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    The grand climax of the young man's effort would come when he

    challenged a local "big man"--a high-placed figure revered for his

    powerful following.  The contender would do it by inviting his older

    rival to attend a feast.  At the grand dinner, the upstart would banquet

    the elder with a deluge of pork dishes, coconut pies and sago almond

    puddings.  The young man's followers and those of the guest would

    count every dish of food that hit the table.  If the mountain of

    delectables the rookie offered was large enough, the big man knew he

    was in serious trouble.

    The elder would go back home and spend the next year spurring

    his followers to new heights of productivity.  Then he would invite the

    young challenger to a feast at his place.  He, too, would heap the table

    with pies, roasts and puddings.  And once again, the crowd would

    keep a breathless count.  For if the older dignitary failed to lay on as

    rich a feast as the young man's banquet the previous year, it would all

    be over.  The venerable gentleman would be shamed.  As he plunged

    down the ladder of prestige, his followers would desert him, and the

    callow whippersnapper who had mounted the challenge would leap

    dramatically upward in the pecking order.  Now he would be the big

    man.

    In New Guinea, the man who could not give as much as he

    received earned only one reward--disgrace.133

    The New Guineans were not alone in regarding the giveaway as

    a technique for inflicting humiliation.  The Kwakiutl Indians of the

    Pacific Northwest were famed for their potlatches.  In the potlatch, a

    Kwakiutl chief would invite a rival and his tribe over for a visit, then

    shower the guests with gifts.  The greater the pile of presents, the more

    the guest would lose face, plummeting down the pecking order.

    Among the Kwakiutl, to give away goods is divine.  To accept them,

    less than human.134

    Even our recent ancestors were aware of generosity's subversive

    power.  Medieval Europeans aristocrats threw an annual feast and

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