Constructing the Other by Means of Hospitality: the Case of Argentina

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE AND AXIOLOGY Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology E-ISSN (Online): 2065-5002 ISSN (Print): 1584-1057

Advisory Board Prof. Dr. David Altman, Instituto de Ciencia Política, Universidad Catolica de Chile, Chile Prof. Emeritus Dr. Horst Baier, University of Konstanz, Germany Prof. Dr. David Cornberg, University Ming Chuan, Taiwan Prof. Dr. Paul Cruysberghs, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium Prof. Dr. Nic Gianan, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Philippines Prof. Dr. Marco Ivaldo, Department of Philosophy “A. Aliotta”, University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy Prof. Dr. Michael Jennings, Princeton University, USA Prof. Dr. Maximiliano E. Korstanje, University of Palermo, Argentina Prof. Dr. Richard L. Lanigan, Southern Illinois University, USA Prof. Dr. Christian Lazzeri, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, France Prof. Dr. Massimo Leone, University of Torino, Italy Prof. Dr. Asunción López-Varela Azcárate, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain Prof. Dr. Christian Möckel, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany Prof. Dr. Devendra Nath Tiwari, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India Prof. Dr. José María Paz Gago, University of Coruña, Spain Prof. Dr. Mario Perniola, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy Prof. Dr. Traian D. Stănciulescu, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Iassy, Romania Prof. Dr. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, Purdue University & Ghent University

Editorial Board Editor-in-Chief: Co-Editors: Prof. dr. Nicolae Râmbu Prof. dr. Aldo Marroni Faculty of Philosophy and Social- Dipartimento di Lettere, Arti e Scienze Sociali Political Sciences Università degli Studi G. d’Annunzio Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Via dei Vestini, 31, 66100 Chieti Scalo, Italy B-dul Carol I, nr. 11, 700506 Iasi, Romania [email protected] [email protected] PD Dr. Till Kinzel Executive Editor: Englisches Seminar Dr. Simona Mitroiu Technische Universität Braunschweig, Human Sciences Research Department Bienroder Weg 80, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University 38106 Braunschweig, Germany Lascar Catargi, nr. 54, 700107 Iasi, Romania [email protected] [email protected]

Editorial Assistant: Dr. Marius Sidoriuc Designer: Aritia Poenaru Cultura International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology Vol. 12, No. 1 (2015)

Editor-in-Chief Nicolae Râmbu Guest Editors: I-Chun Wang and Asun López-Varela Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

Umschlagabbildung: © Aritia Poenaru

ISSN 2065-5002 ISBN 978-3-631-66651-7 (Print) E-ISBN 978-3-653-05998-4 (E-Book) DOI 10.3726/978-3-653-05998-4 © Peter Lang GmbH Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften Frankfurt am Main 2015 All rights reserved. Peter Lang Edition is an Imprint of Peter Lang GmbH. Peter Lang – Frankfurt am Main · Bern · Bruxelles · New York · Oxford · Warszawa · Wien All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.

This publication has been peer reviewed. www.peterlang.com

CONTENTS

ALLEGORIES OF IMPERIALISM: BARBARIANS AND WORLD CULTURES

I-Chun Wang & Asun López-Varela 7 Allegories of Imperialism: Barbarians and World Cultures

David Lea 17 Sovereignty, Linguistic Imperialism and the Quantification of Reality

Abobo Kumbalonah 31 The Invention of a Philosophy: Postcolonialism in the Context of Akan Proverbs

Antonia Peroikou 45 Speaking (of) the Unspoken: Exploring the Mystery behind Friday’s Severed Tongue in Coetzee’s Foe

Temisanren Ebijuwa &Adeniyi Sulaiman Gbadegesin 57 Mediating Ethnic Identities: Reaching Consensus through Dialogue in an African Society

Shiuhhuah Serena Chou 71 Claiming the Sacred: Indigenous Knowledge, Spiritual Ecology, and the Emergence of Eco-cosmopolitanism

Stephen Joyce 85 The Fearful Merging of Self and Other: Intra-civilizational and Inter-civilizational Colonial Cultures in Richard E. Kim’s Lost Names

Oxana Karnaukhova 99 Tracing the Roots of Colonial History and Orientology in Russia

Michaela Keck 115 Culture-Crossing in Madison Smartt Bell’s Haitian Trilogy and Neo-Captivity Narrative

Mary Theis 129 Ideal Isolation for the Greater Good: The Hazards of Postcolonial Freedom

Maximiliano Korstanje 145 Constructing the Other by Means of Hospitality: the Case of Argentina

Liudmila Baeva & Anna Romanova 159 Challenges to Frontier Allegories: the Caspian Sea Region in Southern Russia

Soon-ok Myong & Byong-soon Chun 173 Cultural Politics of Otherizing Hijabed Muslims in Kazakhstan

Nurlykhan Aljanova & Karlygash Borbassova 18 Etiquette Rules and Intercultural Relations in Kazakh Society after Independence from the Soviet Union

Jinghua Guo 197 The Multi-dimensional Model of Cross-Cultural Interpretation as an Anti-centralist Tool in World Literature Perspectives

Huiyong Wu 211 The Impact of Confucianism on Chinese Representations of Japanese Imperialism as well as on International Relations

Simon C. Estok 221 Bull and Barbarity, Feeding the World

10.5840/cultura201512111 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 12(1)/2015: 145–157

Constructing the Other by Means of Hospitality: the Case of Argentina

Maximiliano Korstanje Department of Economics University of Palermo, Argentina [email protected]

Abstract. In the hyper-mobile world of today, the industry of tourism and cultural entertainment, witnesses the multiplication of opportunities to travel. According to John Urry, we inhabit mobile cultures where being kind to strangers is a positive cultural value. This reality archives the bloody past of hospitality, which from the ideological fields facilitated, for instance, the conquest of the Americas. In the present discussion, I delve into the world of literature and explore Viaje a caballo por las provincias Argentinas [Journey on horseback across the provinces of Argentine] a work originally written by William Mac Cann, a British businessman who visited the country between 1947 and 1948. His observations not only reveal the collective patterns of be- haviour that have remained part of daily life up to date. The volume describes the attempts of an elite interested in creating a united, but subordinated, image of society, and illuminates the diverse mechanisms of imperial expansion. Hospitality plays a crucial role in the hierarchy of travellers presented in the book, with some belonging to the higher classes of society and others unnamed. Keywords: hospitality, travels, Argentina, Mac Cann, literature

INTRODUCTION

Nation states were formed and expanded under the principle hospitality, granting free transit to foreign guests and visitors within their territory, as long as they abode by the rules and regulations of the state. Thus, it is fascinating that the cosmology of certain nations, such as most of those in the territory of today’s Latin-America, is ambiguously intertwined with the legacy of hospitality and conquest. The comprehensive study by Paul Lynch, Jennie Germann-Molz, Ali- son Mcintosh, Peter Lugosi and Conrad Lashley (2011) shows that although hospitality has received attention from various disciplines, its role as a mechanism of social cohesion and control is a characteristic feature. In the Western tradition, the concept of hospitality has been associated to the reception of strangers and foreign visitors. A great variety of myths and traditions, in diverse cultures, emphasized the importance that

145 Maximiliano Korstanje / Constructing the Other by Means of Hospitality new-comers should receive good treatment, and in some cases a hearty welcome. Rites related to hospitality appear in many cultures. This issue of Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology offers several examples of hospitality in the central Asian culture of Kazakh- stan. Similar issues related to African cultures have been documented by anthropologists such as James George Frazer (1958), Jack Goody (1982) or Amy Amuquandoh (2010). One of the most pervasive aspects of hospitality is the vulnerable condition of the guests, who may not only be unfamiliar with the topog- raphy and culture of territory, but also with the intentions of host. Johan Huizinga (2014) has shown that anything can happen at a banquet where the guests might be drunk and insult the honour of others. Indeed, since ancient times, the ceremony of hospitality (hospitalis teseras lat), was performed in order to scrutinize the intentions of strangers (Korstanje, 2006; Carcopino, 1956; Arangio-Ruiz, 1967). Immanuel Kant proposed that in ancient societies, where war-fare was a widely-accepted form of industry, and hospitality advances peace because it grants strangers the right not to be treated as an enemy. Thus, hospitality may have served as a catalyst to prevent wars among nation-states (see also Sarkar and George, 2010; Timothy and Tosun, 2003). Following Ramos and Loscertales (1948) hospitality may be defined as “an inter-tribal mechanism of defence based strictly the process of reciprocity that engenders mutual obligations in time of peace or war” (Ra- mos and Loscertales, 1948: 8). Daniel Innerarity (2008) has demonstrated that hospitality might hide a kind of ontological fragility (or fear) in the face of death, and that being kind to strangers is a way to generate positive energy in the hope that it would return to us (see also Korstanje, 2013). Hospitality became, in many ways, a pathway for trade, communi- cation and free-transit networks (Duncan-Jones, 1982; Macdonald, 1982). In today’s world of commercial and touristic relations, the understanding of hospitality may have changed, but it continues to perform the role of introducing visitors to a particular culture or subculture, and advanc- ing tolerance. However, under some conditions, the meaning of hospitality may be politically manipulated to exert violence or expand the domination over other communities (Geertz, 1980). This domination can take many forms. For instance, Perla Zusman (2007) argues convincingly that the travels abroad of Domingo Faustino

146 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 12(1)/2015: 145–157

Sarmiento inspired him to implement specific government policies when he reached the presidency of Argentina. He identified certain economic models, and cultural and scientific patterns of progress in industrial countries such as the United States, England or France, and he thought that they should be implanted in Argentina. His plans show that for cen- turies the guiding project for many emerging countries in Latin America was based, in many cases, in an idealized image of these who had once exercised colonization, a mode of thinking that has contributed to the invisibility of the local creole values.

EMPIRES AND THEIR ALLEGORIES

The rise of Rome changed the local economies of the Empire concen- trating more resources in densely-populated mega-cities. As exemplary centres, these cities were of significant attraction for thousands of travellers who came from diverse provinces of the Empire (Paoli, 1963; Car- copino, 1956; Arangio-Ruiz, 1967). For a long time, the dichotomy between patronatus and hospitality, originally coined by from Latin hospitium, and referring to a covenant or pact for the protection of strangers during their sojourn in territories of the Roman Empire, was widespread in the Roman thought. While the former echoed the protection of centralized patron, the latter signalled a decentralized focus of authority (Sanchez Moreno, 2001; Ariño, 2012; Nicols, 2011; Dubandin and Slater, 2011; Korstanje, 2010a). Both institutions were conducive to different economic models. After the fall of the Roman Empire, its more Romanized province, the Kingdom of Spain became itself an Empire in 15th century. This in- cipient over-seas power officially discovered America and began to expand its boundaries following the Roman model. The local tribes showed a recalcitrant resistance to Spanish domination, being finally dis- suaded by the adoption of the Christian religion and the importation of consuming lifestyle, based on trade, profit and leisure. As David Weber (2002) has put it, one of the most efficient ways of controlling the “indi- os bravos” was the adoption of games for entertainment, clothes and cultural values that instilled in the Indians the pride of being Spaniards. Thus, the legitimacy of the empires has been seen to work combining disciplinary and educative mechanisms, sometimes including violence, with dissuasive techniques of indirect control.

147 Maximiliano Korstanje / Constructing the Other by Means of Hospitality

José Luis de Imaz (1984) indicates that the Spanish Empire gave Latin America a particular view of politics, neighbouring relations and particular ways to understand the “Other,” different from those used in the Anglo-World. In the Spanish case, the process of colonization was based on a feudal class system that encouraged the bipolar logic of “friend-or- foe,” proper of military circles. The Empire prohibited its colonies to negotiate among them, a practice that persisted after independence. As in the case of Rome, the military forces of the Spanish Empire situated themselves in areas rich in mineral resources in order to extract silver and gold (Korstanje, 2006). In return, the motherland sent back civilized forms of leisure, such as books and clothes, and exercised supervision and intervention in public affairs (Imaz, 1984). A seminal review of military coups in Argentina carried out by Debo- rah Norden shows that military forces in the nation have internalized patterns of conduct from the colonization period. Two important theo- ries explain why militaries are prone to political intervention. On the one hand, the theory of professionalism signals to the cocoon where military- forces have been educated, based on a profound sentiment of difference with respect to civilian order. Officer-ship is considered a valuable pro- fession, provided of everything needed to keep this sentiment of exem- plarity whereby militaries feel they might need to intervene in politics if national security is at risk. On the other hand, the “doctrine of bureau- cratization” explains that rebellion might result from the antinomy between the front-line and the desk-officer archetypes. As armed forces evolved from strong autocrat apparatuses, more prominence was given to rules than to ideals of chivalry. In Argentina, politics has been subject- ed to the struggle between these two contrasting groups: one emulating warrior archetypes, the other more interested in preserving a democracy where corruption has benefited from the logic of bureaucracy (Norden, 1996). More important is the discussion on the impact of the successive coups upon the atomization of political parties, and the lack of trust of citizenry in their institutions. Finally, another important issue is the fact that authority has been exercised from a strong “pigmentocracia,” where whites have control over other races and ethnicities. The brief example brings to the fore the fact that colonizing empires not only creates ideologies, allegories and excuses to legitimate their ex- propriation. They also forge a collective personality that determines the

148 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 12(1)/2015: 145–157 nation’s future consciousness. This begs another interesting question on how the Spanish Empire colonized the Americas.

THE CONQUEST OF THE AMERICAS

Scholars have questioned Spanish legitimacy in Americas from all possible angles (see, for instance, Keal, 2003). The formation of “Natural Law” has been found and instrument of colonization (Waswo, 1996), engendering a discourse that justified colonizing activities and abuses, and modelling a fictional allegory upon the Roman archetype, its culture and civility in European mind. The treaty of Tordesillas, issued by the Catholic Pope Alexandre IV, conferred the right to the Kingdom of Spain to colonize America at its own discretion. However, the cruelty exercised by Spanish colonization led other European nations to question the authority of the Catholic Church. In Britain, for instance, the political philosophies of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke rested upon the thesis that only improved lands could be appropriated by the Crown, so that the concept of property granted to colonists was subject to hard work in order to better the land, as Anthony Pagden (1995) has indicated. In Spain, scholars from the Salamanca school also presented objec- tions to the legitimacy of Crown in America, some of which were based on the fact that local inhabitants were not part of the Catholic Church (Martín, 1994; Muldoon, 1972; 1991; Rivera-Pagan, 1992; Pagden, 1995; Macintyre, 2009). However, other scholars disagreed, arguing that Spain, as part of the Roman Empire, had already populated America even before Christopher Columbus’ first expedition, precluding the rights of possession which rested on the “civitas” of Roman law (see for instance, Pagden, 1995; Montgomery, 1998; Walwo, 1996). Anthony Pagden adds that after years of hot-debate, the discrepancy had an unexpected solu- tion when Spain received the first chronicles from local governors. Indi- ans not only resisted the trespassing of Spaniards in their territories; they also showed themselves unaware of the regulations of free transit, en- rooted in natural law and on the old Roman concept of homo viatores [travelling citizens], sustained by the principle of hospitality. Thus, the ideological-machinery prompted a deeper support to military conquest and ended the debate on the conquest of America. While mobility was encouraged in order to foster trade among civilized cities, hunters- gatherer tribes were immobilized. The empire was founded upon the im-

149 Maximiliano Korstanje / Constructing the Other by Means of Hospitality position of special rights to free-transit only when trade and exchange of goods took place. From that moment, Spain planned a rapid colonization based on two major assumptions: the exercise of hospitality and the control of geographical boundaries (Calvo, 1996; Guidotti- Hernández, 2011). The first colonists were encouraged by the vice-royalties to compile geographical maps and inventories of all unknown places to be indexed under the imperial-eye (Korstanje, 2006). In this vein, Marie L. Pratt (2011) argues convincingly that travelling allowed the creation of overseas narratives about Others, legitimizing a sentiment of superiority between centre and periphery. In these, natives are ambiguously portrayed as naively subordinated to imperial ruling and object to considerable criticism, while simultaneously seen as part an idyllic natural state that civilized societies have lost. In a brilliant text, Guidotti-Hernández (2011) evidenced how the formation of nation-states in the Americas imposed disciplinary mechanisms of control on the nomad tribes, and that in the borderlands violence was exerted in explicit and implicit ways. In particular, aspects that affected mobility (including the circulation of products and the movement of workers) were disciplined by the Spanish government with great penalties. The concept of hospitality played a vital role in the discussion to grant the right of Spain over Americas (Pagden, 1995; Korstanje, 2006; Belloso Martín, 1994; Muldoon, 1972; 1991). Here, the concept of hospitality was politically manipulated to exert domination and dispossess aboriginals of their lands. Another example of the violation of hospitality rules is evinced in the myth Paris, son of Priam, king of Troy, whose elopement with Helen Queen of Sparta was the immediate cause of the Trojan War. In the same vein, Clifford Geertz (1980), documented the pervasive nature of hospitality in Bali in the 19th century. Geertz shows that hospitality may be manipulated not only to protect political privileges, but also to legitimize intervention and preventive attacks, with perhaps the hidden aim of downright conquest. This manipulation can be performed whenever one group is judged following the cultural values of another who is dotted with more resources. Under these circumstances, there are serious possibilities that the group in inferior conditions is forced to negotiate with the dominant power. So far, this essay review was aimed at exploring the political uses on the principle of hospitality in Americas as well as the discourse that sym- bolically disciplined free transit and mobility. Thus, while nation states

150 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 12(1)/2015: 145–157 controlled the circulation of goods, hospitality may have paved the ways to legitimate the aboriginal dispossessions. The final part of this paper discusses the current definition of hospitality linked to commercial goals and today’s tourist industry, questioning if this might not be a continu- ance by which empires continue to expand.

TRAVELS, TOURING AND DIASPORAS

One might speculate that tourism emulates the archetype of hospitality activating the connection between a desired centre and its periphery. The cartographic representation of empires consists on a dialectical relation between an ecumene (from the Greek verb ƯੁƪƝƹ, oikéŇ, “to inhabit,” tem used in the Greco-Roman empire to refer to the inhabited universe) or exemplary community, frequently a city, that functioned as a space of in- fluence, and its periphery, which accepted and supported the superiority of the centre by means of ideological manipulations. Amy Bushnell- Turner and Jack Greene affirm that

Europeans from the sponsoring states and their creole offspring everywhere domi- nated the cores, transforming the cultural spaces they occupied by introducing and moulding to local circumstances European systems of law, patterns of land occupa- tion, and social economic, political, and cultural institutions, practices and form. (Turner and Greene, 2002: 3)

Therefore, it is safe to say that empires favour a differential discourse that stresses some events of the past and ignores others. Along cultural practices, the meaning of words may be politically designed to shape specific forms of consciousness, and this includes the concept of hospitality. In recent years the history of hospitality has been examined from perspectives such as ethnology and anthropology, taking into consideration the impact of tourism. The new views considered the concept from the perspective of its commercial functionality, and a dichotomy between commercial and non-commercial hospitality. For instance, Jacques Der- rida drew a model to understand the role played by reciprocity in the treatment of others and with regards to hospitality. He distinguished between conditioned-hospitality, oriented to restrict the presence of strangers lest they can pay for their visit, from absolute-hospitality, conferred universally to all human beings, regardless their patrimony or

151 Maximiliano Korstanje / Constructing the Other by Means of Hospitality origin. Maximiliano Korstanje has also explained that modern nation states respect hospitality through the lens of cultural industries, and the tourism industry in particular. Whenever a factional group wants to dam- age the state, as in terrorism for instance, they direct their attacks to the mobility of citizens, affecting not only the reputation but also the relations among states (Korstanje, 2014; Clayton, Mustelier and Korstanje, 2014). Thus, mobility, travel writing, hospitality and colonialism are inex- tricably intertwined, as the case of William Mac Cann’s Viaje a caballo por las provincias Argentinas [Journey on horseback across the provinces of Argentine] shows.

ARGENTINA: A CASE STUDY

As I have argued, the idea of hospitality when travelling may have helped power groups to construct topographies and a geographies for future colonization. This is also achieved by the imposition of discourses that legitimate superiority over aboriginal communities. The particular case of Argentina shows that the formation of the nation was strongly influenced by British travellers whose elite image was projected as cultural imaginary over the local population. It is safe to say that Argentinean elite scorned the Indian legacy, praising the benefits of Northern Europe and British Empire (Korstanje, 2010b; Herrera, 2012; Balcazar, Berardi and Taylor-Ritzler, 2011). This discourse, constructed amidst troubling relationships with Spain, engendered a gap that was filled by Great Brit- ain and its theory of eugenics. Elite Argentineans were seen as direct de- scendants of European migration, particularly British, while the native others were stereotyped as “cholos, gauchos and mestizos,” the terms pejoratively used to refer to them. Former president Julio A Roca, one of the founding parents of nation, admired and documented in personal let- ters the marvels of London during his diplomat trips (Luna, 1991). This status quo orchestrated undoubtedly an ideology that proclaimed the superiority of British origin over the rest of society; and in doing so, of- fered a restricted hospitality intended to preserve the security of some desired guests. William Mac Cann was one of such. He went through Argentina in 1847 and 1848 visiting many provinces during the post mass-migration period encouraged by Roca’s presidency. Although his original interest was to weave a solid net of contacts and make commercial profits, Mac Cann’s travelling account situated him as

152 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 12(1)/2015: 145–157 a privileged observer, widely cited by many local historians. Because of lack of space, here I will not explore their observations, but only the ideological discourse around. Mac Cann holds a particular critical view in what respects the degree of speculation of fixing prices at time. This speculation led to unimagined inflation, where the merchandise prices varied from day to night. Mac Cann visited many farms in Azul, Tapalque, Lujan, Rosario and Tandil, strongly interested in accumulating facts from 1810 that would explain the failure of his own businesses. He concluded that Argentina was facing the impossibility of conducting a negotiated government, a thesis that, he claimed, originated in the fact that dictatorships are always followed by a liminal state of anarchy that leads to civil fragmentation. In the case of Argentina this was exempli- fied with the coup d’état against Juan Manuel Rosas (1829-52). Hospitality and mobility were among the main points discussed by this traveller, who emphasized the spirituality of the visited places and the extent to which the landscape determines a collective consciousness, struc- tured in favour of Anglo-race supremacy. He proclaimed that London was a city particularly impressed by Buenos Aires, and hoped that thousands of British workers, pauperized by the industrial revolution back home, would arrive to these fertile grounds. The details covered in his account lead to an elitist discourse where local customs, most of them considered uncivilized, should be overweighed by British superiority.

A few years subsequently, the invasion of the country of British Troops, the particu- lars of which are detailed hereafter, in our historical sketch, made the native ac- quainted with another class of countrymen. The political and commercial inter- course of the succeeding revolutionary period, however, began a new era; and great- ly increased their knowledge of the English character. The special encouragement given to British colonists […] (Mac Cann, 1985: 90)

Mac Cann developed an archetype of Argentineans based on the observations of his journeys, and the prosperity and abundance of natural resources, whom he thought where a particular gift of God to these lands. However, he claimed that the lack of rigid rules led looking people to be lazy at work. Mac Cann presented Mr. Thwaites as a model farmer of British extraction whom he praised for the British style of his house- hold and, above all, for his hospitability.

153 Maximiliano Korstanje / Constructing the Other by Means of Hospitality

We, however, reached the house of Mr. Thwaites about an hour before sunset, where we were hospitably welcomed, and invited to rest for a day. I had not provided myself with any letter of introduction – except one, which would not be available until I had travelled four hundred miles, when I might require a fresh supply of ei- ther funds or horses; but I safely depended entirely on the hospitality of those amongst whom I might be thrown. (Mac Cann, 1985: 60)

To put this in bluntly, the travel documented the local customs revital- izing a subordinated image of the locals. Wherever he went, stories of cattle-raiding were heard. Only British, Irish peoples, local judges or poli- ticians, Europeans were overtly recognized with a name. Among the top- ics of Mac Cann’s travels we found the following guiding lines: Argentina was a growing country enmeshed in internal civil wars and conflicts; since dictatorship determined the collective personality of the country, what derived was “anarchy,” expressed in speculative inflation, and cha- os; England embraced the progress but sacrificed its happiness. This not only ushered many conational to select Argentina as a prosper destina- tion, but also it portrayed a pejorative allegory of locals, defined as lazy, low-skill educated, greed and so forth; the concept of hospitality and lodging only are present for British land-owners. Those locals who helped Mac Cann are not easily recognized in the reading, only with names as Don Jose, Doña Maria; following Montesquieu, the romantic writers thought that whether determined the collective personality of a country; Lockean concept of labour, as a prerequisite for superiority, was present in Mac Cann’s text; Juan Manuel de Rosas and Anglo-French blockade of the Rio de la Plata was a foundational event for Mac Cann. Far from what the popular parlance precludes, hospitality is an old social institution that regulates the encounters between strangers. However, the rules of host are previously defined according to the politics. Doing the correct thing for the host serves as a clause of negotiation to cement the legitimacy over the rest. Not only the leaders of a tribe, or a community give hospitality to strangers, but also this act represents a sign of power. Rejecting hospitality in many cultures exhibits the rage of Gods, which takes shape in disasters and bad fortune. To what an extent, hospitality is a dispositif of politics is the main entry this text discussed. Ar- gentina, from its outset, closed the boundaries to create its own sense of identity. The aristocracy and elite devoted considerable admiration of British culture. This was the reason why, part of national literature has been influenced by British travellers such as William Mac Cann. Howev-

154 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 12(1)/2015: 145–157 er, this sentiment of admiration covered other local voices as aborigines, mestizo, cholos, and other ethnicities that remained subordinated to elite’s discourse. It is clear how hospitality, as discourse, accompanies the imperial-eye, its guiding values. In this vein, literature was a fertile ground to decode the complexity of ideology. This reminds that not only Americas were discovered and later conquered by the concept of hospitality, but also it remained in the core of capitalist-ethos.

CONCLUSION

This essay has focused on the topic of hospitality as a possible mechanism of indoctrination and a legal perfect pretext for domination. I have argued that hospitality corresponds with a political instrument where some citizens are accepted in egalitarian conditions while others are rele- gated to a lower status. I have documented this research by means of the travel narrative Viaje a Caballo por las Provincias Argentinas authored by William Mac Cann, a document that includes the subjective observations of a British traveller, his stereotypes, beliefs, emotions and prejudices. For some time, the book functioned also as allegory constructed by Ar- gentinean elite to control those citizens considered of inferior extraction in the country.

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