ANT E105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Favela, Rocinha, Commodification
Document Summary
Organized tourism in rocinha began in 1992. As tourists interest in the violent favela increased, the industry grew and diversified to accommodate it. The ease and levity with which the drugs are first acquired, then consumed, normalizes drugs use and disconnects the tourist"s recreational use from the guns and bullet holes in the buildings that surround them. Commodify nonprofits in the favela, where residents and children perform charitable versions of themselves so as to inspire tourist donations. Despite the extremely problematic nature of tourism, many favela residents support the presence of foreigners in their community. The intertwining of travel and desire here cuts across all groups: everyone is commodifying and consuming everyone else. Favela violence is not limited to the exchange of gunfire between enemies or the spectacular punishment ordered by the dono when someone transgresses trafficker law. It is also inherent in the process of transforming these rocinha realities into spectacles for consumption.
