Increasingly, what people worldwide come to recognize as "culture" is simulated and displayed in models of public space engineered by nation-states, corporations, religious institutions and ethnic groups politically intent on shaping popular understandings and experiences. Ethnic theme parks typically feature folkloric performances of ethnic minorities; artifacts and material culture of "long dead traditions"; and the revival of these traditions through the efforts of various sponsors. In the process of delivering, say, "all of Polynesia in one place" or a "taste of the colorful cultures of China's nationalities," theme parks deploy a hidden style of governmentality that turn on assumptions about the natural desires and proclivities of consumers and employees, and on certain social formations of power and authority. With this in mind, we will visit one such themed environment: the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii, and examine the exportation of its religious model of ethnic spatialization and discipline to the China Folk Culture Village in Shenzhen, China.

Tamar Gordon is Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Language, Literature and Communication at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is interested in themed environments and religious globalization; her book, in press, is entitled Mormons and Modernity in Tonga. This talk is taken from the introduction to a collection which she is currently editing on theme parks and cultural centers, and draws upon her video documentary project on the globalization of ethnic display.

This event is cosponsored by the IHC Transnational Research Focus Group and the UCSB Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.