The Stranger As My Guest – A Critical Anthropologyof Hospitality

“It is a well thought-out book that attempts to place the concept of medical plurality and especially ‘multiplicity’ in a more complex situation in Bhutan today… The book is comprised of five chapters, written in rich ethnographic style and anthropological analyses.”  •

“Anthropologists, as scholars and teachers, should welcome these analyses, as mimesis is at the core of our foundational ethnographic method, participant observation, and also is a popular strategy of hands-on, experiential learning within classrooms. As Bell concludes, ‘mimesis is profoundly engaging anthropologically because of issues it raises about the nature of cross-culture engagement’. Anthropologist see, anthropologist do.”

This book is a strong contribution targeted at a much needed re-consideration of democracy as a concept and a practice in a world of porous boundaries, which exposes people in societies to the often hegemonic imposition of extra-territorial actors

Based on a detailed ethnography, this book explores the promises and expectations of tourism in Cuba, drawing attention to the challenges that tourists and local people face in establishing meaningful connections with each other. Notions of informal encounter and relational idiom illuminate ambiguous experiences of tourism harassment, economic transactions, hospitality, friendship, and festive and sexual relationships. Comparing these various connections, the author shows the potential of touristic encounters to redefine their moral foundations, power dynamics, and implications, offering new insights into how contemporary relationships across difference and inequality are imagined and understood.