The above doodle is really just a hyper boiled down demonstration of one of the most fundamental aspects of Tribal politics in tribal societies and that is Reciprocity and reputation! as really when you're talking about non state societies with no formalized institutions, the reputational standing of your community is important and a part of growing and maintaining that is through the things you do and what you get in return

So lets talk about some Anthropology 101! Reciprocity!

Reciprocity In the terms of anthropology is the exchange of goods and services, privilidges and goodwill between people and really we can see this every day in our day to day lives! This is something that you find everywhere from mowing a neighbors lawn to trading arrows for a place to sleep on that same lawn over a century after it was worn down and rewilded

And the simplest way to put it is the classic statement:

"You scratch my back, I scratch yours"

When you treat people kindly they will treat you kindly in turn and that can cultivate a strong and effective social bond. And this is the mortar that cements tribal people together very much in real life as in the DragonScape When you're in good standing with the communities around you, you can count on them to help you and when you respect the communities around you, you are likely to help them just to help

so lets cover some basic models of reciprocity

generally in anthropology there are 3 very basic models of reciprocity. These vary massively depending on cultures and are often both very structured and very informal at the same time! So lets go ahead and cover those 3 as seen above At least the three that are highly boiled down and abstracted. Don't imagine two drekir, imagine two communities of dozens of drekir each!

So lets start off with Generalized Reciprocity

Which is really essentially giving goods, services, privileges, etc. with no expectation of necessarily an equal return of the favor or an equal one in any immediate sense.

The example above is Group A helps Group B build a house without necessarily an equal, immediate repayment for their kindness, or even one at all!
but what one gets from being kind is kindness in turn. It builds the goodwill politically between these two communities. The community that got helped will likely be far more lenient in helping out those that helped them or, further down the line, return the favor indirectly with their own favors and privileges and goods and services. Group B, remembering how group A helped them out, may far later give them hunting privileges around their territory, or help them repopulate the village hatchery, or bring them some food.

Basically that good will gives Group A some degree of political or economic "IOUs" from those they helped.

Next up is Balanced Reciprocity

Which is essentially an immediate, equal exchange of goods, privileges, services or political standing! It's barter!.. who'da thunk that economy and politics went hand in hand? The example here is that Group A gives B arrows in exchange for having a place to stay for the night. It's an agreement that was mutually considered to be a proper equal exchange! It's simply a trade! It doesn't necessarily help with good will between two groups but it does maintain relationships and it establishes that noone is out to take advantage of the others

It's fair! It maintains good terms between people even if it doesn't really create a sense of owing good will positively between the parties and is very important

And lastly is Negative Reciprocity

Which is the opposite of generalized! One group takes or accepts favors from the others without really ever paying them back. The example here is someone taking food from another group and never returning the favor.

Of course you may notice the line between Generalized and Negative Reciprocity is very thin and that's because they are kinda the same thing!

The difference comes in that, with generalized reciprocity, there is a promise to pay it forward, there is a willingness and follow through by those who were helped to make sure those helping them would see their aid pay off and return to them in at least some sort of way. Negative reciprocity on the other hand is just a "take and take and take." and one instance of negative reciprocity is probably fine. However, repeatedly taking advantage of your neighbors goodwill ruins their goodwill towards you and it makes them far less likely to be willing to extend it towards you going forward.

If you come to them after a stint of such negative reciprocity asking for help, with you only really sucking food from their granary without contributing around for months, don't be surprised when they say they don't care to help you

And this reciprocity is VERY important for draconic communities!

Imagine reciprocity as a sort of abstracted point system. If you want people to treat you right you have to build up goodwill with them! If you do nice things (generalized reciprocity) then that gives you more goodwill from the other communities who would be more willing to help you! If you trade evenly favor for favor with someone (balanced reciprocity) then that maintains that goodwill, you're still showing you're here to help and willing to find out a fair price for everyone involved. If you take from someone without paying it back (negative reciprocity) you are spending that goodwill you spent up. Once is not the end of the world but if you run out of goodwill you're in serious trouble. And that goodwill and reputation is Everything to non state societies, really that's the only political, economic, or social levers that any given community has in their larger region.

And really this is the very boiled down view of the sort of reciprocity that holds clans and tribes of drekir and ormer together!

When folks help eachother, it encourages folks to help eachother, when folks abuse eachother it encourages people to separate and cut off from eachother!
And all three sorts of reciprocity take place regularly throughout draconic societies and we can see that over and over and over again

So lets talk some examples from the Dragonscape Comics!

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46147950/

Respite from the Long Hike
when Ridil and ~~~ went over to the Middleton community of old drekir, they were participating in a more complex clanwide system of Generalized Reciprocity to help the elderly. Younger dens support older dens economically in the whole clan and this helps spread the cost of caring for the elderly den to den which helps each den maintain mutual respect and goodwill. If a den were to not pitch in it would reflect poorly on said den and would impact their relationships with the rest of the clan in their region. They might be considered selfish, or greedy, or apathetic and unappreciative of the work the old had done to help secure the lives of the young. But regardless if they weren't to participate in the expectation of supporting the elderly, the rest of the dens of their clan would look down on them. And that escalates to a denial of mutual trade and help, breaks down relationships and eventually can lead to a Den being excised from the larger clan and becoming economically and socially isolated... Often forcing them to move or undertake more drastic measures to rehabilitate their broken reputation
So when Ridil and ~~~ went to help the elderly, it was a good deed (obviously). And it was also an affirmation of their willingness to help the Clan as a whole, they are showing they are a part of the Clan and that their den is here for the long haul with everyone

And onto another less concrete example is Ricks role in Perrinean society!

(https://www.furaffinity.net/view/50263253/)

Rick, the Postle of the River Priests of Perrine is often doing something that is a mix of reciprocities

Generally they have a balanced relationship with the dens of the Perrineans

they give an equal exchange whether they measure it like that or not. Perrinean dens support him and give him the ability to stay in the Perrine gorge for religious reasons yes, but also because he gives them advice. He's a drek who has been around the block as it were and is able to serve as an arbiter for disputes with the Perrineans (or as a long tails kind supporter and therapist) and to some extent he is exchanging his services for the support of the people.
After all if the perrineans didn't trust his judgement they wouldn't be bringing him food and coming to him for advice. They both provide mutual aid to eachother that is deemed to be about equal, and that advice and guidance vs. support is a solid example of generalized reciprocity, it's less physical but deeply culturally valued

And a final example with the Meché from Audited

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/52830812/


Which is more about negative reciprocity! On both sides really but it balancing out

The Meché had been the beneficiaries of the generally low morale drekir of the Outpost that would come to get audited. Generally in the supply of human luxuries and tools and technology for very little in return on the part of the Meché. So the Meché would get a feeling that they more or less owed some favors to these colonial drekir, just the typical reciprocity. The foreigners are helping them in their lives and ask for nothing in return so the least the Meché felt they could do is help them out should the time come that things got rough for said colonials. And it did... and one of their own died in that fight. Which of course is damaging to the Meché community in a lot of ways and is gonna impact their good will towards the colonials.

"The colonials got into a fight that killed our denmate... what the fuck what did this fight have to do with us!?"

But again there were years of goodwill cached between the two groups and so when the colonials came in effectively homeless, they were allowed to move in and live amongst the community provided that they help around. It's not a free existence, but that reciprocity would come back around. Even if the colonials didnt even realize they were building it up, they were

So yeah, reciprocity is what makes the world go around!
When you can build up social credit through good deeds, the people you helped are gonna wanna help you back. It's just human drek nature. When you take things away from people, you're apt to ruin your reputation with them and thus, they aren't gonna be helping you as much or at all. And while it exists in a lot of forms, and through a lot of actions, favors, goods, privileges, and other such things. Reciprocity appears in almost every society and is crucial towards understanding the tribal politics of the drekir and ormer of the DragonScape

So remember, treat others how you wish to be treated!