ABSTRACT
The common way of managing fear and uncertainty is through ritual, so the rituals involving travelers are a topic of considerable importance. Anthropologists have developed three concepts that are useful in varying degrees for understanding what happens to travelers when they go abroad: culture shock, the more historically grounded concept of travel as a rite of passage, and analyses of the role of the adventurous stranger. Georg Simmel's essay 'The Stranger' is useful in understanding the role of the anthropologist or stranger in societies, it is Simmel's 1911 essay 'The Adventure' that speaks directly to the psychological or internal dimension of going abroad. Given the experiential component of adventure, it is not surprising that some claim that sex is the signature adventure, since each sexual encounter is believed to be unique and entails some element of risk. Sex as part of travel is frequently acknowledged coyly at best, yet the sensual is an important if overlooked part of the adventure.
