The act or practice of being hospitable, that is, the reception
and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers, with
liberality and goodwill. Hospitality frequently refers to the
hospitality industry jobs for hotels, restaurants, casinos,
catering, resorts, clubs and any other service position that
deals with tourists.
Contemporary usage seems rather different from historical uses
that lend it personal connotations. Today's hospitality conjures
images of throwing good parties, gracious hosts entertaining,
etiquette, Martha Stewart or even talk shows, or, the
hospitality services industry as it relates to the entertainment
and tourism business. On the other hand, hospitality used to be,
and may still be, a serious personal duty or responsibility.
Hospitality is a prosaic word, even trivial, that everyone can
relate to, perhaps even more concretely so outside of North
American culture. It seems perhaps even a candidate for having
something like a universal meaning or agreement, if not positive
value.
In the western context, with its dynamic tension between Athens
and Jerusalem, two phases can be distinguished with a very
progressive transition: a hospitality based on an individually
felt sense of duty, and one based on "official" institutions for
organized but anonymous social services: special places for
particular types of "strangers" such as the poor, orphan, ill,
alien, criminal, etc. Perhaps this progressive
institutionalization can be aligned to the transition between
Middle Ages and Renaissance (Ivan Illich, The Rivers North of
the Future). |
