ABSTRACT
Marcel Mauss was a French sociologist known for his contributions to the study of social behavior, his academic collaborations, and his political activism. The Gift showed that reciprocal exchanges are expressions of social relationships that bind individuals and groups through obligations that extend forward in time. Mauss highlights the intertwining of economic systems with social systems, politics, and morality. His analysis shows how precise laws and customs regulate exchanges in small, face-to-face societies and identifies similar patterns in earlier gift systems that have survived in industrialized societies. Mauss spoke out against anti-Semitism—prejudice against Jewish people—and the abuse of political power. Mauss spent most of his life working on research projects, often in collaboration with other scholars, and editing professional journals. Mauss struggled to make sense of the political turmoil in Europe after World War I. His conclusions for Western society remain controversial and are relevant to the ethical concerns of the time.
