ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the first of the three obligations mentioned by Marcel Mauss. In his analysis of exchange institutions among Polynesians, Melanesians, and Northwest Coast American Indians, Mauss developed a scientific and moral interest in a general theory of obligation. Having suggested that the obligation to give can be traced to religious practices, the donor's desire to seek or maintain prestige, and the donor's search for peaceful relations with friendly followers. However, it is clear from Mauss' discussion of the obligation to give that he regarded hierarchical relationship as characteristic of much of the gift-giving which he studied. The obligation to give knowledge from a technologically advanced nation to a technologically backward nation may not have the same motive force as the religious fervor which drove Islamic or Christian missionaries to other lands. The age of a nation as a political entity may be an independent variable in analyzing how nations 'keep records' of their felt obligations.
