Die Gabe

This essay is the first systematic and comparative study of the widespread system of gift exchange and the first interpretation of its function within the framework of social order. Mauss demonstrates the true nature and fundamental significance of institutions such as the potlatch and the kula, which may initially seem strange or even meaningless and incomprehensible to us. By showing us how to understand them, he not only reveals the meaning of certain customs, such as those of North American Indigenous peoples, but also the significance of analogous customs in earlier phases of recorded history, as well as the meaning of practices in our own societies today. The comparison between the archaic institutions he discusses and our own runs throughout his entire essay.