Sahlins' Reciprocity Typology
Every favor sits on a spectrum from "no strings" to "I'm robbing you." Know which one you're in.
Grounded in the research on Reciprocity (cultural anthropology)
What actually is it?
Anthropologist Marshall Sahlins, in Stone Age Economics (1972), split human exchange into three types based on how socially close you are to the other person. He stretched Bronislaw Malinowski's earlier work into a clean spectrum: generalized, balanced, and negative reciprocity. The core claim: the rules of giving change with social distance. Close kin = give freely. Strangers = try to win. Everyone in between = keep score.
What's generalized reciprocity?
Pure giving with no expectation of return. Your mom feeds you. A friend lets you crash for a week. Nobody's counting. Sahlins called this the 'solidary extreme' — it runs on trust and lives at the center of the kinship circle. The debt is never named because naming it would insult the bond. If you say 'you owe me' to your mother, you've just downgraded the relationship to the next tier.