ABSTRACT
Essential features which underlie social and cultural life in Thomastown are reciprocity and equivalence. These permeate all extra-household life, from the most accidental encounter to the most structured. From casual greetings on the street and comments about the weather, through to casual and thence intimate gossip, from pub behaviour to extending favours, gift-giving and proffering invitations, it is imperative for people to maintain a semblance of balanced exchange and both moral and material symmetry in all relationships and interactions. All local residents – natives, blow-ins and others alike – are invariably implicated in this behavioural code.
