From 17th-century Sweden to the present time, this remarkable volume provides a historical perspective on the manner in which hospitality has developed from a private right and obligation to a commercialized product. Examining the ways religion, belief, and notions of health and wellness have been intertwined in the world of spas, this account argues for an appreciation of the role that magic, serenity, and rejuvenation play as a facilitator of economic processes and as a source of perceptions of health. Aimed at advanced students and scholars, this record will interest those in the fields of anthropology, hospitality, and sociology.

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• 1. Spas
  • The Cultural Economy
  • The Rise of the Ephemeral
  • The Spas
  • The Organization of the Book
• 2. Spas and the Shifting Context of Conditional Hospitality
  • Hospitality: Rights and Obligations
  • Private Spaces and Ulterior Motives
  • Hospitality
  • Leisure and the Opening of Hospitable Spaces
  • Commercializing Hospitality
  • Demise and Rebirth
• 3. Magic, Ritual, and the Mass Production of Serenity
  • A General Theory of Magic
  • Profane Openings into the Realm of Rejuvenation
  • Promising the Impossible?
  • The Materiality of Spell-Casting: Making Sanctuaries
  • Magical Rites and Production Ex Nihilo
  • Floating Rites
  • Magical Representations
  • But is It Really Magic?
• 4. Spa Sensibilities
  • Emotion, Culture, and Corporeality
  • Material Culture and Sensual Communication
  • Organizational Space and Mobile Bodies
  • Hospitality and Invisibility
• 5. Bringing the Spa Home
  • Sensescaping the Home
  • More Than Hygiene
  • Bigger, Bubblier, and Better
  • Back to Nature
  • Enter the Stranger
• Notes
• References