Marcel Mauss

The Power of Giving Marcel Mauss’ ethnology The Gift was originally published in 1925. In this ethnology, Mauss aimed to answer the question “In primitive or archaic types of society what is the principle whereby the gift received has to be repaid? What force is there in the thing given which compels the recipient to make a return?”(1) He successfully answered this through extensive research by comparing cultures in Polynesia, Melanesia, and North West America. He found that the structure of gift

value, which is part of the reason why gifts are exchanged today. Yet, is there anything else that makes gifts more intriguing to what we see today? Marcel Mauss, a French sociologist , published The Gift in which he studied Polynesian culture and the

In this essay I will be discussing body techniques; how they are acquired and how they are forgotten. Referring to French sociologist Marcel Mauss I will take his ideas and explore them further. I will also discuss how individuals can become ‘dosile bodies’ a phrase coined by Michael Foucalt and how his arguments support Mauss’. Marcel Mauss’s observations of the varying body techniques among humans may be deemed obvious, but in reality we never stop to notice or think about them. Staring, walking

Kwakiutl, and thanks to its ambiguous nature, it has become a fascinating point of research for anthropologists (Mauss 5). Although the act of potlatching entails the giving away of food and wealth in a guest-host setting, it is also used to settle title disputes and validate an individual’s position in the group. The social standing created through gift exchange is a key element of Mauss’ theory and the influence of these theories continue to be a base for anthropologists and sociologists

As Marcel Mauss writes about in his piece Techniques of the Body, throughout the world, many different cultures develop some traditions, habits and techniques, which seem very unusual to a foreign viewer, but exist as second nature to its members. In the United States, many such functions may catch the attention of an outsider, such as shaking hands (and which hand is used to do so), sitting in a chair to eat dinner, the style of walking, etc. To an American, these same examples of habits appear

Gift: The Form and the Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies, (1925) Marcel Mauss’ ethnographic book, presents the necessity of reciprocation through analysing the gift giving practices of the Maori and the Kwakiutl. Jonathan Parry revisits Mauss’ theory in his essay, “The Gift, the Indian Gift and the ‘Indian Gift’,” (1986) addressing its connection as well as contradiction to the Hindu law of gift giving. Ultimately, Mauss and Parry propose differing perspectives on the obligation to reciprocate

This paper looks at the gift giving tradition between the Natives and the Europeans. Carlos and Lewis’s “Marketing in the Land of Hudson Bay” article explains in great detail the strategies used by the Hudson Bay Company to develop a trading relationship with the Natives, as well as the trends in trading. The article also elucidates that in order to understand its customer’s culture and demands, the Hudson Bay Company participated in Native traditions one of which was to present gifts to Native traders

gifts were appropriate. In one instance, gifted uncooked meat, which was a sign of disrespect, as the meat was not treated in the traditional ways. Finally in the article, “The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies”, by Marcel Mauss (1990), he discusses morality and organisation of moral economies in Scandinavian civilisation and how the moral economy complements the notion of individual self interests. Mainly, the rules of legality

An Introduction to the Anthropology of Exchange Introduction Marcel Mauss suggested that there exist two distinct types of exchange in human societies: gift-exchange and commodity-exchange. He also classified societies based on the dominant type of exchange in their economic system. For instance, small-scale, traditional societies are associated with gift economy, whereas Western societies are associated with commodity economy. Mauss’ distinction between the two types of exchange was widely accepted

Before I answer the first question regarding “orientation to the cosmos” and how Mauss’ theories on the exchange of gifts affect human relationships, I would like to start off by giving a quick recap of what orientation to the cosmos is first. In class, we learned that that cosmos refers to the universe as being an orderly yet complex system of things that define the lives of every human being inhabiting the Earth. It is the direct opposite to chaos. Orientation, in a religious context, alludes to