Multi-sensorial perceptions of risk: the aesthetics behind (muco)cutaneous leishmaniasis-related stigma in Ecuador.

Previous research on the stigma associated with cutaneous leishmaniasis, a vector-transmitted parasitic disease, focuses on aesthetic appearance affectation as the leading cause of stigmatisation. However, Indigenous populations in the hinterland of Amazonian Ecuador trigger stigma expressions by recognising (muco)cutaneous leishmaniasis, primarily through atypical smell, followed by the odd voice sound, appearance and taste. This empirical way of recognising symptoms relies on embodied forms of identifying a disease, contrasting the Western supremacy of visuality and demanding to be understood via multi-sensorial anthropology. Through ethnographic research and data retrieved from eighty-three semistructured interviews and fifteen focus groups in seven Ecuadorian ethnic groups - including six Indigenous groups in the Amazon region - this paper analyses how the sensorium is a health thermometer. Findings reveal that differentiated cultural responses to a sense of peril, contagion and social (self)rejection, understood as stigma expressions, are linked to the holistic approach to health (or well-being) shared by Indigenous populations. In forest societies, well-being is explained through successful (non-)human relationships, and disease permeates through bodies that lack balanced relations.

Tourism and glocalization "Local" Tour Guiding.

In tourism studies globalization and localization are often conceived of as a binary opposition. The ethnography of an Indonesian group of tour guides presented here illustrates how the global and the local are intimately intertwined through what has been described as the process of "glocalization". The guides studied are remarkable front-runners of glocalization. They fully participate in global popular culture and use new technologies in their private lives. While guiding, however, they skillfully represent the glocalized life around them as a distinctive "local", adapted to the tastes of different groups of international tourists. It is concluded that tourism offers excellent opportunities to study glocalization, but that more grounded research is needed.

Tourisme et glocalisation: Guides « locales ¼. Beaucoup d'études sur le tourisme, sont axées sur l' opposition entre globalisation et localisation. L'ethnographie d'un groupe de guides indonésiens complète notre compréhension de l' interrelation qui s' établit entre le global et le local, à travers de ce qui est décrit comme "glocalisation". Les guides participent à la culture populaire globale et utilisent les nouvelles technologies dans leur vie privée. Cependant, en effectuant leur travail de guide, elles représentent habilement la vie glocalisée autour d' eux comme quelque chose authentiquement "locale", adaptée aux goûts de différents groupes de touristes. Le travail débouche sur la conclusion que l' activité touristique représente un excellent support pour étudier les processus de glocalisation, mais que des recherches complémentaires sont nécessaires.