Marcel Mauss, the gift and relational sociology

Christian Papilloud

pp. 663-675

in: François Dépelteau (ed), The Palgrave handbook of relational sociology, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

Marcel Mauss' essay The Gift synthesizes the ethnographic research results on the practices related to the gift, while at the same time putting them in a historical and intercultural perspective. The gift is not an anecdotal ethnic phenomenon, and it is not solely related to the development of Indo-European exchange. It is a relational and universal principle of exchange leading to the peaceful association of human beings through mutual obligations to give, receive and return presents. Mauss sees the gift as a collective phenomenon, or, as he said, as a total social fact, as well as a means to change modern society by making modern human beings more aware of their anthropological roots. Mauss supposes that such an archaic exchange as the gift remains vivid in contemporary societies, but is veiled by the omnipresence of economic exchanges. Thus, the gift is not a phenomenon specific to foreign societies and cultures. It is at the core of all our societies.

Cited authors

Mauss Marcel