牧畜民サンブルの「フェイク」と「オリジナル」--「観光の文脈」の誕生 (特集 地域研究の前線)

Abstract

The coastal region of the Republic of Kenya, including Mombasa, the second largest city of the country, is one of the foremost tourist resorts in the African continent. The blue Indian Ocean and white sand beaches attract as many as one million tourists per year, mainly from European countries. Young unmarried Samburu males, called "warriors, " come to this resort area as migrant workers from their semi-arid home region 800 kilometers away to make money by selling their beadsworks as souvenirs and showing their dance as a tourist attraction. The Samburu, one of the Maa-speaking groups who share their language and culture with the renowned Maasai, appeal to tourists with the exoticism of their "traditional" and "primitive" images. "Warriors" whose bodies are decorated with elaborate beaded adornments are especially eyecatching and feature in many postcards and on the front cover of tourist pamphlets. In this paper, I focus on the Samburu warriors' experiences through their dances and adornments. In the tourism context, their dances and adornments have changed visibly and invisibly. By clarifying such differences, I discuss how their experiences of conceiving the "new" and the "original" relate to their identity and cultural changes.