Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Table of Contents - February 2012 - Volume 35, Issue 01  

Open Peer Commentary

Perspectives from ethnography on weak and strong reciprocity

Polly Wiessnera1

a1 Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84108. wiessner@soft-link.com http://www.anthro.utah.edu/faculty/wiessner.html

Abstract

To add ethnographic perspective to Guala's arguments, I suggest reasons why experimental and ethnographic evidence do not concur and highlight some difficulties in measuring whether positive and negative reciprocity are indeed costly. I suggest that institutions to reduce the costs of maintaining cooperation are not limited to complex societies.

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    Reciprocity: Weak or strong? What punishment experiments do (and do not) demonstrate Francesco Guala Department of Economics, University of Milan, 20122 Milan, Italy. francesco.guala@unimi.it http://users.unimi.it/guala/index.htm