IV RECIPROCITY AND DUAL ORGANIZATION

I HAVE found only one writer who fully appreciates the importance of reciprocity in primitive social organization. The leading German anthropologist, Prof. Thurnwald of Berlin, clearly recognizes “die Symmetric des Gesellschaftsbaus” and the corresponding “Symmetric von Handlungen”, ¹ Throughout his monograph, which is perhaps the best account of the social organization of a savage tribe extant, Prof. Thurnwald shows how the symmetry of social structure and of actions pervades native life. Its importance as a legal binding form is not, however, explicitly stated by the writer, who seems to be aware of its psychological foundation ‘in human feeling’ rather than of its social function in safeguarding the continuity and adequacy of mutual services.