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The Gift of Respect: Tourist Gift Giving and the Construction of Self-Respect Among Authorized Sightseeing Rickshaw Drivers in Bharatpur, India

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Abstract

Tourism workers may actively cultivate relationships with tourists to counter the social and economic marginalization they face by others involved in the tourism economy. In this article I explore the ways in which sightseeing rickshaw drivers use gifts as symbols of these relationships with tourists. I base my analysis on sixteen months of fieldwork that I conducted in 2008–9 with the authorized sightseeing rickshaw drivers at Keoladeo National Park in Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India. I argue that they use gifts, both materially and discursively, to create a space in which they can construct narratives of self-respect.

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  1. Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, USA

    Emera Bridger Wilson

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  1. Emera Bridger Wilson
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Correspondence to Emera Bridger Wilson.

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Bridger Wilson, E. The Gift of Respect: Tourist Gift Giving and the Construction of Self-Respect Among Authorized Sightseeing Rickshaw Drivers in Bharatpur, India. Hindu Studies 22, 309–333 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11407-018-9230-8

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