Lesson Learned

By: Jess Johnson

Chambers’ Book, Native Tours: The Anthropology of Travel and Tourism, like most other books, has an introduction before the actual story begins. The book then goes into the first chapter that starts talking about the anthropology of tourism through a metaphor of terminals. Chambers uses the idea of a terminal, whether it be a bus stop or airport terminal, and relates it to how tourist spots are also “ambiguous environments that are shaped to accommodate multitudes of transitions and displacements” (Chambers, p. 8). While Chambers makes a good and valid observation, I learned more reading through the opening of the introduction than the beginning of the first chapter.

The introduction opens with a quote from an eighteenth-century scholar and writer Josiah Tucker. Tucker explains five reasons why people travel: curiosity, inspiration, reputation, popularity, and knowledge. I don’t disagree with any of his five explanations. I actually find each interesting, and that is what led me to continue reading. The further I read, the more information I learned. For example, Chambers’ book title, The Anthropology of Travel and Tourism, is almost misleading according to his introduction. He explains the basic anthropological view on tourism but also states how this view can be misinformation or even historically bias. Overall, the introduction opens the mind to learning what the rest of the book has to teach. While Chambers’ first chapter is also a good read, I think he takes too long to make his first point. It’s a page and a half before we get to how terminals relate to the idea of tourism, and by then I’m confused. I like the story and I like how it connects, I just didn’t learn as much as fast through the chapter opening.