Real-Life Communication
You are a cultural anthropologist working as a professor at a university.
You have just returned from a field trip to a South Seas island. For over
a year, you lived with a native group and learned everything you could about
their customs and way of life.
Since returning, you have been using
your experiences to illustrate basic concepts of cultural anthropology to
your students. Today, you want to explain the meaning of the terms "balanced
and generalized reciprocity" to your Anthropology 101 class.
You begin
by writing a definition of the two terms on the board:
- Balanced reciprocity: This is a mutual exchange of goods between individuals
or groups, with an expectation of return.
- Generalized reciprocity: This is a sharing of goods among a band or group,
where there is no expectation of return by any one individual. An individual
or family shares their goods for the benefit of the entire group.
The class picks up the meaning of the first term quite easily. The
second is more difficult. You try to make it clearer by describing an experience
that happened to you during your stay in the South Seas.
When you first
arrived, the people seemed very happy to meet you. As a welcoming gift, they
gave you an enormous basket of fresh fruit. You tell the class that you were
relieved to have made such a good first impression.
However, a problem
soon arose. Food doesn't stay fresh very long in the warm, tropical climate
of the South Seas. Soon the fruit began to spoil. You wondered what to do.
You didn't want to offend anyone by throwing the fruit out -- a bad impression
could ruin your entire research project.
By the second day, you were
very worried. When a local native visited you that night, you told him your
problem. To your immense relief, he explained that you were supposed to give
the food out to all the people, even the ones who gave you the food in the
first place.
The point of the gift was for the people to show you that
you are welcome. You show that you are happy to be in their community by giving
the food back again.
Imagine that you are the professor, and explain
to the class why the native's welcoming gift of fruit is an example of
generalized reciprocity. Since this is a first-year class, you need to do
this in layman's terms that they can understand.