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38 pages 1 hour read

Marcel Mauss

The Gift

Marcel MaussNonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1923

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Essay Topics

1.

What rule of legality and self-interest compels the gift that has been received to be obligatorily reciprocated? Explain.

2.

What power (mana) resides in the object given that causes its recipient to pay it back? What are the consequences if it is not reciprocated? Give examples.

3.

Mauss states that the obligation to give is only superseded by the obligation to accept. In this way the potlatch is a system of total services, in particular of an agonistic type. What does he mean by this? Explain.

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