Marcel Mauss

Marcel Mauss (French: [mos]; 10 May 1872 10 Febru-
ary 1950) was a French sociologist. The nephew of mile
Durkheim, Mauss academic work traversed the bound-
aries between sociology and anthropology. Today, he
is perhaps better recognised for his inuence on the lat-
ter discipline, particularly with respect to his analyses of
topics such as magic, sacrice, and gift exchange in dif-
ferent cultures around the world. Mauss had a signi-
cant inuence upon Claude Lvi-Strauss, the founder of
structural anthropology.[1] His most famous book is The
Gift (1925).
refuge in administration. He secured Durkheims legacy
by founding institutions to carry out directions of re-
search, such as l'Institut Franais de Sociologie (1924) and
l'Institut d'Ethnologie in 1926. Among students he inu-
enced was George Devereux, later an inuential anthro-
pologist who combined ethnology with psychoanalysis.
In 1931 Mauss took up the chair of Sociology at the
Collge de France. He actively fought against anti-
semitism and racial politics both before and after World
War II. He died in 1950.

2 Theoretical views
1 Background
In his classic work The Gift, Mauss argued that gifts are
Mauss was born in pinal, Vosges, to a Jewish family, and never truly free. Rather, human history is full of examples
studied philosophy at Bordeaux, where his maternal uncle of gifts bringing about reciprocal exchange. The famous
mile Durkheim was teaching at the time. He passed question that drove his inquiry into the anthropology of
the agrgation in 1893. He was also rst cousin of the the gift was: What power resides in the object given that
much younger Claudette (ne Raphael) Bloch, a marine causes its recipient to pay it back?" (1990:3). The answer
biologist and mother of Maurice Bloch, who has become is simple: the gift is a total prestation (see law of obliga-
a noted anthropologist. Instead of taking the usual route tions), imbued with spiritual mechanisms, engaging the
of teaching at a lyce following college, Mauss moved to honour of both giver and receiver (the term total presta-
Paris and took up the study of comparative religion and tion or "total social fact" (fait social total) was coined by
Sanskrit. his student Maurice Leenhardt after Durkheims social
His rst publication in 1896 marked the beginning of a fact). Such transactions transcend the divisions between
prolic career that would produce several landmarks in the spiritual and the material in a way that, according to
the sociological literature. Like many members of Anne Mauss, is almost magical. The giver does not merely
Sociologique, Mauss was attracted to socialism, especially give an object but also part of himself, for the object
that espoused by Jean Jaurs. He was particularly active is indissolubly tied to the giver: the objects are never
in the events of the Dreyfus aair. Towards the end of completely separated from the men who exchange them
the century, he helped edit such left-wing papers as Le (1990:31). Because of this bond between giver and gift,
Populaire, L'Humanit and Le Mouvement socialiste, the the act of giving creates a social bond with an obligation
last in collaboration with Georges Sorel. to reciprocate on the part of the recipient. Not to recip-
rocate means to lose honour and status, but the spiritual
In 1901 Mauss took up a chair in the 'history of religion implications can be even worse: in Polynesia, failure to
and uncivilized peoples at the cole pratique des hautes reciprocate means to lose mana, ones spiritual source of
tudes (EPHE), one of the grandes coles in Paris. It was authority and wealth. Mauss distinguished between three
at this time that he began drawing more on ethnography, obligations: giving, the necessary initial step for the cre-
and his work began to develop characteristics now asso- ation and maintenance of social relationships; receiving,
ciated with formal anthropology. for to refuse to receive is to reject the social bond; and re-
The years of World War I were absolutely devastating for ciprocating in order to demonstrate ones own liberality,
Mauss. Many of his friends and colleagues died in the honour, and wealth.
war, and his uncle Durkheim died shortly before its end.
An important notion in Mauss conceptualisation of gift
Politically, the postwar years were also dicult for Mauss.
exchange is what Gregory (1982, 1997) refers to as
Durkheim had made changes to school curricula across
"inalienability". In a commodity economy, there is a
France, and after his death a backlash against his students
strong distinction between objects and persons through
began. the notion of private property. Objects are sold, meaning
Like many other followers of Durkheim, Mauss took that the ownership rights are fully transferred to the new

1
2 5 SELECTED WORKS

owner. The object has thereby become "alienated" from Free gifts therefore challenge the aspects of the Maus-
its original owner. In a gift economy, however, the ob- sian notion of the gift unless the moral and non-material
jects that are given are inalienated from the givers; they qualities of gifting are considered. These aspects are, of
are loaned rather than sold and ceded. It is the fact that course, at the heart of the gift, as demonstrated in books
the identity of the giver is invariably bound up with the such as Annette Weiners (1992) Inalienable Possessions:
object given that causes the gift to have a power which The Paradox of Keeping While Giving.
compels the recipient to reciprocate. Because gifts are Mauss oers one possible response to such criticisms in
inalienable they must be returned; the act of giving cre- the section Note on Alms.
ates a gift-debt that has to be repaid. Because of this,
the notion of an expected return of the gift creates a re-
lationship over time between two individuals. In other
words, through gift-giving, a social bond evolves that is 4 Legacy
assumed to continue through space and time until the fu-
ture moment of exchange. Gift exchange therefore leads While Mauss is known for several of his own works
to a mutual interdependence between giver and receiver. most notably his masterpiece Essai sur le Don ('The Gift')
According to Mauss, the free gift that is not returned is much of his best work was done in collaboration with
a contradiction because it cannot create social ties. Fol- members of the Anne Sociologique, including Durkheim
lowing the Durkheimian quest for understanding social (Primitive Classication), Henri Hubert (Outline of a Gen-
cohesion through the concept of solidarity, Mausss ar- eral Theory of Magic and Essay on the Nature and Func-
gument is that solidarity is achieved through the social tion of Sacrice), Paul Fauconnet (Sociology) and others.
bonds created by gift exchange. Mauss emphasizes that Like many prominent French academics, Mauss did not
exchanging gifts resulted from the will of attaching other train a great number of students. Nevertheless, many
people 'to put people under obligations, because in anthropologists claim to have followed in his footsteps,
theory such gifts are voluntary, but in fact they are givenmost notably Claude Lvi-Strauss. The essay on The Gift
and repaid under obligation.[2] is the origin for anthropological studies of reciprocity.
His analysis of the Potlatch has inspired Georges Bataille
(The Accursed Share), then the situationists (the name of
3 Critiques the rst situationist journal was Potlatch). This term has
been used by many interested in gift economies and Open
Source software, although this latter use sometimes dif-
Mausss views on the nature of gift exchange have had fers from Mauss original formulation. See also Lewis
critics. French anthropologist Alain Testart (1998), Hyde's revolutionary critique of Mauss in Imagination
for example, argues that there are free gifts, such as and the Erotic Life of Property.
passers-by giving money to beggars, e.g. in a large West-
ern city. Donor and receiver do not know each other and
are unlikely ever to meet again. In this context, the do-
nation certainly creates no obligation on the side of the
5 Selected works
beggar to reciprocate; neither the donor nor the beggar
have such an expectation. Testart argues that only the Essai sur la nature et la fonction du sacrice, (with
latter can actually be enforced. He feels that Mauss over- Henri Hubert) 1898.
stated the magnitude of the obligation created by social La sociologie: objet et mthode, (with Paul Faucon-
pressures, particularly in his description of the potlatch net) 1901.
amongst North American Indians.
Another example of a non-reciprocal free gift is pro- De quelques formes primitives de classication, (with
vided by British anthropologist James Laidlaw (2000). Durkheim) 1902.
He describes the social context of Indian Jain renouncers, Esquisse d'une thorie gnrale de la magie, (with
a group of itinerant celibate renouncers living an ascetic Henri Hubert) 1902.
life of spiritual purication and salvation. The Jainist in-
terpretation of the doctrine of ahimsa (an extremely rig- Essai sur le don, 1925.
orous application of principles of nonviolence) inuences
the diet of Jain renouncers and compels them to avoid Les techniques du corps, 1934. Journal de Psycholo-
preparing food, as this could potentially involve violence gie 32 (3-4). Reprinted in Mauss, Sociologie et an-
against microscopic organisms. Since Jain renouncers do thropologie, 1936, Paris: PUF.
not work, they rely on food donations from lay families Sociologie et anthropologie, (selected writings) 1950.
within the Jain community. However, the former must
not appear to be having any wants or desires, and only Manuel d'ethnographie. 1967. Editions Payot & Ri-
very hesitantly and apologetically receives the food pre- vages. (Manual of Ethnography 2009. Translated
pared by the latter. by N. J. Allen. Berghan Books.)
 3

6 See also Dianteill, Erwan, ed., Marcel Mauss

Lanthropologie de lun et du multiple, Paris,
Archaeology of trade PUF, collection Dbats philosophiques , 2013.

Dzimira, Sylvain, Marcel Mauss, savant et politique,

Bronisaw Malinowski
La Dcouverte, 2007 (lire en ligne la prface de
De Beneciis Marcel Fournier, le sommaire et l'intro.).

Kula ring Fournier, Marcel. 1994. Marcel Mauss. Fa-

yard: Paris (the denitive biography in French). see
Ernest Becker Marcel Mauss: A Biography, PUP, 2005

Ferguson, Kennan. 2007. 'The Gift of Freedom.'

7 References
[1] Barth, Fredrik (2005). One Discipline, Four Ways: British,
German, French, and American Anthropology. Univer-
sity of Chicago Press, p. 208, Quote: Marcel Mauss
two most inuential followers were Claude Levi-Strauss
(b. 1908) and Louis Dumont (19111998). The impact
of his work on both of them was strong.
[2] D. Walczak. 2015. The process of exchange, solidarity
and sustainable development in building a community of
responsibility. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences,
6 (1S1), p. 506.
9 External links
8 Further reading
Social Text. 25:2 39-52.
Graeber, David Give it away, an essay
Lvi-Strauss, C.. 1987 [1950]. Introduction to the
Work of Marcel Mauss. London. Routledge.
Moebius, Stephan/Papilloud, Christian (Ed.). 2005.
Gift Marcel Mauss Kulturtheorie der Gabe. Wies-
baden: VS.
Moebius, Stephan. 2006. Marcel Mauss. Konstanz
Collection of French writing provided by the Uni-
versity of Quebec

Derrida, J., 1992 [1991]. Given Time I. Counterfeit

Money. Chicago & London: University of Chicago
Press.

Cannell, Fenella (2006) The anthropology of Chris-

tianity, Introduction

Gregory, C. A. 1982. Gifts and Commodities. Lon-

don.

Gregory, C. A. 1997. Savage money: the anthropol-

ogy and politics of commodity exchange. Amster-
dam: Harwood Academic.

Laidlaw, J. 2000. A free gift makes no friends Jour-

nal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 6:617-634.

Mauss, M. 1990 (1922). The Gift: forms and

functions of exchange in archaic societies. London:
Routledge.

Testart, A. 1998. 'Uncertainties of the 'Obligation to

Reciprocate': A Critique of Mauss in Marcel Mauss:
A Centenary Tribute. James, W. and Allen, N. J.
(eds.). New York: Berghahn Books.

Weiner, Annette (1992). Inalienable Possessions:

The Paradox of Keeping While Giving. Berkeley,
University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-07604-
4.
4 10 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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