ABSTRACT
Marcel Mauss’s The Gift was written at a time in which Western scholars, who lived in hierarchical societies themselves, took for granted the existence of rulers and social inequalities. Mauss’s unconscious application of a conceptual framework typical of his class, gender, and historical moment to populations across the globe is evident in his consideration of women as trade goods and men as universal decision-makers. Mauss’s uncritical acceptance of hierarchy is evident in his description of the transmission of both symbolic and institutional systems and inequalities through reciprocal exchange from generation to generation. The connection between reciprocity and reduced conflict described by Mauss has been confirmed by anthropologists who have studied the connection between warfare and intertribal marriages and other exchanges. The key is a more comprehensive view of individualism, as Mauss’s recommended steps against greed, accumulation, and unrestricted profit-taking demand changes to a legal framework that is based on a utilitarian vision of the individual.
