ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses two very different aspects of relationship, historically separated in time, place, and focuses: The Feudal Chain of Obligation and Indigenous System of Sustainability. Nature's primary Law of Reciprocity-the underlying basis and foundation for all other laws-is relationship. The central basis of the feudal system was the manor-the large, rural estate owned by a family of the nobility-on whom both the villages and agricultural serfs on the estate depended. In adapting and expanding the feudal ideals of responsibility, modern people can avoid creating a system too unwieldy to work well, by placing Nature's right to flourish first, extending responsibilities to all in society, and limiting the abilities of all to plunder Nature solely for their own benefit. Surely a central rule of feudalism-the larger the manor, the more extensive the obligations, both above and below-could be retooled for the current ecological crisis.
