ABSTRACT
Reciprocity, a dominant form in tribal societies, designates the exchange of goods and services where the acts of giving and taking are not regulated by barter or by the motive of gain, but by the whole web of social relations. The exchange itself is ‘disguised as a reciprocal distribution of gifts’. Redistribution - a complement to reciprocity in tribal societies, and a basic prin ciple in a number of pre-capitalist systems, especially the arch aic empires - consists of the centralized collection and storage of a part of the product, and of its redistribution if the need arises. The allocation of the collected goods does not follow the principles of economic or market exchange, but assures for all
the members of the community, though possibly in a highly differentiated way, the right to survive. The household economy (oikas) - the autarky of the small plot, or production for one’s own use - has been an important form since antiquity.
