Abstract

KORSTANJE, Maximiliano E. Mythology and Tourism: The Exegesis as Hermeneutic Interpretation. Estud. perspect. tur. [online]. 2011, vol.20, n.6, pp.1258-1280. ISSN 1851-1732.

Human beings and their societies not only build the social institutions based on the facts but also on the meaning these facts are being interpreted. The process of mythopoiesis is one of the key factors to expand the existent understanding of how the social institutions work. Even though in last years the linkage between tourism and anthropology has been revitalized, there is a gap of theories and studies that have been excluded from the tourism-related research. In this conjuncture, the present conceptual paper explores the importance of using the exegetic method not only to understand the ordinary people behaviour but the current practices in the field-work. Basically, our main thesis here is that tourism is a construction of Europeanism centered on the influence of fourth mythologies, oddly Norse, Greek-Roman, Celtic and Judaic-Christian.  This topic undoubtedly has been ignored by a whole of academy and anthropologists concerned by tourist-related issues.

Keywords : Tourism; Europeanism; Mythologies; Displacement; Mobility.