ABSTRACT
The ideology of love described in chapter 4 holds that gifts are given spontaneously, as a result of the natural affections of one person for another. In this chapter we are going to explore some of the limits to that notion. 1 The ideology of love is a product of the modern world, and especially of the modern middle class. It is the cement that binds personal relationships in those social groups where the constraints of material necessity and social control have long since ceased to have much force. This does not mean that material wants and social sanctions no longer have any relevance for people's lives. What it does mean is that in a modern mass society most people have available to them a large number of actors with whom they could enter into social relations, and between whom they must choose.
