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| Hospitalité. Avec Mounira à Buvak, à côté de Douchanbé. |
In spite what has been mentioned above about tradition, it is one of them in Central Asia we would like to see it continues. The tradition of hospitality. "The neighbor before the house", say the Arabic proverb. I am still amazed to have so easily been welcomed in the three visited countries. But what is the true nature of this beautiful inclination consisting in inviting the foreigner to walk into his home ?
"Since antiquity, there is a code of hospitality for foreigners falling within sacralisation : to welcome the other one is either to receive, without knowing it, God, or to obey Him." (Marie-Claire Grassi in her contribution to Lieux d’hospitalité, studies gathered by Alain Montandon.) The chapter 19 of the Book of Genesis describes how it was applied in the time of Abraham. Yahweh having taken appearance of three foreigners, Abraham moves towards them offering water, shade, milk and bread. Hospitality is a fundamental principle in Islam and is characterized in the way of welcoming and treating his guests with benevolence and heartiness. In the Greek mythology, Eumaeus, the swineherd who welcomes Ulysses disguised as a beggarby when he came back in Ithaca, alluded the tradition which requires him to honor his hosts even if they are be more unfortunate than him, because they all come from Zeus. Hospitality is holy thing. More prosaic, the anthropologist Jean Hannoyer speaks of daily routime diplomacy, of explicit consideration for another one in a culture of difference. We can calculate the time dedicated to the visits, he notices in "L’hospitalité, économie de la violence" (Journal Monde arabe Maghreb Machrek n°123), or even measure the spaces destined to the welcome in homes, including the most modest, to suggest the character of necessity of these links. Jean Hannoyer speaks about the Middle East, as place of passage, of movement and mobility. Could not these characters also apply in Central Asia ? Here also, the instability of places and anchorings is compensated by the strength and the necessity of the links which produce and maintain the interknowledge. But for Hannoyer, the hospitality is not a mark of benevolent and selfless civility. Quite the contrary, it opens a permanent account which maintains the credit of interknowledge : the guest of today will be the host of tomorrow. This point of view sadly accounting corresponds to what Jacques Derrida indicates under the term of conditional hospitality ; respect me, not damage my house, accept my culture, pay off me my efforts in one form or another. Derrida opposes it with the unconditional, pure and infinite hospitality ; I accept the other one as the implacably different from me, I offer my house, my home, my language, my nation, and even beyond what I can give, without counterparty. There are no limits to unconditional hospitality ; to limit this is to give this up.
"Since antiquity, there is a code of hospitality for foreigners falling within sacralisation : to welcome the other one is either to receive, without knowing it, God, or to obey Him." (Marie-Claire Grassi in her contribution to Lieux d’hospitalité, studies gathered by Alain Montandon.) The chapter 19 of the Book of Genesis describes how it was applied in the time of Abraham. Yahweh having taken appearance of three foreigners, Abraham moves towards them offering water, shade, milk and bread. Hospitality is a fundamental principle in Islam and is characterized in the way of welcoming and treating his guests with benevolence and heartiness. In the Greek mythology, Eumaeus, the swineherd who welcomes Ulysses disguised as a beggarby when he came back in Ithaca, alluded the tradition which requires him to honor his hosts even if they are be more unfortunate than him, because they all come from Zeus. Hospitality is holy thing. More prosaic, the anthropologist Jean Hannoyer speaks of daily routime diplomacy, of explicit consideration for another one in a culture of difference. We can calculate the time dedicated to the visits, he notices in "L’hospitalité, économie de la violence" (Journal Monde arabe Maghreb Machrek n°123), or even measure the spaces destined to the welcome in homes, including the most modest, to suggest the character of necessity of these links. Jean Hannoyer speaks about the Middle East, as place of passage, of movement and mobility. Could not these characters also apply in Central Asia ? Here also, the instability of places and anchorings is compensated by the strength and the necessity of the links which produce and maintain the interknowledge. But for Hannoyer, the hospitality is not a mark of benevolent and selfless civility. Quite the contrary, it opens a permanent account which maintains the credit of interknowledge : the guest of today will be the host of tomorrow. This point of view sadly accounting corresponds to what Jacques Derrida indicates under the term of conditional hospitality ; respect me, not damage my house, accept my culture, pay off me my efforts in one form or another. Derrida opposes it with the unconditional, pure and infinite hospitality ; I accept the other one as the implacably different from me, I offer my house, my home, my language, my nation, and even beyond what I can give, without counterparty. There are no limits to unconditional hospitality ; to limit this is to give this up.
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| Figurine en céramique produite dans le village des potiers de Richtan. |
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