Across diverse cultures, social norms of reciprocity clearly vary according to the structure of the economy, particularly the relative importance of the household, market, commons or state in provisioning for society’s needs.26 People’s sense of reciprocity appears to co-evolve with their economy’s structure: a fascinating finding with important im

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Underlying the structural changes was an ideological shift toward reciprocity, an ideal of sharing and balance that undergirded economics, politics, and religion across much of the continent. The Sonoran Desert–living O’odham, for example, developed a himdag , or “way of life,” that taught that people are supposed to share with one another accordin... See more