Monday, March 17, 2014

No nudes only good nudes

While tourists may find it humorous, the authorities are not laughing. Since the beginning of the year, a dozen people have been arrested at Peru’s most famous tourist site for posing nude in front of the mysterious citadel.
The latest arrests occurred on Friday when authorities detained four US citizens for taking pictures of themselves in the mountains overlooking Machu Picchu. Their cameras were confiscated, and the memory cards were erased. Now the four face charges before a local justice of peace court, the Peruvian Andina news agency reported.
Of course, there's always a sociologist to be heard from;
Liuba Kogan, a sociologist and researcher at the University of the Pacific, believes that such talk about a rash of nudist invaders is nothing but exaggeration, taking into account that more than one million tourists visited Machu Picchu in 2013. He also believes that the outraged reactions by authorities are also being blown out of proportion.
"I think the idea these tourists have in mind is to put themselves in contact with the mystical, supernatural world,” he said. “They generally come from countries where nudity is not frowned upon. They have no intention of offending anyone; that is the interpretation of a conservative people. The problem is that Cuzco is quite conservative. You have to examine who the authorities are addressing in their official statements.” 
Sounds like cultural imperialism to us.

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