This thesis is concerned wilh the anthropology of tourism in soUlh Omo. Of particular concernrnare the changes in Murs; life brought aboul by tourism in sowh Omo. This thes;~ aims 10 showrn"ou the Atlurs; as wilh other groups of people in southern Elhiopia are undergoing significantrnchanges as a resull of their popularity amongst mainly western (ourists. The discursivelyrnpresented a/fraction of soulh Omo as an exolic lOuris/ destination is considered and the Murs;rnhaw been selected for study nol only because of my prior familiarity with MlIrsi individuals butrnalso because CIS can be discerned from a wide range of bOlh academic and popular media, thernMill'S; themselves appear to be the leading human am'acfion of an 'exolicised' Ethiopia. Perhapsrnmore Ihan other peoples of sOlllhern Elhiopia, Ihe Mursi are centralia the discourse of primitivernand exot:~Â· (ribalism of 'wildest Africa' (har has 10l1g dominated the selling of African lOurism torn'he western traveler, For example the /ip-plates of A,fursi women are a staple of primitivistrnimages in popular tour-guides to Ethiopia bllt el'en as existing and ongoing fieldwork isrnconcerned wilh as~essing how both outsiders and the Mur:,i regard (heir personal adornments,rnup till now, no reseurch has as yet addressed how the Mursi themselves perceive oU/siders,rnespecially the foreign tOllrist.rnII major concern of this thesis is [he percepIion of 'native' by tourists and 'he perception ofrntourists by the 'native' and in between the tourist and the 'nalfl'e' are a range of stakeholders,rnfor example tour operators, local government officials, tour guides and hoteliers whosernperceplion. of and interactiom t lIh both tourist and native are also considered. A major findingrnoj this research is that the Mursi are not passive under the impact of foreign tourism bill arernthemse/w.~:,' actively engaged in explOiting their changing circumstances. 1 hal'e observed bothrn'negative'lInd positive changes in rhe lives of the Mursi, which may well be seen diJIerently byrnotllers, bu( what is undeniable is that it is no longer possible 10 imagine or see Ihe MlIrsi asrnconfined to the discourses of tribal anthropology (Ababio, 2006 pel's comm.) where they remainrnin some remote area 01 (he mercy of a hostile environmem and perpetually engaged in intertribalrnconflict which may occaSionally be interrupted by some foreign anthropologist or intrepidrnphoto-hungry tOllrisl. The Nllirsi themseh'es have developed ill their ideas and understanding ofrn1111: wider world. ineluding their own perceplion of (he IUlIure of foreigners. Some Mllrsi hal'ernthemseh'e:, trareled abroad whilsl OIhers hare taken lip more or less permanent residence inrnJinka /Olin. These kind:, of change:, also represent fimdamemal challenges /0 the Iribalist 10/lrismrnof sOllthern Ethiopia which likewise tends to depict the A.III/'si and other peoples of sOlllh Omo a:,rnobjects impacted lipan by others; as los( peoples, dwelling in some remote, timeless, relalivernisolalio11, more or less unchanged by either secular (gol'ernment) or sacred (min'ionGlY)rninterventiOIl 111 the light of the limitations of this research enumerated towards Ihe end of thernthesis, an outline ofprospeclsforfulure research is set OUI.