ABSTRACT
The emotions that helped to regulate this system were guilt, shame, gratitude, envy, greed, and what Robert Trivers calls "righteous indignation". The nomads had no means of storing value and so they had no way to transmit wealth from one generation to the next—no crops, no amber waves of grain, no money. There was nothing utopian about this system. Reciprocity operated according to certain rules. Hunter-gatherer societies developed various mechanisms to prevent people from acquiring more than they needed. In the reciprocity system, family and economy was one and the same thing, so the emotions could regulate all behavior effectively. Fairness and reciprocity are part of a human being's biological equipment, but money is not. Equal opportunity, the central ideology of the American market system, fosters further self-evaluation and ultimately self-doubt. Humans have, of course, brought their emotions to modern organizations. The market system rewards self-promotion. The endless opportunities are the glories of the market system.
