Abstract
In an ever-growing mobile society, which is replacing the predominantly sedentary one, the contact with strangers/foreigners/outsiders increases rapidly, changing basic institutions of society such as home, neighborhood, family, work. The assurance of being welcomed everywhere we go becomes a need and a right. Urbanity, polite but impersonal treatment is no longer enough. Demands for a hospitality more filled with human warmth are growing. Even in commercial exchanges, terms such as customization, loyalty are signs of the desire for a more personal service encounter. The discussion of these themes is the background for this article which draws on the reflections of Jacques Derrida, Marcel Mauss, Julian Pitt-Rivers, and Anne Gotman, to unveil the four basic laws of hospitality: unconditionality, reciprocity, asymmetry, and compensation. Additionally, it intends to raise other issues that arise outside the current discussion, especially the case of tourism.
Keywords
Hospitality; Hospitableness; Unwritten laws; Tourism
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