At a time when the teaching of sociology of development is fading from European universities, and to a lesser extent in Latin America, appears a renewal of the theory of reciprocity in this field of social economy, coming from anthropology and sociological economics. The article presents the contribution of the theory of reciprocity to a socio-anthropology of development. It is divided into two parts. The first briefly presents the forerunners and foundations of the theory of reciprocity. The second illustrates, from some contemporary examples, applying this theory to socio-anthropology of rural development. The conclusion presents the limits and some new heuristic perspectives of this theory.
Reciprocity; Theory of Reciprocity; Sociology of development
