ABSTRACT
The effect of tourism on cultural reproduction is a subject increasingly addressed by social anthropologists. The chapter considers this subject with reference to the Special Region of Yogyakarta, one of the 27 provinces which make up the Republic of Indonesia. It focuses on how tourists and tourism were being perceived during field-work carried out in 1989, and what this perception implies for the effect of tourism on visual performance. The research analysed tourism as one among many styles of contemporary patronage in the performing arts in Central Java, and the results indicate that it is of limited value to isolate tourism as an object of analysis. The tourist is a more diverse category than might be expected, and includes domestic and overseas tourists. Tourism is often given as a reason for promoting or developing particular forms or genres, but it has had little effect in itself on the ‘regional’ genres.
