![]() ![]() In the most extreme forms of potlatch, when the giver has given as much as the recipients could conceivably consume, the giver is reduced to destroying his goods just to demonstrate his ability to give. This was found archetypically among North American peoples, but it can be found elsewhere. Mostly, they are compulsory.Īfter introducing his subject, Mauss considers the phenomenon of “potlatch”, the practice of large-scale, competitive giving. Only sometimes is a gift given voluntarily. A gift, he explains, is always given in return for another gift. The idea that gifts are voluntarily given without expectation of reward is a common fiction, but a fiction nevertheless. As he nearly says, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Mauss argues that gifts are a type of exchange. And indeed, its spirit is firmly Durkheimian, for it sees the prime role of the gift and the act of giving to be the cementing of the bonds of society. It was first published in the 1920s as a series of articles in L’Année Sociologique the journal founded by Mauss’s uncle, Émile Durkheim. I have found myself re-reading Marcel Mauss’s classic treatise on The Gift. ![]()
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