Reciprocity in Human Societies: From Ancient Times to the Modern Welfare State

“The book has many merits, and it can be warmly recommended to all researchers, teachers and students in wide fields of related research. Kujala and Danielsbacka clearly provide new insights into reciprocity by … shedding light on the questions of why and how reciprocity has played an important role in premodern and contemporary societies and will continue to do so in the future.” (Hans Hämäläinen, Finnish Yearbook of Population Research, Vol. 53, 2018)

Presenting new insights into reciprocity, this book combines Marcel Mauss’s well-known gift theory with Barrington Moore’s idea of mutual obligations linking rulers and the ruled. Teasing out the interrelatedness of these approaches, Reciprocity in Human Societies suggests that evolutionary psychology reveals a human tendency for reciprocity and collaboration, not only in a mutually cooperative way but also through increasing retributive moral emotions. The book discusses various historical societies and the different models of the current welfare state―Nordic (social democratic), conservative, and liberal― and the repercussions of the neoliberal policies of tax havens, tax cuts, and austerity with a cross-disciplinary approach that bridges evolutionary psychology, sociology, and social anthropology with history.