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Paper short abstract:

Based on Yanomami ethnography, this paper explores trust as a commitment to non-aggression which involves a necessary willingness to share a risk that relations may not be trustworthy. Exploring the two sides of the trust coin, it examines peace/aggression, and the coexistence of harmony/disharmony.

Paper long abstract:

Taking cue from social relations in an egalitarian Amazonian society, this paper explores the part of trust based on the rational expectation that others share a certain commitment towards oneself in a given domain (Hardin) and the part of trust based on moral, emotional and cultural reasons (Baier). Yanomami society can be described as a system based on the repeated administration of proof that others can be trusted (whether that is relatives and friends, co-residents, proximate neighbours, or more distant allies.) In daily peaceful relations, trusted people are defined as those who can be relied upon, that is, those capable of producing and guaranteeing the provision of food, goods and help, thereby ensuring solidarity and reciprocity in ceremonial life and the meting out of justice. In the face of conflict and perceived or real aggression, trustworthiness lies in the ability of people to stand and fight alongside you. At the same time, trust-building relies on establishing a "minimal zone of trust" so that individuals in a local group can rely, not on the fact that other people are de facto regularly around (and therefore usually trustworthy), but on a genuine commitment to non-aggression among those who inhabit a given area. The Yanomami are perfectly aware that this implies a risk, and elaborate on this risk in manifold ways – this is perhaps the darker side of the trust coin. There is, therefore, always a share of risk that one accepts to take towards trusted others, without which no social relations would be possible.