The Gift
Subtitle: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies
Contributors: W. D. Halls (Translator)
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: August 2000
Language: eng
Number of pages: 184
ISBN-13: 9780393320435
First sentence: During this research into the extension of contractual gifts, it seemed for a long time as if potlatch proper did not exist in Polynesia.
Description: "Since its first publication in English in 1954, Marcel Mauss's Essai sur le Don has been acclaimed as a classic among anthropology texts. A brilliant example of the comparative method, it 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 the distinguished anthropologist Mary Douglas, The Gift is essential reading for students of social anthropology and sociology. Book jacket."--Jacket.