Marcel Mauss
Marcel Mauss (1872-1950) was a French social theorist with extremely broad interests, including exchange, sociological theory, magic, religion, and law. In his essay The Gift, Mauss discusses exchange as a total social fact; it involves and implicates all aspects of the social system. Exchange builds social relations. In Mauss’s model, the giving of gifts occurs because of an implicit (or explicit) social requirement to do so.
Selected Publication:
"The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies," originally published as:
Mauss, M. (1925) "Essai sur le don, forme et raison de l’echange dans les societies archaïques."
L’Année sociologique, nouvelle série, tome I (1923-1924), fascicule 1:7-29.
Source:
Leacock, S. (1954) The ethnological theory of Marcel Mauss. American Anthropologist, New
Series 56(1):58-73.
Selected Publication:
"The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies," originally published as:
Mauss, M. (1925) "Essai sur le don, forme et raison de l’echange dans les societies archaïques."
L’Année sociologique, nouvelle série, tome I (1923-1924), fascicule 1:7-29.
Source:
Leacock, S. (1954) The ethnological theory of Marcel Mauss. American Anthropologist, New
Series 56(1):58-73.
