Shauna LaTosky [Max-Planck-Institut für ethnologische Forschung, Halle/Saale]

Orientalisches Institut (OI) und Zentrum für Interdisziplinäre Regionalstudien (ZIRS) der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Gefördert durch die Johann-Wilhelm-Fück-Stiftung am OI und das ZIRS
Melanchthonianum
Hörsaal B
Universitätsplatz 8/9
06108 Halle

In many peripheral areas of Southern Ethiopia local communities are affected by mass tourism and do not share equitably in the benefits of tourism revenue. While such benefits should include local employment opportunities and be used to improve local infrastructure, the profitability of tourism revenue is often jeopardized because public budgets rarely allow adequate resources for up-keep and management of National Parks and local communities are still excluded from the tourism sector. One community that has yet to become a beneficiary of tourism in their area is the Mursi (Mun), who have achieved an almost iconic status in Ethiopia thanks to the exotic ways in which tour agencies, brochures, and newspaper articles promote them. I explore the potential for more respectful communication and equitable relationships with the Mursi, as experienced first-hand while directing a research project at the South Omo Research Center in South Omo (2011-2013) on socially-sustainable and equitable tourism in South Omo Zone. Such close encounters with a more equitable kind of tourism provide a useful model of the type of tourism that most Mursi would like to see and most tourists would prefer to experience when visiting Southern Ethiopia.

Shauna LATOSKY is a post-doctoral researcher at Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle (Saale). She was the Director of the South Omo Research Center (Jinka, Ethiopia) from 2011-2013. Her research interests include: Mursi Studies (Ethiopia), life history, narratives, gender and dress, marriage and kinship, conflict and identity, rhetoric culture theory, and contemporary pastoralist issues.