simulo reviewed The Gift by Marcel Mauss
None
5 stars
An excellent text. Interesting ideas and among the most accessible anthropological writings I know (and a classic, too). The text is a about the reasons, patterns and practices of exchanging gifts in “archaic societies”. The part about this is very interesting, but it gets even more fascinating when the connection to western culture is made: How the classic roman law had elements of modern contracts as well as gift-giving and how the gift-giving culture is still much alive today (I would say most still applies, even though the book is from 1950).
I came to this book by dealing with Open Source culture, and while its gift-giving aspects are often celebrated I also enjoyed Mauss perspective and the potential dangers, subversion and violence in gift-giving.
An excellent text. Interesting ideas and among the most accessible anthropological writings I know (and a classic, too). The text is a about the reasons, patterns and practices of exchanging gifts in “archaic societies”. The part about this is very interesting, but it gets even more fascinating when the connection to western culture is made: How the classic roman law had elements of modern contracts as well as gift-giving and how the gift-giving culture is still much alive today (I would say most still applies, even though the book is from 1950).
I came to this book by dealing with Open Source culture, and while its gift-giving aspects are often celebrated I also enjoyed Mauss perspective and the potential dangers, subversion and violence in gift-giving.
