The institution of reciprocity is important in all societies, and in the contemporary Andes reciprocal relationships are elaborate and permeate village life. It is an arrangement for the transfer of labor or goods that is organized without coercive authority between entities equal in status, although sometimes disputes are settled by community leaders. Andean labor reciprocity includes agricultural work, roof raising, canal cleaning, terrace building, and other services; as such, reciprocity structures the traditional village economy in the Andes (Alberti and Mayer 1974;Stanish 2003: 67). These kinds of reciprocal arrangements are frequently delayed, although compensation can be accelerated through recompense in products. For example, a herder might bring a caravan down to a farming area in the lower valleys and spend some days contributing labor to the agricultural harvest in exchange for some portion of the yield.

In many premodern economic transactions relationships of balanced reciprocity structured these arrangements. Two forms are likely in the Andes, that include (1) a multitude of small, household exchanges creating "down-the-line" artifact distributions (see Figure 2-2), presumably this type of exchange is responsible for the long distance transmission of small, portable goods for much of the pre-ceramic period. A second form consists of (2) barter exchange relationships with regular long distance caravans that articulated with settlements, and perhaps at periodic fairs, that transported goods over potentially greater distances. This mode would effectively consist of unadministered trade. The institution of reciprocity will be explored in more specific contexts below.