Frontier hospitality to strangers coexisted with deep suspicion of them
Evidence
The frontiersmen joined hospitality to strangers with a suspicion of them. They were suspicious that the stranger might in some way infringe upon their rights, or that his or her presence might in some way prove to be a disturbing factor in the new community … But there also existed a certain obligation to treat the stranger hospitably since it was recognized that in the wilderness he was altogether dependent upon such good will. Moreover, if the stranger proved an agreeable person, his visit was a welcome break in the monotony of the social life of the frontier and was more than welcome. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 63
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
- XREF: The simultaneous hospitality-suspicion response prefigures the mixed signals urban dwellers give strangers — relevant to how Julius reads ambiguous encounters.
Related
- Frontier hospitality coexisted with suspicion for self-protective reasons (similarity 0.93)
- Pre-urban responses to strangers mixed fear and hospitality (similarity 0.86)