The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies - Softcover

Mauss, Marcel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 039332043X ISBN 13: 9780393320435

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000

Synopsis

A brilliant example of the comparative method, ?The Gift? presents the first systematic study of the custom--widespread in primitive societies from ancient Rome to present-day Melanesia--of exchanging gifts. The gift is a perfect example of what Mauss calls a total social phenomenon, since it involves legal, economic, moral, religious, aesthetic, and other dimensions. He sees the gift exchange as related to individuals and groups as much as to the objects themselves, and his analysis calls into question the social conventions and economic systems that had been taken for granted for so many years. In a modern translation, introduced by distinguished anthropologist Mary Douglas, ?The Gift ?is essential reading for students of social anthropology and sociology.

About this title

Review

'The Gift is quite undeniably the masterwork of Marcel Mauss, his most justly famous writing, and the work whose influence has been the deepest.' - Claude Lévi-Strauss

From the Back Cover

'The teaching of Marcel Mauss was one to which few can be compared. No acknowledgment of him can be proportionate to our debt.' - Claude Livi-Strauss.

In this, his most famous work, Marcel Mauss presented to the world a book which revolutionized our understanding of some of the basic structures of society. A renowned anthropologist, Mauss sought in this work to transcend empirical observation and reach deeper realities. In so doing, he inaugurated a new era for the social sciences. No work of anthropology or political theory would be the same again. By identifying the complex web of exchange and obligation involved in the act of giving, Mauss called into question many of our social conventions and economic systems. In a world rife with runaway consumption, The Gift continues to excite and to challenge. As Livi-Strauss remarked, 'Few have managed to read it without feeling the whole gamut of the emotions . . . the pounding heart, the throbbing head, the mind flooded with the imperious, though not yet definable, certainty of being present at a decisive event in the evolution of science.'

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 039332043X
• ISBN 13: 9780393320435
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 184