Publisher Description

This work reassesses the significance of gifts in social life by focusing on sacred objects which are never exchanged despite the value they possess. It presents an analysis of the seminal work of Marcel Mauss and Claude Levi-Strauss, and drawing on his own fieldwork in Melanesia, Maurice Godelier argues that traditional theories are flawed because they consider only exchangeable gifts. By explaining gift-giving in terms of sacred objects and the power associated with them, Godelier challenges both recent and traditional theories of gift-giving.

Author Biography

Maurice Godelier is directeur d'Études at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, head of the Centre de recherche et de documentation sur l'OcÉanie, and past scientific director of the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). His book Grands Hommes (1982) won the Prix de l'AcadÉmie Française.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Introduction - Concerning Things that are Given, Things that are Sold and Things that must not be Given or Sold, but Kept 1. The Legacy of Mauss A masterwork in chiaroscuro The simple reason behind a reputation: a powerful globe vision of gift-exchange as a concatenation of three obligations Gift-giving, a double-edged relationship The enigma of the gift and Mauss' solution Mauss mystified by indigenous theories: L

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