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Gift : Forms and functions of exchange in archaic societies / translated by Ian Cunnison.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: London; Routledge & Kegan Paul.; 1980Description: 129pISBN:
  • 710068980
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 301 Mau
Summary: It is the first systematic study of the custom, widespread in primitive societies from ancient Rome to present- day Melanesia, of exchanging gifts as a transaction forming part of all human, personal relationships between individuals and groups. These gift exchanges, as Professor Evans-Pritchard points out in his Introduction in which he discusses Mauss's singular contribution to sociological thought, are at the same time moral, economic, juridical, aesthetic, religious, mythological and social phenomena. Mauss's vast knowledge of dead and living languages and of native societies enabled him to show the profound social significance of archaic institutions which have long puzzled anthropologists. The more we study such institutions, the less inclined we shall be to take our social conventions and economic systems for granted, or lightly to assume their superiority at all points.
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It is the first systematic study of the custom, widespread in primitive societies from ancient Rome to present- day Melanesia, of exchanging gifts as a transaction forming part of all human, personal relationships between individuals and groups. These gift exchanges, as Professor Evans-Pritchard points out in his Introduction in which he discusses Mauss's singular contribution to sociological thought, are at the same time moral, economic, juridical, aesthetic, religious, mythological and social phenomena.
Mauss's vast knowledge of dead and living languages and of native societies enabled him to show the profound social significance of archaic institutions which have long puzzled anthropologists. The more we study such institutions, the less inclined we shall be to take our social conventions and economic systems for granted, or lightly to assume their superiority at all points.

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