The Interpretation of Cultural Heritage: Sharing Māori Cultural Tourism Experiences with International Visitors

<p>Māori cultural tourism can be an important part of the experience for visitors to New Zealand. The purpose of this research is to gain insights into the way guides manage visitor experiences in order to enhance the understanding and appreciation of Māori culture. International visitors are culturally and linguistically diverse. Therefore, not only are there differences in perspectives and beliefs, but also in communication. Furthermore, visitors arrive with differences in knowledge, interest and expectations. This thesis considers approaches to guiding and interpretation in Māori cultural tourism experiences by examining how guides, as cross-cultural mediators, share Māori cultural heritage so that it is meaningful and relevant to visitors. The literature on Māori tourism has examined issues of ownership, participation, control over representation, and the diversification of Māori tourism products. In spite of the shift to reflect tribal diversity, stereotypes are still reinforced in marketing images and tourism products. Although acknowledged as important, there are no published studies on the role of Māori guides. Developed from a social constructivist perspective, this study compares perspectives on and approaches to guiding and interpretation by Māori and non-Māori guides. Data collection was through semi-structured interviews with tour guides and a manager from the chosen case studies, Te Puia and Te Papa, with 21 interviews conducted in June and July 2011. Using a visitor-centred approach to interpretation, guides select information and find relevant connections. Furthermore, the quantity and complexity of information, as well as the style and level of communication is considered. Guides manage the relationship so that visitors feel comfortable, which not only enables interaction and encourages questions but is also important for managing visitors' attitudes. The main challenge identified is the language barrier and working with outside language interpreters. In the comparison between Māori and non-Māori guides, the key differences are found in the guide's background and ways of learning about Māori cultural heritage. This research contributes to the literature on interpretation and indigenous tourism by identifying factors influencing the process of the interpretation of cultural heritage. Furthermore, comparing the perceptions of Māori and non-Māori guides provides a key contribution. The findings of this study have management implications for training of guides.</p>

The Interpretation of Cultural Heritage: Sharing Māori Cultural Tourism Experiences with International Visitors

<p>Māori cultural tourism can be an important part of the experience for visitors to New Zealand. The purpose of this research is to gain insights into the way guides manage visitor experiences in order to enhance the understanding and appreciation of Māori culture. International visitors are culturally and linguistically diverse. Therefore, not only are there differences in perspectives and beliefs, but also in communication. Furthermore, visitors arrive with differences in knowledge, interest and expectations. This thesis considers approaches to guiding and interpretation in Māori cultural tourism experiences by examining how guides, as cross-cultural mediators, share Māori cultural heritage so that it is meaningful and relevant to visitors. The literature on Māori tourism has examined issues of ownership, participation, control over representation, and the diversification of Māori tourism products. In spite of the shift to reflect tribal diversity, stereotypes are still reinforced in marketing images and tourism products. Although acknowledged as important, there are no published studies on the role of Māori guides. Developed from a social constructivist perspective, this study compares perspectives on and approaches to guiding and interpretation by Māori and non-Māori guides. Data collection was through semi-structured interviews with tour guides and a manager from the chosen case studies, Te Puia and Te Papa, with 21 interviews conducted in June and July 2011. Using a visitor-centred approach to interpretation, guides select information and find relevant connections. Furthermore, the quantity and complexity of information, as well as the style and level of communication is considered. Guides manage the relationship so that visitors feel comfortable, which not only enables interaction and encourages questions but is also important for managing visitors' attitudes. The main challenge identified is the language barrier and working with outside language interpreters. In the comparison between Māori and non-Māori guides, the key differences are found in the guide's background and ways of learning about Māori cultural heritage. This research contributes to the literature on interpretation and indigenous tourism by identifying factors influencing the process of the interpretation of cultural heritage. Furthermore, comparing the perceptions of Māori and non-Māori guides provides a key contribution. The findings of this study have management implications for training of guides.</p>

Upward Transition of Indian Entrepreneurs: from Simple Working to Ethnic Entrepreneurship. A Case Study in an Italian Region

This paper explores the role of entrepreneurial orientation in addressing upward mechanisms of Indian immigrant workers in rural areas. To achieve this purpose, an empirical analysis was carried out to investigate how entrepreneurial orientation may affect mechanisms of professional transition. Precisely, we managed direct interviews among Indian workers (through the support of cultural mediators), local actors (like public and private advisors) and Italian entrepreneurs. Our funding suggests the presence of three Indian workers in Italy (simple workers, intrapreneurs, entrepreneurs), characterised by different entrepreneurial profile acting as engine or barrier to what we have labelled as “upward transition”. Immigrant entrepreneurs play a relevant role in Italy and in our point of view, it is of paramount importance to allow them to access to rural development policies, knowledge, training and education upgrading.

Outsourcing Hotspot Governance within the EU: Cultural Mediators as Humanitarian–Border Workers in Greece

Responding to the self-declared “Mediterranean migration crisis” in 2015, the European Commission launched a Hotspot Approach to speed up the handling of incoming migrants in the “frontline states” of Greece and Italy. A key element in this operation is the identification of those eligible for asylum, which requires effective communication across cultural and linguistic difference between the asylum system and the migrants, facilitated by officially designated “cultural mediators.” We assess the hotspot governance as a form of outsourcing border control within the EU territory. Beyond sorting out and separating migrants into the categories of deservingness and undeservingness, we propose that the hotspot mechanism represents “governing by communication,” with cultural mediators as key players in this humanitarian–bordering strategy. A focus on how cultural mediators provide the precarious human labor for this governance, offers, we argue, a productive inroad into the ways in which the hotspot economies of deterrence, containment, and care sustain inequalities embedded in race, socioeconomic status, and citizenship.

Did You Try Our Good Smoked Ham? Assessing the Quality of Translation as Cross-Cultural Mediation on Croatian Tourist Board Websites

Tourist discourse has been recognized as a specialized type of cross-cultural communication. Thus, successful translation of tourist texts assumes that translators act as cross-cultural mediators on a number of levels. The rather low quality of translation in the tourism sector has been pointed out by several Translation Studies scholars. However, not much systematic empirical research on the quality of translation in this sector has been carried out. This paper analyses a corpus of multilingual websites produced by Croatian tourist boards. In the analysis of the data I rely on the criteria for assessing translation quality of web translation developed by Pierini (2007), and place a special focus on the achievement of pragmatic level equivalence between source and target texts as a major criterion of successful cross-cultural communication in the translation of tourism discourse.

Intercultural Approach in Foreign Language Teaching and Formation of Cultural Mediators: A Corpus Analysis of the Adjective polite in French and Polish

This study aims to analyse the notion of politeness through the collocations of the adjective polite and its Polish equivalents, i.e. grzeczny and uprzejmy, chosen as cultural keywords in order to verify and expand the conclusions of my previous research on the noun politeness. The study has a double perspective. It is based on a linguistic corpus-based analysis of French politeness in a contrastive approach to French and Polish data. Also, the study considers ways of integrating such data into foreign language teaching. The research is carried out on three corpora: the French language corpus Frantext, the National Polish Language Corpus (NKJP) and the Leipzig Corpora Collection. The study includes the analysis of frequency classes of the three words and their most frequent collocations identified on the basis of different measures of association between co-occurring words. By integrating the results of this linguistic approach into language teaching, it is possible to clarify certain semantic subtleties of the words polite, grzeczny and uprzejmy and explain to the learners why these words are not perfect equivalents, or how linguistic analysis reveals cultural differences. Complex approach promoted in this paper may contribute to the development of the intercultural awareness in foreign language teaching and cultural mediation.

Traditional weaving cultures in a global market: The case of Zapotec weavers

Carpets woven in Mexico today use design elements found at historical sites in the vicinity of their manufacture, and local Indigenous weaving techniques function within an unbroken line of traditional familial wisdom. The weaving culture of the Zapotec Nation of Oaxaca now exists at the juncture of multivalent competing visual, economic and cultural mediators, which makes for a compelling case study to examine the impacts of globalization, as well as the preservation of creative and cultural autonomy. This article describes site visits to Zapotec weaving ateliers, and also examines the history of Zapotec weaving traditions, and contemporary community engagement within these (now globalized) processes. The methodology employed is an object-based exploration of a Zapotec weaving. Fieldwork was conducted in the winter of 2019. It included an ethnographic observation of master Zapotec weavers within their ateliers; an observation of the original design inspirations at pre-Columbian architectural sites; artefact observation at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca; as well as practice-led natural dye research. Textile weaving is a natural site for the study of political agency and ‘cultural citizenship’, as it functions within a structure that safeguards traditional knowledge, as well as collectivizes local labourers within production flows.

Autism Spectrum and Other Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Children of Immigrants: A Brief Review of Current Evidence and Implications for Clinical Practice

Children of immigrants may have higher neurodevelopmental risks than those of non-immigrant populations. Yet, some evidence suggests that this group may receive late diagnosis, and therefore miss beneficial early interventions. Clinicians may misattribute symptoms of disorders to other social, behavioral or language problems. Likewise, there might be cultural differences in parents' likelihood of perceiving or reporting first developmental concerns to clinicians. Population-based standardized screening may play an important role in addressing ethnic inequalities in the age at diagnosis, although further research focusing on cross-cultural use is necessary. Once children are diagnosed, clinicians may rely on culturally sensitive procedures (translation services, cultural mediators) to increase the accessibility of interventions and improve adherence among immigrant families. In this brief review, we provide an overview about what is currently known about the epidemiology and risk factors of neurodevelopmental disorders, paying special attention to autism spectrum disorder (ASD), in children of immigrants and suggest the necessity of population-based screening and culturally sensitive care.

Identidades Negociadas, Autenticidades Redefinidas: Políticas do Patrimônio e Turismo Cultural entre os Rabelados de Cabo Verde

Os Rabelados configuram comunidades rurais originárias da resistência ao poder colonial em Cabo Verde, as quais se desenvolveram parcialmente isoladas do Estado desde os anos 1940. Recentemente, no entanto, iniciativas empreendidas por mediadores culturais objetivam a inserção desses coletivos junto à sociedade envolvente, e nesses propósitos, as políticas de patrimonialização e o turismo cultural se apresentam como principais instrumentos. Partindo-se dessas realidades, o artigo aborda as complexidades que envolvem os agenciamentos referidos. Por um lado, busca-se caracterizar as formas pelas quais os agenciamentos em torno da cultura se tornaram centrais na contemporaneidade; por outra via, avalia-se os resultados mais aparentes desses empreendimentos para o caso dos Rabelados, com especial atenção em relação às problemáticas das negociações identitárias e da autenticidade.Negotiated Identities, Redefined Authenticities: Heritage Policies and Cultural Tourism Among the Rabelados of Cape Verde Abstract: The Rabelados consist of rural communities originating in the resistance to colonial power in Cape Verde, which have developed partially isolated from the state since the 1940s. Recently, however, initiatives undertaken by cultural mediators aim at the inclusion of these collectives into the surrounding society and, in these purposes, patrimonialization policies and cultural tourism are presented as main instruments. Coming from these realities, this article discusses the complexities surrounding these agencies. On the one hand, it seeks to characterize the ways in which the agencies around culture have become central in the contemporary world; on the other hand, it evaluates the most apparent results of these initiatives in the case of Rabelados, with special attention to the issues of identity negotiations and authenticity.Keywords: patrimonialization policies; cultural tourism; identities; authenticities.