When first published, The Gift served as nothing less than an onslaught on contemporary political theory. This edition confirms the continuing relevance of Mauss's highly original perspective.
When first published, The Gift served as nothing less than an onslaught on contemporary political theory. This edition confirms the continuing relevance of Mauss's highly original perspective.
The Gift is Marcel Mauss's groundbreaking study of the relation between forms of exchange and social structure. A brilliant French sociologist and anthropologist, Mauss (1872-1950) used case studies of Melanesia, Polynesia, and northwestern North America to demonstrate that gift exchange is a total system at the center of society.
