ABSTRACT
It was the very great contribution of Marcel Mauss, in his now classic Essai sur le don, 1 to have revealed the functional relationship between gift and exchange and to have defined thereby a whole group of religious, economic, and judicial phenomena belonging to archaic societies. He showed that the gift is only one element in a system of reciprocal prestations which are at once free and constraining, the freedom of the gift obliging the recipient to a countergift, which engenders a continuous flow of gifts offered and gifts given in return. Here is the principle of an exchange which, generalized not only between individuals but also between groups and classes, stimulates the circulation of wealth throughout the entire society. The game is determined by rules that become fixed in institutions of all sorts. A vast network of rites, celebrations, contracts, and rivalries organizes the mechanics of these transactions.
