HIDRÓLISIS DEL LICOR NEGRO

Religions offer entertainment to tourists not only through the attractions of religious sites and spaces but also by staging performances. However, local hosts can take offense if tourists behave irreverently. For example, tourists visiting the Western wall in Palestine in the 19^th Century did not have much respect for Jews and they were unaware of their rituals. This made the Jews unhappy at being stared at by the giggling visitors (Shepherd 1987). Following this argument, there is a need to understand what the local Hindus in Mauritius characterise as an authentic religious experience and what are the characteristics that should not be destroyed by the tourism development so that the meaning of the religious festival and site is not cheapened and that the authenticity is preserved while meeting the goal of commoditisation.

2.6 A CONCEPTUAL SYNTHESIS OF THE LITERATURE ANALYSIS

2.6.1 Introduction

This study aimed to critically evaluate the nature of the religious experiences offered by the religious festival and pilgrimage of Maha Shivaratri to the local Hindu participants and their perceptions of the possible impacts on these religious experiences resulting from any future commoditisation of the Festival and its site. Figure 2.2 presents a framework that conceptualises the key factors identified from the literature on the religious experiences generated from religious festivals, pilgrimages and at sacred sites as well as the authenticity of experiences and the positive and negative impacts of commoditisation on experiences. This framework therefore helped to understand and clarify the content under investigation and acted as a guide in the development of the questionnaire.

Figure 2.2: Conceptual framework

2.6.2 The context

The first component of this conceptualisation is given in the outer layer which focuses on the context. This layer is composed of (1) the political context, (2) the economic context and (3) the social context. Each of these contexts was explained in Chapter 1 (see Section 1.2.2). These three contexts act as external forces and may influence the society (defined by what is celebrated, who celebrates and when/how to celebrate) and what happens in the society.

The political context relates to the control of what happens in a society by virtue of the laws, legislation and the allocation of public funds to different activities. In Mauritius, the political context is one of freedom of conscience, creed and religious belief and tolerance to different religious-ethnic groups. These are considered to be key democratic rights, freedoms and obligations pertaining to the Constitution that give people the opportunity to practise and celebrate their religion, culture and identity. The political context in Mauritius is one of support for local festivals and celebrations. This may be for economic considerations or in order to stimulate political interest by supporting them as a means of influencing public opinion in favour of the politicians or in order to stimulate the growth of economic activities such as tourism. This is evident in the case of the Mauritian religious festival and pilgrimage of Maha Shivaratri (see Section 1.2.3.3).

The economic context consists of the different economic activities that take place within the country and the nature of the economy. Mauritius is a middle-income country within which the main economic activities are tourism, manufacturing/textile and financial/banking. These activities directly provide the income and wealth of the country and indirectly through linkages into the rest of the economy. The success of these economic activities are constrained and/or boosted by the external context of the global economy and the workings of the internal (county) economy. In the context of this research, the important factor is a wish to encourage the growth of the tourism industry. As the Government of Mauritius has envisaged promoting cultural tourism to diversity the tourism portfolio, there is a possibility of commoditising the Festival and its site for more tourists.

From an economic perspective, an increase in the number of tourists can stimulate economic growth, externality benefits (more jobs and business opportunities for local people) and economic regeneration of the site.

In a social context, the Festival and its site represent the continuity of belief, culture, traditions and place identity for the local Hindu community. Additionally, it provides a range of other benefits such as enhancing social interaction and ties with close ones and others, strengthening social/community cohesion and fostering tolerance in the society. A strategy of building up the tourism sector by the Mauritian Government, by developing the cultural product offer, may have social implications on Mauritian society.

Overall, the three contexts of the conceptual framework represent the general environmental situation in which any festival/event operates in a society and may influence the way the Festival is operated, managed and delivered to the local Hindu residents.

2.6.3 The nature of commoditisation of a religious festival

The second component of this conceptualisation focuses on commoditisation. In this study, commoditisation consists of ‘governmental’ actions/developments that would result in a rise in the number of tourists, not of the Hindu faith, at the site and along the pilgrimage route during the Festival. The outcomes of commoditisation may include the following: more physical infrastructure development (e.g. road enlargement, increase in parking slots, change in landscape and deforestation); more ‘on-site’ and ‘en-route’ services (toilet and bath facilities, on-site cleaning staffs); and commercialisation (e.g. hawkers selling items, hotel and guest houses). Such developments could impact upon the religious experiences of the Mauritian Hindus participating in the Festival, the nature of the religious experiences and the authenticity of those religious experiences. Therefore, the research content included the identification of what changes commoditisation might bring about and whether those changes were considered acceptable to the Mauritian stakeholders: the religious authorities, the public sector and the Hindu residents of the island.

2.6.4 The Hindu religion

Moving inwards the content of the next layer focuses on the Hindu religion as a synthesis of the relevant parts of the literature review suggested that this would best be investigated based on Smart’s (1996, 1998) model. This model would help to develop an understanding of the way that Hindus perceive their religion, view ‘others’, and the importance they attach to their traditions, customs and rites. Hindu values are important in shaping the nature of their perceived religious experiences and how they might react to the potential development of the Festival for more tourists.

Such development may not entirely affect every dimension of the Hindu religion, but it will have an impact. For instance, the ‘narrative/mythic dimension’ (e.g. sacred text) of religion has not been included on the basis that commoditisation will not have any impact on it. However, other dimensions such as ‘doctrinal and philosophical’, ‘experiential and emotional’, ‘material’, ‘social and institutional’, ‘ethical dimension’, ‘practical and ritual’ will be modified or adjusted to meet the growing demands of tourists at the Festival and site.

2.6.5 The religious experiences

The third layer inwards put emphasis on religious experiences. The understanding of the nature of the religious experiences in the context of a Hindu religious festival is the main gap that the current study seeks to fill. Thus, this component focuses on developing an understanding of the local religious authorities’ views on the religious experiences offered by the Festival as well as the religious experiences sought and gained by the Mauritian Hindu participants who had participated in the Festival. The literature review resulted in the identification of Levitt’s (1981) model and Kotler’s (1994) conceptualisation of the product levels (the core religious experiences, the actual Festival product and the augmented nature of the religious experiences), as a good theoretical underpinning for the study of the ‘experience’ component. While the marketing view of experiences and products has not often been used in religious research, it has been accepted and used in the tourism literature (Middleton 1988; Swarbrooke 1995; Saraniemi and Kylanen 2011;

Mehmetoglu and Normann 2013; Byrd et al. 2016).

Figure 2.3: The total religious experiences of the Festival

The literature review established this theoretical approach, based on the three layers of product, as the guide in relation to establishing the views and actions of the religious authorities and the Mauritian Hindu participants in the Festival in terms of:

* Core religious experiences - the main religious benefits/outcomes the local Hindu participants gain/seek to gain through their participation in the Festival. In general, the resulting religious benefits or outcomes help them to satisfy/achieve their personal religious needs.

* The actual Festival product - what the Festival is offering to the local Hindu participants that gives them the core religious experiences. In essence, it relates to what they do and experiences pertaining to the four components of the Festival:

the preparation, the journey to and from Ganga Talao, the visit to Ganga Talao and the Char Pahar ki Pooja.

* The augmented nature of the religious experiences - what heightens the ‘normal’

or ‘mundane’ experiences of the local Hindu participants during the Festival.

These can add value to the core religious experiences and have the potential to make the Festival experiences distinct from other Hindu religious festivals and activities.

In addition, within the consideration of the experiences provided by the Festival, Shackley’s (2001) model was recast in terms of the four stages (components) of the Festival – the actual Festival product. Commoditisation is most likely to affect the perceived religious experiences for the participants during the travel to and from Ganga Talao and at the sacred site.

2.6.6 The authenticity of religious experiences

The fourth component of the conceptualisation relates to the perceived authenticity of religious experiences. If the Festival and its site are transformed into a tourist attraction, through the encouragement of more tourists, this is a conduit for commoditisation. It is therefore important to assess what features of the Festival experiences are valued by the local Hindu participants and therefore need to be preserved and maintained so that the perceived authentic religious experiences are not negatively affected. In this context, Wang’s (1999) typology was identified as a means to understand the key variables of the authentic nature of the religious experiences for the local Hindu participants. In particular, their perceived existential authenticity was the focus of this research. As discussed earlier in Section 2.4.2.4.1, the two dimensions of existential authenticity are intra-personal and inter-intra-personal authenticity. On the one hand, intraintra-personal authenticity relates to (a) the ‘bodily feelings’ that one experiences during an activity and (b) the ‘self-making’ where an individual is being true to himself/herself or discovers himself/herself while being away from his/her daily routine lives. On the other hand, interpersonal authenticity is when someone experiences an authentic togetherness as well as an opportunity to strengthen ties with family members and others. Therefore, the research helps to evaluate what the participants consider as contributing to the existential authenticity of religious experiences during their last participation in the Festival. It also identifies what features of the Festival need to be preserved so that the perceived authenticity of the religious experiences is not diminished through any future commoditisation.

2.7 CONCLUSION

Chapter 2 has critically reviewed the literature to provide insights from existing studies and research in order to underpin the investigation into the current context and content of the research.

This review ends with a statement of how the critical review of the literature has facilitated a synthesis and allowed the conceptualisation of what is relevant to the research and how it is relevant. This conceptualisation, and the theories selected, underpins what is included in the study.

Firstly, Smart’s (1996, 1998) model of religion was chosen as a good basis to understand the nature of the Hindu religion. The dimensions from this model are conceptualised in the conceptual framework (see Figure 2.2) and informed the design of the qualitative interview guides and the quantitative questionnaire. Secondly, this study uses product theory from marketing and, as such, is based on Levitt’s (1981) typology and Kotler’s (1994) conceptualisation of product levels, see Section 2.3.3.2. The adoption of this theoretical framework within the context of a religious and pilgrimage festival is new and is considered to be a good underlying theoretical framework for guiding and understanding the nature of the religious experiences sought and gained by the local Hindu participants during the Festival. Thirdly, the research recasts Shackley’s (2001) model to explore the activities that the local Hindu respondents undertake during the Festival as part of the

from Ganga Talao, the visit to Ganga Talao and the Char Pahar ki Pooja) and the level of importance attached to the activities undertaken in contributing to their religious experiences. This approach sought to assess in detail the behaviours of the local Hindu participants and the importance of those behaviours in contributing to their religious experiences. Fourthly, existential authenticity derived from Wang’s (1999) typology is argued to be a good theoretical underpinning to the understanding of the experiences/feelings of participants during the activities they undertake as part of the Festival. Fifthly, the literature analysis provides a guide on understanding the outcomes of commoditisation, resulting from an increase in the number of tourists, see Section 2.5.

These outcomes are thought to impact upon the authenticity of religious experiences, thus affecting the sacredness and religious experiences for the participants. Overall, the research was guided by two conceptual frameworks for the data collection and analysis, see Figures 2.2 and 2.3.

The next chapter, the methodology, sets out and explains how the conceptualisation was translated into practice through a mixed methods study.

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 INTRODUCTION

The previous chapter, Chapter 2, critically reviewed the relevant literature and established the conceptual frameworks to guide the current study. The purpose of Chapter 3 is to explain and appraise the overall methodological foundations underpinning the research and the methods employed to meet the aim and objectives of this study. An overall sequential mixed methods approach in three stages was adopted, as illustrated in Figure 3.1. Whilst Stage One, an initial exploratory research, was conducted in the United Kingdom, both Stages Two and Three, based on qualitative and quantitative methods respectively, took place concurrently in Mauritius as part of the main research.

Figure 3.1: Sequential mixed methods approach for the study

This chapter has five main sections. Section 3.2 outlines the aim and objectives of the research.

Thereafter, an overview of the key stakeholders is reported in Section 3.3, including a brief description of stakeholder theory. Next, Section 3.4 highlights the research approach and the philosophical stance. The purpose, design and the key findings of Stage One are given in Section 3.5. Lastly, Section 3.6 provides a detailed description of the main research for Stages Two and Three.