Abstract
Much primitivist tourism is based on the gap between the ahistorical wild Other and the modern civilized Self (Stasch, 2014). In this chapter, we focus on what we see as an emergent practice of (neo-colonial) visual consumption: filmic representations by tourists and semi-professional travellers of their visits to 'primitive' places, which they subsequently post on social media. As case studies, we have selected two YouTubevideos on Ethiopia's Mursi that are, despite obvious differences, similar enough to allow for a systematic comparison. In choosing the Mursi, often presented as an extreme example of cultural alterity because of their characteristic lip plates, we continue where the provocative documentary Framing the Other (Kok & Timmers, 2011), which had its focus on Dutch tourists visiting the Mursi, left off. The authors' main goal is to understand the contemporary nature of cultural consumption and production and, in their wake, the power differentials underlying this growing virtual domain of representations. Using theory and analytical approaches from both cultural studies and anthropology, we look at historical tropes employed to frame self and other, and consider the possible consequences, ethical and otherwise, of this type of mediatization of tourist encounters.
