From the disparate evidence, he builds a case for a foundation to human society based on collective (vs. He uses a comparative method, drawing upon published secondary scholarship on peoples from around the world, but especially the Pacific Northwest (especially potlatch).Īfter examining the reciprocal gift-giving practices of each, he finds in them common features, despite some variation. They occur between groups, not only individuals, and they are a crucial part of "total phenomena" that work to build not just wealth and alliances but social solidarity because "the gift" pervades all aspects of the society. He shows that early exchange systems center around the obligations to give, to receive, and, most importantly, to reciprocate.
In them, he finds evidence contrary to the presumptions of modern Western societies about the history and nature of exchange. It analyzes the economic practices of various so-called archaic societies and finds that they have a common central practice centered on reciprocal exchange. Mauss's essay focuses on the way that the exchange of objects between groups builds relationships between humans. The essay was later republished in French in 1950 and translated into English in 1954 by Ian Cunnison, in 1990 by W. Forme et raison de l' change dans les soci t's archa ques ("An essay on the gift: the form and reason of exchange in archaic societies") and was originally published in L'Ann e Sociologique in 1925. Mauss's original piece was entitled Essai sur le don.
The Gift is a short book by the French sociologist Marcel Mauss that is the foundation of social theories of reciprocity and gift exchange.
0 kommentar(er)
