Word: phyloxenia
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Though they may not have understood migrants like myself, everywhere in Greece, people kept repeating the word "phyloxenia." A coupling of "friendliness" and "strangers," it promises hospitality. I don't think the offer is ever made falsely or frivolously. Greeks are fascinated and amused by strangers, by differences, though not all tourists fit the category. Hordes of them are off-handedly dismissed as "the American" or "the Germans" or, in one rude case, "those Yugoslav barbarians." It's not hard to understand why: There are simply too many, and they hurry through the same monotonous motions. The people who both...
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