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Niaja Stringfield
Prof. Robert Powell
Introduction to Cultural Diversity
11 June 2018
Cannibal Tours

1. The tourists have varied and, at times, strange views regarding the locals and their

villages. The German tourist, for example, brags about how many countries he has and

will continue to visit on these tourist excursions, but he also talks openly with the

filmmakers about how the locals' "way of life has been disrupted by European

influences." He is overwhelmingly self-aware regarding how damaging this sort of social

tourism can be, but he continues to participate. Likewise, the Italian couple's first

interview sees them almost romanticizing the tourists' lifestyle, admiring how they

"truly live with nature" and are "vegetating," waxing poetic on whether "their way of life

is better than ours." Later on, however, this same couple insists that the practice of

cannibalism in Papua New Guinea was a "normal reaction" and a "way of life" despite

being informed otherwise. Their insistence in the face of being repeatedly given the

facts reveals a deep-seated ethnocentrism- likely based on things they've heard

secondhand, and no real academic research- that I'm not certain even the tourists were

aware of. This also manifests when the Italian wife asks to have her picture taken with

local children: when the photographer suggests that the children get closer to her for

the photo, she is quick to reply, "they're close enough," presumably because the

children are naked, dirty, and, by tourist accounts, cannibals. They also insist that "we

must try to help them [the locals] advance in the world," despite clearly not exploring
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Papua New Guinea in any educational or even helpful capacity. This mixture of fear,

superiority, and fascination that the tourists feel toward the locals plays out repeatedly

over the course of the film.

2. At best, the locals tolerate the tourists because their economy depends on it. It is

repeatedly mentioned that the locals don't know much about the tourists- what

countries they come from, who brings them, etc.- but the locals accept their money

because they need it. As one of the villagers so eloquently put it, without even a hint of

enthusiasm: "when the tourists come to our village, we are friendly towards them. They

like to see all the things in the village. We accept them here. That's all." The villagers

have a very keen understanding of their economy: they need money to purchase things

in order to survive, and the tourists bring income to aid in this survival, but they also

note that, despite clearly having lots of money, as evidenced by their travels, the white

European tourists are often cheap, and they either refuse to buy things, haggle prices,

or they just do what they want- e.g. take photos- without even thinking to pay the

locals. This is yet another display of the superiority mentioned above. That attitude,

along with the history of European violence against the villagers of Papua New Guinea-

it is mentioned that Germans "they killed many of [them] and burnt [their] houses,"

while the English and Australian missionaries "destroyed all the most powerful symbols

kept in the spirit-house"- causes a very understandable sense of mistrust on the

villagers' behalf.

3. The locals are 'losers' in their relationship with the tourists because they are tasked with

putting out time, money, and effort to meet the demands of the social tourism business
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with little return. They are not privy to second and third prices in local shops, so they

pay market price for the supplies they use to create the art, jewelry, and other goods

they sell to tourists; each time a tourist passes on buying, which, per the locals, is fairly

often, the villagers are not only not making money, but they are actively losing money.

This in addition to the energy they expend while showing the tourists around the island

and being accommodating to their every whim.

4. The tourists hold the same advantage in economic relations as they do in every other

interaction with the locals: money. Currency carried by the tourists is worth much more

than the local one, so villagers in Papua New Guinea are eager to get their hands on any

money the tourists will provide, which is why they participate in the tourists' insistence

on haggling the prices of their goods. They would rather receive lower amounts than

originally priced than to receive no money at all.

5. Based on the locals' frustrations regarding money, I don't think their cut is very large at

all. It seems that they rely very heavily on the tourists actually placing money in their

hands in exchange for goods like jewelry, art, etc., and why the locals become so

frustrated when the tourists ignore their wares or choose to photograph them instead

of buying them. One villager in particular makes the point that the Europeans must be

wealthy, because they can afford to travel, but the villagers of Papua New Guinea don't

have money, so they don't get to see other countries. If the fees from the tourists were

being divided fairly, the villagers may not rely so heavily on souvenir money to stimulate

their economy, and they could even potentially participate in cultural exchange by
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traveling to other countries, rather than staying in their village to be photographed and

patronized by European tourists.

6. There is a brief scene in the film where a group of tourists are taking a boat through the

jungle when the engine suddenly stops working. Their expressions immediately change

from jovial smiles to looks of frustration and even fear, presumably at the thought of

being stuck in a place they've called "primitive" and accused of practicing cannibalism

with no way to escape. This lets us know that they have no social or empathetic interest

in the villages of Papua New Guinea; instead, they want a picture-perfect tour of the

villages with photos and stories to share at home, but the idea of being off the beaten

path or seen as "defenseless" anywhere on the island upsets them.

7. The tourists think of themselves as superior and even as saviors to the locals. They are

aware that the locals rely on their money, and the exchange rate, and that every bit

counts, and they use that to their advantage. Take, for example, the scene where the

Italian woman, referenced above, wants to take a photo with local children. She is

shown bribing them with pennies in an attempt to get them to pose and smile, because

she believes them to be a commodity for sale, much like the art and goods they

purchase from the locals. Additionally, the practice of haggling for second and third

prices allows the tourists to devalue the locals' hard work and consume as much of their

culture for as little cost as possible. The tourists have been taught that the people of

Papua New Guinea are uncivilized and, thus, inferior to then, and they don't see the

villagers' art and customs as being particularly valuable or serving any real purpose

outside of entertaining the tourists.

8. The most obvious example of redistribution in the context of Cannibal Tours is the fee

paid to the tour operators, which should then be distributed to the local villagers for the

time and effort they spend accommodating these strangers. Based on the commentary

of the locals, that money does not come back to them. One particularly incensed villager

is quoted as saying, "We hurry down here with things for the tourists, but the tourists

only look, they don't buy. [...] We have no money - we need it! You white people! You

have all the money! We village people have no money! [...] That's why I complain. I'm

talking about these things here. The tourists ignore them. They don't buy from us and

it's a problem." This illustrates not only a frustration at the lack of money being

redistributed by white Europeans who operate and attend the tours, but the amount of

work done by the locals to build and create souvenirs, and the lack of reciprocity in

terms of purchases being made.

9. The locals have taken notice to the tourists' attraction to their spirit-house; one villager

even points out the postcards of it in the large local store nearby (sometimes bought by

his own children), a result of the imposed market economy wherein money is

exchanged for commodities. The locals take advantage of this by charging the tourists

for the photos they take inside the spirit-house: two dollars per camera.

10. My understanding of the irony in the title is that while the locals of Papua New Guinea

are often seen as dangerous and primitive cannibals for tourists to gawk at from the

safety of their boat, this documentary reveals that it is actually the tourists who are

cannibals. The tourists are the ones who descend on Papua New Guinea from their

places of privilege in Europe and they consume the local customs, goods, and culture.
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They have no staked interest in studying, understanding, or helping the locals; their only

purpose is to socially cannibalize the villages for no reason other than that their money

allows them to.