A Fez of the Heart: Travels around Turkey in Search of a Hat

A Fez of the Heart

Choose one passage from the reading that you found particularly interesting. Why was this interesting? 

"The shrine is testimony to a time when life in Pomegranate changed so fast that the tools of working men were museum pieces before those who once had used them had had time to die."

It is amazing to me that the economy and focus of a town can change so fast that the original tools used to fuel the economy of a town were discarded and replaced so fast that they were quickly used as souvenir pieces and decorations to attract tourists and inform them of what the town used to be like. So quickly in fact, that those who used them were still alive and attributing to the economy. I can't imagine what it would have been like to live in a city that was evolving so quickly.

Use examples from this reading to illustrate the interaction between economics and culture. 

There is a passage in the reading that, to me, really encompasses the relationship between economics and culture:
"Despite that Turkish victory and excepting the ubiquitous Turkish flag, Turkey did not seem to exist in Pomegranate that morning. On the main street, the incursions of English and German had rendered Turkish a minority language. Turkish food had been replaced by "handburgers" and even doner kebap was being advertised as "authentik Turkische cuisine," as if this staple of Turkish food could only hold its own by being touted as a gastronomic heritage experience." 

The idea that a city can lower the expectations of its own culture to accommodate for the culture of its tourists and its source of income to the point that it advertises its own characteristic features as "authentic" really shows how culture and economics compensate for each other. 

Another example given in the reading is of the shop worker being forced to wear a fez in the hopes that it will attract tourists, even though it is illegal and insulting in Turkey to wear a fez, it is acceptable if it is in the hopes of bringing in more cash flow. 

Beyond the specific example of this town in Turkey, what connections or conflicts do you see between tourism and economics or tourism and culture?

I always see a huge conflict between tourism/economics and culture when I go to Mackinac Island. Mackinac Island became a popular tourist attraction in the late 19th Century. The entire island is listed as a national Historic landmark, and is known for its historic preservation, its Victorian buildings, fudge, and the ban on all motor vehicles. Because of these characteristics, Mackinac Island has a very historic culture, where one feels as if they stepped into a different century as soon as they step off the ferry. Unfortunately, due to the islands increase in tourism, the culture has been slowly evolving and modernizing. So much so that it has recently added a Starbucks coffee and shop to the main street. The example of Pomegranate and the more recent expansions to Mackinac Island really show how the money flow that tourists bring to a town can lower and decrease the cultural standards to accommodate for the tourists.