ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author aims to encounter a new obligation: to speculate and inquire about the implications of the study for moral discourse, future research, and public policy. An agenda for conferences of the Institute of Religious and Social Studies might include a dialogue of psychiatrists, theologians, and anthropologists discussing: 'New Directions for Foreign Aid: Some Religious and Scientific Views on Gifts and Obligation'. Marcel Mauss leaves us with the obligations to find out, no less, how gifts relate to war and peace. Gift exchange can be a form of dividing labor and utilizing human potentials. The author represents schematically three patterns of gift behavior. The first two are bilateral. The third is circular. Seen in historical perspective, Mauss' generalizations about gifts and obligations survive magnificently the sophistication of modern behavioral research as well as empirical testing in the complex arena of international technical assistance.
