ABSTRACT Tourists to Africa covet close encounters with dangerous wildlife, revelling in the simulation of the primal risks of the savannah, and yet they expect to be kept safe. Similarly, many tourists wish to engage with exotic local people, but in ways that ensure they feel comfortable socially and physically. Safari guides in the Okavango Delta fulfil these desires by facilitating close encounters with wildlife during luxury camping safaris, while becoming objects of fascination themselves as they perform the role of the ecologically noble savage. The exoticness of a number of these Botswana citizens is, however, rendered familiar and comfortable for tourists through the fact of their whiteness. In this paper, I explore the paradoxes evident within Okavango Delta tourism, with a focus on the ‘familiar exotics’ guiding tourists through landscapes constructed around notions of ‘safe danger’. In making sense of this paradigm, I argue that mimesis is at play within white citizens’ embodiment and commodification of cultural values and practices normatively associated with indigenous peoples. This case demonstrates that within the tourism nexus, the ecologically noble savage trope evident in romanticised global imaginaries of indigeneity has largely failed to empower Botswana’s indigenous Bushmen communities, while perpetuating white privilege.

中文翻译：

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重新配置的高贵野蛮人：博茨瓦纳奥卡万戈三角洲野生动物园的悖论和模仿

摘要 非洲游客渴望与危险的野生动物近距离接触，陶醉于模拟大草原的原始风险，但他们希望保持安全。同样，许多游客希望与异国情调的当地人打交道，但要确保他们在社交和身体上感到舒适。奥卡万戈三角洲的野生动物园导游通过在豪华露营之旅中促进与野生动物的亲密接触来满足这些愿望，同时在扮演生态崇高的野蛮人的角色时，他们自己也成为着迷的对象。然而，由于他们的白人，这些博茨瓦纳公民中的一些人的异国情调对游客来说是熟悉和舒适的。在本文中，我探讨了奥卡万戈三角洲旅游中明显的悖论，以“熟悉的异国情调”为重点，引导游客穿越围绕“安全危险”概念构建的景观。在理解这种范式时，我认为模仿在白人公民的化身和与土著人民规范相关的文化价值观和实践的商品化中发挥作用。这个案例表明，在旅游关系中，在浪漫化的全球原住民想象中明显的生态高尚的野蛮比喻在很大程度上未能赋予博茨瓦纳土著布须曼人社区权力，同时使白人特权永久化。