Unlike travel, tourism is a modern phenomenon that has a short lifespan, and the scientific study of this phenomenon is shorter than that. The knowledge of anthropology compared to knowledges such as geography, economy and management studied the phenomenon of tourism later. Of course, the entry of anthropology into the fieldwork of tourism was not simultaneous in all parts of the world. Western European and North American anthropologists dealt with this phenomenon earlier than other geographical regions. On the other hand, in the countries of the Middle East, we come across anthropology of tourism very late, and it is only in recent years that mostly incoherent studies in this field are carried out in some Middle East countries. Here, we are going to talk about the state of anthropology of tourism in the Middle East from five perspectives: 1- the reason for the late formation of this field in the Middle East; 2- Topics that are generally studied; 3- Books and articles published in this field; 4- Courses related to the anthropology of tourism in the universities of these countries and 5- Pathology of this field of anthropology in the Middle East. Both categories of resources produced by native and non-native researchers in these fields are evaluated. The collection of data and information for this presentation has been obtained in three ways: 1- the experiences of the writer who has been working in this field for many years in Iran and has done his doctoral thesis in this field in Turkey; 2- Interviews with experts and specialists in the anthropology of tourism or fields close to it in a number of Middle Eastern countries; 3- Searching scientific sites to find related articles and books by combining the keywords ethnography/ ethnology/ anthropology + travel/ tourism/ trip. Despite the application of the above combined field and library methods, the collected data is still incomplete and can only show a general view of the state of the anthropology of tourism in some countries of the Middle East.
