FROM CHARITY TO TAXES: OBSERVATIONS ON THE SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGIOUS AND SECULAR GIVING.

Social transfers of scarce values are accomplished by exchange, by coercion, and by giving. Religiously sanctioned sharing (alms-giving, donations, bequests, or "charity") appears to exist in most and perhaps all societies. Encouragement, injunctions, and imperatives concerning giving are very frequent in religious systems, and acts of benevolence often are invested with profound religious significance and value. But "giving" is also a widespread social pattern in contexts which can hardly be called religious. Accordingly, we begin with two central questions: (1) Why and bow do social units (individuals or collectivities) transfer scarce and valuable rights? (2) of those transfers which we classify as giving, what is the pan played in the total pattern by religious beliefs, nines and symbols, and how is giving linked to the basic character of the environing society? A selective sketch of these complex problems is given here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]