Momentous Mobilities: Anthropological Musings on the Meanings of Travel

209 Pages·2018·7.069 MB·English

by  Noel B. Salazar

MOMENTOUS MOBILITIES
Worlds in Motion
Edited by Noel B. Salazar, University of Leuven,
in collaboration with ANTHROMOB, the EASA
Anthropology, and Mobility Network.
This transdisciplinary series features empirically grounded studies that
disentangle how people, objects, and ideas move across the planet. With
a special focus on advancing theory as well as methodology, the series
considers movement as both an object and a method of study.
Volume 1
KEYWORDS OF MOBILITY
Critical Engagements
Edited by Noel B. Salazar and Kiran Jayaram
Volume 2
METHODOLOGIES OF MOBILITY
Ethnography and Experiment
Edited by Alice Elliot, Roger Norum, and Noel B. Salazar
Volume 3
INTIMATE MOBILITIES
Sexual Economies, Marriage and Migration in a Disparate World
Edited by Christian Groes and Nadine T. Fernandez
Volume 4
MOMENTOUS MOBILITIES
Anthropological Musings on the Meanings of Travel
Noel B. Salazar
Momentous
Mobilities
Anthropological Musings on
the Meanings of Travel
Noel B. Salazar
berghahn
N E W Y O R K O X F O R D
www.berghahnbooks.com
First published in 2018 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com
© 2018, 2020 Noel B. Salazar
First paperback edition published in 2020
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages
for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book
may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented,
without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Salazar, Noel B., 1973- author.
Title: Momentous mobilities : anthropological musings on the meanings of
travel / Noel B. Salazar.
Description: New York : Berghahn Books, 2018. | Series: Worlds in motion |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018001776 (print) | LCCN 2018017553 (ebook) | ISBN
9781785339363 (ebook) | ISBN 9781785339356 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Tourism--Anthropological aspects. | Quality of life.
Classification: LCC G156.5.A58 (ebook) | LCC G156.5.A58 S35 2018 (print) |
DDC 306.4/819--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018001776
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78533-935-6 hardback
ISBN 978-1-78920-803-0 paperback
ISBN 978-1-78533-936-3 ebook
It is not our feet that move us alongit is our minds.
Ancient Chinese proverb
For Keila Luna and Eva Yani

Contents
List of Illustrations viii
Foreword xi
Vered Amit
Preface xiii
Introduction Mapping Mobility 1
Part I. Imagining Mobility
Chapter 1 Chile: Traveling to and from the End of the World 23
Chapter 2 Indonesia: Merantau and Modernity 43
Chapter 3 Tanzania: The Maasai as Icons of Mobility 65
Part II. Enacting Mobility
Chapter 4 Education: Leaving to Learn 89
Chapter 5 Labor: Capitalizing on Movement 110
Chapter 6 Lifes Pilgrimage: Travel, Travail, Transformation 130
Conclusion Mobile Futures 151
References 160
Index 185
Illustrations
Figure 0.1: Mobility and immobility are intertwined in multiple
ways. An abandoned train wagon converted into an immobile
house, somewhere along the Trans-Gabon Railway, Gabon. 3
Figure 1.1: The beginning of the end of the world. An Andean
border crossing between Bolivia and Chile. 26
Figure 1.2: The wooden Chilean pavilion built for the 1992 World
Fair in Seville, Spain, in which a sixty-ton iceberg was exhibited. 32
Figure 1.3: Imagining the elsewhere. Neighborhood with Belgian
street names at La Florida, outskirts of the Santiago Metropolitan
Region, Chile. 38
Figure 2.1: Four students from the State University of Papua in
Manokwari traveling on a PT Pelni ship to Fak-Fak in West
Papua, Indonesia. 45
Figure 2.2: Indonesians have a long history of trans-archipelagic
mobilities. Vessel at Kupa Beach, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. 47
Figure 2.3: Women have been hindered in their mobilities in many
ways. Indonesian girl from a small village in Bantul Regency who
studied English literature and ended up working as a tour guide
for foreign tourists. Yogyakarta, Indonesia. 56
Figure 3.1: Not exactly what tourists imagine when they think
of Maasai. A multiday Maasai camel safari near Mt. Kilimanjaro,
Tanzania. 75
Figure 3.2: Maasai in search of better pastures. My Maasai
assistant visiting a Maasai woman running a souvenir stall in Dar es
Salaam, Tanzania. 78
Illustrations ◾ ix
Figure 3.3: Maasai warriors where one would not directly
expect them. Maasai activist, in full gear, visiting Skansen
museum in Stockholm, Sweden. 81
Figure 4.1: Foreign students from various countries at a farewell
party for one of their friends in Leuven, Belgium. 91
Figure 4.2: The organization of student mobility requires a whole
infrastructure. A wall full of instructions for the evaluators for
the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowships inside a building of the
European Commission, Brussels, Belgium. 98
Figure 4.3: Young Belgian people exploring plenty of opportunities
to study or work abroad at an annual educational fair in Brussels,
Belgium. 106
Figure 5.1: Young Belgian expat relaxing in front of a hut he built
on a small plot of land he purchased in Magogoni, across the
port of Dar es Salaam where he works. Mji Mwema, Tanzania. 113
Figure 5.2: Belgians and Indonesians celebrating the Belgian
national holiday in Ubud, Bali. 117
Figure 5.3: Never a quiet moment at The Loft, one of the lounges at
Brussels Airport, Belgium, where mobile Europeans and others meet,
work, and rest. 123
Figure 6.1: Pilgrims arriving at their hostel after a long day of
walking along the Camino to Santiago de Compostela,
Navarra, Spain. 139
Figure 6.2: Thousands of young people gathering during the
1991 Pilgrimage of Trust on Earth, organized by the Community
of Taiz in Budapest, Hungary. 142
Figure 6.3: Different people find different ways in search of
balance in their lives, Brussels, Belgium. 148
Figure 7.1: Feeling at home while on the move. A man carrying
a home for pigeons, somewhere on the road around Blantyre,
Malawi. 156