GENDER AND POWER IN TONGAN TOURIST PERFORMANCES

Abstract

Based on ethnographic research in Tonga in 2008 and 2009, this essay examines how gender relations and categories are defined during tourist performances. This definition is anchored within and constrained by social inequalities, which are in turn negotiated through constructing gender distinctions. Body practices, as much as discourses, are involved in this negotiation. The results yield new insights into the power relationships generally at stake in tourism and help lend understanding of how the transformation of gender norms is linked to body practices