Limiting Reciprocity among Relatives: Theoretical Implications of a Serendipitous Finding

Abstract

This article draws some theoretical implications of the findings of a factor analysis of a scale for indicating the extent to which people embrace an axiom of amity (or prescriptive altruism) in kinship ties. Separate analyses were undertaken of two samples of persons aged sixty or over—one in Budapest, Hungary and the other American. The analysis yielded an unexpected pattern of results, namely, that the axiom of amity and the presupposition of distrust of kin refer to two separate factors. The results suggest that a duality exists in the minds of the interviewees in their conception of kinship reciprocity.

The presupposition of distrust of relatives lends itself to two alternative interpretations. In the Hungarian sample, the items with thehighest loadings on the Distrust factor dealt with exploitation by kin, and generally the Hungarians reported more agreement than did the United States with statements that kin are exploitive. In the U.S. sample, the items with the highest loadings on the Distrust factor refer to unfairness and incommensurability in exchange, and the U.S. sample reported more agreement with statements that exchanges among kin are unfair. One interpretation of these tendencies derives from the conceptualization of kinship as an element in a social system. The second interpretation is derived from the proposition that kinship systems express basic paradigms of exchange prevalent in a society.