Deprivation and Reciprocity

The immediate purpose of this study is to explore the effects of ecological and economic deprivation upon patterns of reciprocity among an east African people. I will begin with a brief discussion of the nature of economic stress faced by the So tribe of northeastern Uganda and parts of east Africa generally, and will offer a model accounting for shifts in patterns of production and exchange occurring in response to resource fluctuation. A number of hypotheses will be deduced from the model and tested statistically against data collccted in the field. Finally, I will discuss the wider implications of the empirical findings to economic anthropological theory.