“Traditional Mexican Midwifery” tourism excludes indigenous “others” and threatens sustainability

Abstract

Drawn by the allure of “ancient cultures,” tourists inadvertently consume deauthenticated indigenous practices, including ethnomedical traditions such as midwifery. This is especially true in the case of “Traditional Mexican Midwifery” since stark differences exist between how midwifery practices unfold in indigenous contexts and how they are represented to global tourists. “Traditional Mexican Midwifery” tourism is a unique lens for examining some of the underlying, intersectional issues threatening “sustainability” in ethnomedical tourism. When nonindigenous individuals position themselves as representatives of “Traditional Mexican Midwifery” and indigenous midwives are excluded from profit chains, this type of tourism not only fails to meet the needs of the indigenous people it fetishizes, it actually excludes them from the equation entirely. While overt prejudice and racial discrimination of the colonial era no longer exist, neocolonial tourism in the form of “Traditional Mexican Midwifery” tourism subtly reinforces romanticized stereotypes of the indigenous “Other.” Ethnographic examples, gleaned from multi-sited research in Mexico and Brazil, demonstrate the usefulness of “Traditional Mexican Midwifery” for critiquing existing misapplications of responsible tourism and proposing more sustainable futures. Tourism can be an indigenous process (in which local residents both motivate and reap the benefits of tourism), or it can serve a neocolonial agenda (in which tourism development and profits unequitably favor transnational elites). Current forms of “Traditional Mexican Midwifery” tourism are unsustainable due to intersectional exclusion of indigenous women based on race, class, and gender. To dismantle intersectional inequality in “Traditional Mexican Midwifery,” coordinated efforts by Mexican Secretary of Health’s Traditional Medicine and Intercultural Development (TMID), Mexican Midwifery Association, and critical tourism scholars and activists are required.

摘要

游客们被”古老文化”的魅力所吸引, 不经意间消费了一些不被认可的本土习俗, 包括诸如接生婆之类的民族医学传统。”传统的墨西哥接生婆”的案例中尤其如此, 因为接生婆的做法如何在本土环境中展现, 以及如何呈现给全球游客之间存在明显的差异。”传统的墨西哥接生婆”旅游是一个独特的视角, 以检查一些潜在的, 跨部门的问题, 而这些问题威胁着民族医学旅游的可持续发展。当非原住民将自己定位为”传统墨西哥接生婆”的代表, 而真正的原住民接生婆被排除在利润链之外时, 这种类型的旅游不仅不能满足于它所迷恋的原住民的需求, 实际上还将他们完全排除在外。虽然殖民时代的公开偏见和种族歧视已不复存在, 但新殖民主义旅游以”传统墨西哥接生婆”的形式, 微妙地强化了对原住民”他者”的浪漫化刻板印象。从墨西哥和巴西多个地点的研究中收集的民族志实例, 表明”传统的墨西哥接生婆”在批评现有对负责任旅游不当应用和提出更可持续的未来方面的作用。旅游业可以是一个本土化的过程(在这个过程中, 当地居民既能激发旅游的积极性, 又能获得旅游的好处), 也可以充当新殖民主义的马前卒(在这个过程中, 旅游业的发展和利润不公平地偏袒跨国精英)。由于基于种族、阶级和性别的跨部门排斥土著妇女, 当前的”传统墨西哥接生婆”旅游形式是不可持续的。为了消除”传统墨西哥接生婆”中的部门间不平等, 需要墨西哥卫生部、传统医学和跨文化发展部(TMID)、墨西哥接生婆协会和批判旅游学者和活动人士的共同努力。

Keywords:

• Migration
• tourism
• reproduction
• indigeneity
• Latin America
• Mexico

关键词:

• 迁移
• 旅游
• 生殖
• 本土性
• 拉丁美洲
• 墨西哥

Acknowledgements

The research for this paper was conducted with fellowship support from the Jacob K. Javits Foundation, the Regents of the University of California, and the Ford Foundation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For a discussion of different analytical levels at which social divisions need to be studied, their ontological base, and their relations to each other, see Yuval-Davis, 2006.

2 Doulas are individuals—generally women—who are trained as birth coaches. Their primary role is to accompany, encourage, and comfort mothers during active labor. They also serve as representatives of the birthing mother’s interest by advocating for her birth plan.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rosalynn A. Vega

Rosalynn A. Vega is an assistant professor of Medical Anthropology and Global Health at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. She is the author of No Alternative: Childbirth, Citizenship, and Indigenous Culture in Mexico (University of Texas Press, 2018).