Turismouna nueva marea para el Archipiélago de Las Perlas. Pasados y presentes de unas poblaciones del Pacífico Oriental Tropical panameño

Abstract

This thesis presents an anthropological and historical research conducted during the years 2009-2015 about the Pearl Islands, Panama. Since the late 20th century, these islands and their inhabitants have been exposed to apparently tourist interests of national and transnational political and economic elites. The model promoted is based not only on the construction of numerous and large infrastructures but also on land speculation without genuine development of services and therefore without a significant number of tourists (unlike the classical models of tourism). This context has been changing besides the physical appearance of each island, the composition and social organization of resident populations. The aim of this thesis is to describe and anayse these issues. The Pearl Islands case is a reflection of a situation that is becoming more evident in several other places in Panama: The opening of a land market under the label of residential-tourism, mainly promoted by different governments to be developed privately. This particularity is justified by three facts: The absence of social research work in the area, the historical repetition of an external power pattern, and the complex relationship between the discrete resistance and adaptation processes of local populations to their new reality.