ABSTRACT
A Mass-Observation correspondent, an unemployed woman from York, describes how giving a gift upon marriage is the forced fulfillment of a duty and desire of her own. This Mass-Observation correspondent had to give when her sister married and she wanted to. Or, perhaps more precisely, since she had to participate in siblings wedding rituals she wanted to give the right kind of gift, something special. It is the obligation, on the one hand, to give presents, and on the other, to receive them that makes giving a social and even communitarian act. Rather than attempt to refine the category of the gift in anthropological, sociological, political or philosophical theory what this first chapter of The Wedding Present tries to do is set out some of the meanings of gifts contained in the responses to Giving and Receiving Presents directive. It should be noted first of all that within Mass-Observation writing gifts are not a single category of object.
