
Articles
Hospitality as a Tribe
Carlotta Zanoli, Juan Carlos Baumgartner
YEAR
2023
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Ancestral Emotion - Where hospitality started
The essence of hospitality is rooted in ancestral emotions, dating back to our earliest descendants who relied on communal living and cooperation to survive. In the primordial environment of tribes, hospitality was not just a custom, but a necessity to promote trust, build alliances, and ensure collective well-being. It was an expression of empathy, kindness, and solidarity that formed the cornerstone of social cohesion. The word hospitality comes from the Latin hospitalitas, which means to receive a guest. Welcoming back those who were away from home is one of the oldest activities, and it began as a simple act of kindness.
Since cave times, when survival depended on the sharing of resources, hospitality was an essential element of existence. The action of hosting someone, nurturing them, creating a comfortable environment conducive to energy recovery, and providing a safe place to rest without danger brings out an ancestral emotion that we have probably lost during the transition, one that binds us to a very human principle: joy. The joy of sharing safe spaces is embedded in our social DNA and is part of the fabric of humanity.