tribes, and often offer only superficial or even erroneous explanations about tribal life and customs. The flyers stress both the knowledge and linguistic competence of the jungle guides. All our guides are hill tribe people dialects and customs (a 1986 ad).

with excellent

knowledge

of tribe

54

“PRIMITIVE

AND REMOTE”

We are only the Jungle tour company in Chiang Mai which run by tribesmen. So we can speak their languages (a 1980 ad). Even guides who are not of tribal origin are said to possess a privileged knowledge of the tribes, having “lived among those people” (a 1979 ad) and to be able to talk with them in their own languages. Moreover, the guides are also presented as good communicators, since, besides their competence in tribal languages, they are also competent in English. We have guides who have long EXPERIENCE speaking tribal dialects (AS WELL AS ENGLISH) (a 1977 ad). English and Tribal dialect Speaking Our guides are experienced, 1983 ad).

in

Tribal Guides (a 1984 ad).

speaking English and tribal dialects (a

The author’s own observations suggest a somewhat different picture of the guides’ linguistic capabilities: Only few guides had any thorough communicative ability in several tribal “dialects” (which are, in fact, separate languages). Many guides used northern Thai (a language which is only poorly understood in outlying tribal areas), rather than a “tribal dialect,” in their contact with the hill people. Here again one finds an element of communicative staging, with which the companies could easily get away, since the tourists were generally unable to tell northern Thai from a hill tribe language. On the contrary, the trekkers were frequently dissatisfied with the very limited competence of many of the jungle guides in the English languagewhich was one of the principal complaints about the jungle tours. In some instances, the guides are made to appear as representatives of the tribal people to be visited on the trek, and not merely as mediators between them and the trekkers. “We would like you to come with us to see our people, houses, customs and living of each tribe . We will [be] willing to tell you as much as we can. O.K. [?I” (a 1980 ad). Even if the guides are sometimes presented as they are not of tribal origin, “Our Tour Guides are . well come “friends” of the hill people. friends of the hill tribe people” (a 1979 ad). Such a presentation involves a subtle form of communicative staging, since the prospective trekker is made to gain the impression that he is going to be a “real” guest rather than a “mere” tourist in the tribal destinations. As a matter of fact, even though the guides in the very early stages of hill tribe tourism did use their friendships with tribal people to gain access for themselves and their trekking parties to the villages (Cohen 1982a:246-7), the tribal people soon realized the naand hospitality became quickly commerture of the guides’ business, cialized. Presently, all services in the tribal villages are routinely paid for by the guides. But the most striking feature of the image of the jungle guides pro,jected by the flyers is the emphasis on their distinct personality, which serves to distinguish them from the routinized and polished “tour guides.” The jungle guides, thus, become an “authentic” experience in

ERIK

55

COHEN

themselves. “We have a TERRIFIC guide . . ” (a 1977 ad). “[The jungle company is] managed by Mr. M. and his terrific and phantastic guides” (a 1977 ad). These quotations stress the almost charismatic qualities of the jungle guides. Some of the early guides were indeed rugged individuals and colorful personalities, who served as models for the formation of the jungle guides’ occupational identity and acquired a considerable personal reputation (Cohen 1982a:282). As jungle guiding became routinized, however, and the degree of competence necessary for guiding trekkers in the jungle was correspondingly reduced, newcomers with little knowledge and experience entered the occupation. These frequently tended to impress the tourists by their personal appearance and demeanor, but lacked the substantive qualities of the early jungle guides. The flyers also emphasize the personalized nature of the relationships which the guides tend to establish with their guests, and the care which they will take of the latter’s needs and desires. The guides are described as “friendly,” and such as “will always serve your needs” (a 1978 ad) or “always look for your comfort and satisfaction” (a 1977 ad). Here, too, a subtle element of communicative staging is involved. Some guides, especially when they are new to the occupation, so that meeting foreigners is still a novelty for them, may take a genuine interest in their guests. However, with time they tend to evolve a kind of staged personalism which can also be found in other situations of localtourist encounter in Thailand. Here material gain is predicated upon a personal rapport with the client, such as it is in “open-ended” prostitution (Cohen 1982b:415-6). S ince the guide’s success and income depend to a signilicant extent on his reputation acquired by word of mouth (Cohen 1982a:253) a good personal rapport with members of his trekking party is crucial for his survival in this competitive occupation. He thus routinely “stages” personal friendliness and interest in his clients. 3. The trekker. One way of deepening the sense of authenticity of the tourist’s experience is to enable him to go beyond the merely vicarious observation of the hosts’ life, to let him actually taste that life and take part in it. The prospective trekkers are invited, in the flyers, to: “See the tribesmen in their everyday environment. Live as they do . ” (a 1977 ad); to “Visit and live with ‘HILLTRIBE VILLAGERS”’ (a 1977 ad); and to “See thier [sic!] culture and live among them” (a 1979 ad). Or, in an even more convincing manner, since it appears to derive from the very nature of the trek, they are told, that on the trek: “We must do like people [i.e. the hill tribes] do, eat, sleep and living” (a 1978 ad). More specifically, the trekkers are promised an opportunity to participate in some particular area of tribal life- especially in dancing, singing or music-making: You may join with the young [Akha] boys, who come together at the ‘Village Courting dancing (a 1979 ad).

young girls and children Place’ for singing and

“PRIMITIVE

56

Usually at night music, one can join join at camping

AND REMOTE”

time the young people them (a 1977 ad).

the hill tribe (a 1982 ad).

native

people

[in the Lisu

dance

in their

Village]

traditional

play steps

While in some Akha villages the natives, especially young women, do indeed tend to meet at night spontaneously for singing sessions, in the Lisu village mentioned above (Lisu Lao Tha), which was for many years the most frequently visited hill tribe village in the standard trekking area (Cohen 1979a:20-26), the dancing was performed expressly for the tourists, and paid for surreptitiously by the guides. The tourists, however, were told that it is a “practice” for the younger children who have to learn the steps of Lisu dances. Such situations thus involve both communicative as well as substantial staging on the part of the jungle company. A similar state of affairs is found in the area of personal services which the trekkers receive on the tour, particularly food. Rather than as a mere amenity, adjunct to the tour, food is advertised as part of the authentic experience of the trek. “In the evening we will have dinner of especially prepared hill tribe cuisine” (no date). “In the evening have a Tribal Dinner . . ” (a 1979 ad). In fact, h owever, the trekkers are not ordinarily offered tribal food, and it is doubtful-as can be seen from the above quotation from Dauth - that many would enjoy it or even be willing to eat it. If fact, the food is an essential part of the “minienvironmental bubble” provided by the jungle-company. The guide normally buys the provisions for the tour in Chiang Mai. He, rather than the tribal villagers, prepares the meals for the trekkers, buying only some cooked mountain rice from the tribal household in which the party is lodged. The food so prepared is usually a simple variety of northern Thai food, but not as hot and spicy as eaten by the Thais. It is never tribal food, even though it may be presented as such to the trekkers. While the advertisements quoted above simply mislabel the food prepared by the guide as “tribal,” other advertisements spectacularize the meals to a much higher extent, in a language resembling that of advertisements for mass tourism:

(a i979

you will enjoy ad).

our ‘Jungle

dinner”

which

you will never

forget

walk to a mountain stream where a “Jungle lunch” will be prepared, using only natural materials, so [you] may learn something on how one may survive in the jungle (a 1979 ad). Have a Sunset Meal, tribal tea Lightning” (the tribal whisky) etc

and

a chance

to sample

“White

” (a 1979 ad).

In all these advertisements fancy names are given to the meals, which are thereby communicatively staged as another attraction of the trekking tour, even when no substantive staging is involved. The “Jungle Lunch” may well be prepared from natural materials, although it will hardly teach the trekkers “how one may survive in the jungle.” The

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tribal hosts indeed sometimes offer home-brewed rice-brandy to their visitors (called in the advertisement “tribal whisky”), though “White Lightning” is probably a fanciful nickname given to that drink by one of the tourists. Not all advertisements, however, turn the meals on the trek into exotic attractions. Some in fact do the opposite; they advertise the meals as a familiar but enjoyable amenity, catering to the tastes of the youthful clientele. “ . visit various tribal villages and spend the night with them or camp-fire with Ba.B.Q [barbeque] meals” (a 1982 ad). Or, in a similar vein: “ . GREAT FOOD . . “(a 1978 ad). Such an emphasis on the familiar, in one of the areas crucial for the trekkers’ well-being and comfort, may serve to countervail or modify the impression of extreme strangeness, which the other components of the advertisements tend to provoke in the prospective customer. This provision of the familiar is expressed in a more diffuse sense in the concept of “service,” which is also occasionally advertised in the service . . ” (a 1983 ad). “ . . service next to flyers: “ . . standard none” (a 1977 ad). “ . you can be sure that we and our travel service are ‘second to none”’ (a 1977 ad). Further, in an incongruent addendum in German on an otherwise English flyer: “Besser ist Gunstiger” (a 1979 ad) [i.e., “The better is more favorable”], a slogan which was probably copied from a German commercial ad on the suggestion of a friendly trekker. With the last few quotations one reaches the point at which the language of advertisements for “alternative” jungle tourism resembles that of advertisements for routine mass tourism even though it is certainly less polished than the latter and refers to substantively much less staged touristic situations. SUMMARY

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CONCLUSIONS

Routine mass tourism is generally seen as presenting the tourist with attractions, the authenticity of which is staged. While mass tourism thus appears to be caught in an artificial “tourist space,” “alternative” tourism seems to hold forth the promise of enabling the individual to visit “authentic” places and meet “real” people. Such experiences can in fact be achieved by individual travelers on unconventional trips “off the beaten track.” However, as “alternative” tourism becomes popular, it offers commercial opportunities for enterprising locals, who seek to cash in on the alleged authenticity of the attractions which they offer. The fact that mass tourist attractions are seen by many as overtly staged and inauthentic, opens to these local entrepreneurs a chance for a more subtle, covert and insiduous form of staging. This is precisely because the customers believe that the “alternative” tourist establishment will provide them with the very authenticity which they miss in the contrived attractions of routine mass tourism. In this paper, the kind and manner of staging the authenticity of the attractions of one form of alternative tourism has been examined; namely, that perpetrated by jungle companies in their advertisements for hill tribe trekking tours in northern Thailand. These companies provide cheap and rough treks to destinations ‘off the beaten track,” and

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away from the hill tribe villages visited by tours of the routine touring agencies. They thus appear to provide a genuine alternative to mass tourism. However, as the above detailed examination of their advertisements has demonstrated, these companies nevertheless accomplish a significant amount of staging, even if this is of a different kind than that characteristic of routine mass tourist enterprises. It consists primarily of communicative staging (i.e., a “keyed” presentation of the hill tribes), rather than of a substantive staging of the tribal attractions. However, since the trekking tour itself is considered to be part of the experience, it is also staged to a significant degree. Indeed, it was mainly in the tour itself that some substantive, in addition to merely communicative, staging has been found. Several reasons were identified for the kind of staging discovered in jungle trekking tourism and the precise manner in which it was accomplished. The principal attractions of the jungle companies, and the only sphere in which they enjoyed a relative advantage over the enterprises of routine tourism, was the alleged authenticity of the destinations which they offer. However, jungle trekking in northern Thailand has developed commercially precisely at a time when lowland political, economic, and cultural influences on the hill people rapidly intensified, gradually transforming their way of life. Moreover, the multiplication of tourist visits, while not necessarily of such a pervasive impact, nonetheless changed the nature of the relations between the tribal people and the trekking parties. These soon became less spontaneous and more commercialized than they had been at the outset. The young tourists, in turn, while intent on having an “adventure,” and willing to “rough it,” were not necessarily physically or psychologically prepared to withstand the strains of travel and life in a strange, hot, and humid jungle environment. Finally, their profit-margin being low, and their number great, the jungle companies were forced to compete fiercely for prospective customers-in the process seeking to outdo one another in the attractiveness of the sights and tours which they offered. It is this configuration of factors which induced the jungle companies to introduce a degree of communicative staging into their advertisements for the tribal sights, as well as some substantive staging into the conduct of the tours themselves. Since it presents itself as a form of “alternative” tourism, jungle trekking has an advantage over routine mass tourism. Its ostentatiously alternative character largely exempts it from the kind of “staging suspicion” (Cohen 1979c:26-8) which is commonly found among tourists regarding the attractions of routine tourism. However, the young tourists who constitute the market for this kind of tourism are also more eager for “authenticity” and more critical than ordinary mass tourists. Hence, whatever staging is perpetuated has to be done subtly and discreetly, so as not to rouse the prospective trekkers’ suspicions. The communicative staging of the hill tribes is ideal in this respect. It does not tamper with the tribal life and environment, but merely with their presentation to the trekkers. The latter are not in a position to discover the nature of that staging, since they are generally unaware of the wider political, economic, and social processes which are presently transforming the life of the tribal people.

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However, in order to preserve its appeal and feasibility, the trekking tour itself had to be not only communicatively but also in some respects substantively staged-without thereby impairing the trekkers’ sense of direct and spontaneous experience. The fairly routine tour is transformed into an “adventurous” and “unique” affair. The trekker is led to believe that he is not only an observer but also a participant in tribal life, while in fact he moves within a “mini-environmental bubble” provided by the tourist establishment. The food which he is served is not “tribal” as advertised, even if it is also not ordinary tourist fare. The tribal hosts in whose houses he stays are paid by the guide for their hospitality. The traveler is led to believe that he could participate in spontaneous tribal dancing and singing, when in fact tribal dances tend to be performed for a fee-though by “authentic” tribal dancers. Finalfrom the well-bred “townly, even the jungle guides, while different guides,” are often “playing the native” and seeking to establish personal rapport as a means to further their reputation, and thus, their business. Despite all the staging which takes place, however, jungle trekking tours still do not become a mere “disadventured adventure” (Spiegel 1972:33-4), found in routine mass tourism. The dangers of jungle trekking remain real enough and the sites visited are far beyond those ever reached by motorized tourist excursions. The sites in trekking tourism are, despite everything, still much more “authentic” than those of routine mass tourism. Therefore, one fails to discover in the advertisements of the jungle companies such an excessive emphasis on “markers” (MacCannell 1976: 110-l 1; Moore 1985:640-l) as is usually found in the advertisements for the less authentic attractions of mass tourism (compare Britton 1979:320-3). The one exception in the material in fact confirms the rule. The meals prepared for the trekkers on the tour, far from being authentic tribal fare, have been given fanciful appellations in the advertisements, misrepresenting them as “tribal” or “jungle” food. It is here, indeed, that the language of the companies’ advertisements came closest to that of the advertisements for routine mass tourism-the fanciful markers covering up the inauthentic nature of the culinary treat. 00 Acknowledgements- This paper is based on data collected in a study of the penetration of tourism into the hill tribe region of northern Thailand, conducted during the summers of the years 1977-1980 under grants from the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University ofJerusalem, and, for 1979, from Stiftung Volkswagenwerk. whose support is hereby gratefully acknowledged. Thanks are also due to the National Research Council Of’Thailand’and the Tribal Research Center in Chiang Mai for their kind assistance during fieldwork. Additional information for this paper was collected in the period of 1981-86, while working on other research projects in Thailand.

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