Acculturation, cultural impacts, hybridization processes: a conceptual review about tourism anthropological studies

Abstract

Anthropological tourism studies have broadly used the concept of acculturation to analyze cultural changes due to temporary visitors in small seaside or inland communities. Also cultural impact has been extensively reported, as do Geographical and Biological sciences to assess changes in space and environment. This article presents a bibliographical approach on anthropological studies on the issue, intending an evaluation on their heuristic value, as well as the concept of culture attached to them. The authors understand that hybridization processes and hybrid cu ltures should be more suitable concepts to understand contemporary cultural processes, not withstanding domination processes that will not be addressed in this paper.