Python element-wise tuple operations like sum

Is there anyway to get tuple operations in Python to work like this:

>>> a = (1,2,3)
>>> b = (3,2,1)
>>> a + b
(4,4,4)

instead of:

>>> a = (1,2,3)
>>> b = (3,2,1)
>>> a + b
(1,2,3,3,2,1)

I know it works like that because the __add__ and __mul__ methods are defined to work like that. So the only way would be to redefine them?

import operator
tuple(map(operator.add, a, b))

Using all built-ins..

tuple(map(sum, zip(a, b)))

This solution doesn't require an import:

tuple(map(lambda x, y: x + y, tuple1, tuple2))

from numpy import array

a = array( [1,2,3] )
b = array( [3,2,1] )

print a + b

gives array([4,4,4]).

See http://www.scipy.org/Tentative_NumPy_Tutorial

Sort of combined the first two answers, with a tweak to ironfroggy's code so that it returns a tuple:

import operator

class stuple(tuple):
    def __add__(self, other):
        return self.__class__(map(operator.add, self, other))
        # obviously leaving out checking lengths

>>> a = stuple([1,2,3])
>>> b = stuple([3,2,1])
>>> a + b
(4, 4, 4)

Note: using self.__class__ instead of stuple to ease subclassing.