ABSTRACT
Protests have occurred regularly at and around the site with various victims family organizations holding rallies, rescue workers protesting poor treatment for health issues, conspiracy theory groups handing out materials, and antiwar groups staging activities. The multiple ways in which the victims of 9/11 and its aftermath, along with numerous other tragedies small and large, are being informally and formally memorialized are contributing to a new culture of commemoration that incorporates old traditions with new ones and that is in many ways radically challenging the distinctions scholars and public historians make between history, memory, and practices of commemoration. Perspectives on the WTC as a tourist site see tourism as redefining the site as primarily commercial rather than commemorative. Ethnographic work centered on tourism and tourists at commemorative historical sites engenders a deeper understanding of the powerful experientiality of actual encounters with commemorative landscapes and museum exhibits.
