Reciprocity (cultural anthropology)

Annette Weiner argued that the "norm of reciprocity" is deeply implicated in the development of Western economic theory. Both John Locke and Adam Smith used the idea of reciprocity to justify a free market without state intervention. Reciprocity was used, on the one hand, to legitimize the idea of a self-regulating market; and to argue how individual vice was transformed into social good on the other. Western economic theorists starting with the eighteenth-century Scots economists Sir James Stuart and Smith differentiated pre-modern natural (or self-subsistent) economies from civilized economies marked by a division of labour that necessitated exchange. Like early sociologist Émile Durkheim, they viewed natural economies as characterized by mechanical solidarity (like so many peas in a pod) whereas the civilized division of labour made producers mutually dependent upon one another resulting in organic solidarity. These oppositions solidified by the late nineteenth century in the evolutionary idea of primitive communism marked by mechanical solidarity as the antithesis and alter ego of Western "Homo economicus". It is this armchair anthropology opposition that originally informed modern anthropological debate when Malinowski sought to overturn the opposition and argue that archaic societies are equally regulated by the norm of reciprocity and maximizing behaviour. The concept was key to the debate between early anthropologists Bronislaw Malinowski and Marcel Mauss on the meaning of "Kula exchange" in the Trobriand Islands off Papua New Guinea during the First World War. Malinowski used Kula exchange to demonstrate that apparently random gift-giving was in fact a key political process by which non-state political leadership spanning a vast archipelago was established. Gift-giving, he argued, was not altruistic (as it supposedly is in our society) but politically motivated for individual gain. Marcel Mauss theorized the impetus for a return as "the spirit of the gift," an idea that has provoked a long debate in economic anthropology on what motivated the reciprocal exchange. This claim has been disputed by anthropologists Jonathan Parry, Annette Weiner, and David Graeber amongst others. == Basic types ==

The domestic mode of production Marshall Sahlins has emphasized that non-market exchange is constrained by social relationships. That is, exchange in non-market societies is less about acquiring the means of production (whether land or tools) and more about the redistribution of finished goods throughout a community. These social relationships are largely kinship-based. His discussion of types of reciprocity is located within what he calls the "domestic mode of production." His typology of reciprocity thus refers to "cultures lacking a political state, and it applies only insofar as the economy and social relations have not been modified by the historic penetration of states." Sahlins' typology In these circumstances, the reciprocal exchange can be divided into two types: dyadic back-and-forth exchange (reciprocity), and pooling (redistribution). Pooling is a system of reciprocities. It is a within-group relationship, whereas reciprocity is a between relationship. Pooling establishes a centre, whereas reciprocity inevitably establishes two distinct parties with their own interests. == Reciprocity and marital alliance ==

The alliance theory (or general theory of exchanges) is the name given to the structural method of studying kinship relations. It finds its origins in Claude Lévi-Strauss's Elementary Structures of Kinship (1949). According to Levi-Strauss, the universal prohibition of incest pushes human groups towards exogamy where certain categories of kin are forbidden to marry. The incest taboo is thus a negative prescription; without it, nothing would push men to go searching for women outside of their inner kinship circle, or vice versa. In a process akin to the division of labour which makes exchange necessary, one's daughter or sister is offered to someone outside a family circle, and starts a circle of exchange of women: in return, the giver is entitled to a woman from the other's intimate kinship group. Thus the negative prescriptions of the prohibition have positive counterparts. The idea of the alliance theory is thus of a reciprocal or a generalized exchange which founds affinity, just as economic exchange due to the division of labour resulted in organic solidarity. This global phenomenon takes the form of a "circulation of women" which links together the various social groups in one whole: society. Lévi-Strauss emphasizes this as a system of generalized exchange based on indirect reciprocity. A generalized system does not involve a direct or balanced dyadic exchange and hence presupposes an expansion of trust. == Reciprocity in the aspect of Cultural Anthropology ==

In Cultural Anthropology, Reciprocity can be characterized as an exchange with the expectation to receive. The individuals who give and individuals who receive are connected to each other in durable relationships, and thus expectations are generated. Power dynamics are distributed amongst individuals of varying hierarchical degrees to convey the significance of the gifts exchanged. There is an importance placed on the value of gifts given to those of greater hierarchical statuses, and formalities are taken into account. Contrary to the generalizing assumption of reciprocity (where a return is expected), altruistic behavior(prosocial) occurs when there is no expectation of a return. Altruistic behavior is shaped by internal processes and situations that enable individuals to make decisions in a prosocial manner. Altruism may also be employed to manipulate situations, presenting deceptive behaviors where the giver's true intention is self-interest and hidden motives. Reciprocity emerges as a significant subject considering both kinship ties and broader societal interactions, exploring the various approaches to reciprocating acts of kindness. == See also ==