Reciprocity

Sounds fair - who could argue against mutual exchange? But the word conceals important questions about power. When a funder describes a relationship with grantees as 'reciprocal,' ask what each party can actually withhold without consequence. The dictionary already defines reciprocity as transaction; the relational meaning belongs to symbiosis, not exchange. In indigenous and relational ontologies, reciprocity is cosmological -- obligation to the land, to ancestors, to future generations -- a meaning that gets flattened in donor-speak.

In progressive usage, reciprocity can challenge extractive models by insisting that flows of value should run in both directions. In conservative or institutional usage, it can obscure structural asymmetry.calling a relationship reciprocl may dignify arrangements where one party sets the terms and the other complies. In indigenous ontologies, reciprocity is not transactional but cosmological.

Give and take; Quid pro quo (transactional variant)