ABSTRACT
As a social practice, reciprocity can be considered as the moral memory of mankind. Reciprocity expresses what societies, communities and even small groups define as the appropriate ways and means to react to someone’s moves, be it in terms of offences or sympathy. Reciprocity is a civility mode that averts widespread bloodshed, by containing conflict within well-defined social groups,
even at the cost of high levels of violence inside these groups. Reciprocity is sufficiently disseminated across the globe to be taken as a cultural universal. It is almost impossible to find a society or a religion without formal references to it. The Rg Veda,1 the Mahabaratha,2 the Bible, the Koran,3 the Edda4 are all good examples of the pervasive nature of reciprocity in different cultures and in different times.
