ABSTRACT
The gift is a quasi-object. When a person passes a gift one has received from someone on to a third person, the return-gift given by the third person to him/her embodies the spirit of the gift that was given first. All the gifts that may follow are equally compelled by the spirit of the first gift and are counter-gifts, return-gifts, because of that. In the archaic gift, the acts of giving, receiving and repaying constitute themselves in relation to the ever-present threat of conflict. Nevertheless, for Mauss archaic gift-exchange is not only constantly accompanied by the threat of violence. While people wish to think that they give gifts out of sheer generosity and disinterestedness, Mauss contends that in reality any gift entails an expectation of repayment. Generosity is always mediated by and manifested in some materials. For Mauss, gift-exchange is thus essentially about things intermingled with souls: Souls are mixed with things; things with souls.
