ABSTRACT
The three other essays which make up this book (and even form the larger part of it) are the Théorie de la magie (1902-3), the Essai sur le don (1923-4), and La Notion de personne (1938). 1 These three essays bring to the fore another, even more decisive, aspect of Mauss's thinking, namely, the notion of the total social fact; this aspect would have emerged more clearly if we could have punctuated the twenty years between La Magie and Le Don with a few landmarks: L'Art et le mythe (1909); Anna-Virâj (1911); Les Origines de la notion de monnaie (1914a); Dieux Ewhe de la monnaie et du change (1914b); Line Forme archaïque de contrat chez les Tbraees (1921b); Commentaires sur un texte de Posidonius (1925). The notion of total social fact would be further clarified if the major Essai sur le don had been accompanied by texts that move in the same direction: De Quelques formes primitives de classification (1903, in collaboration with Durkheim); Essai sur les variations saisonnières des sociétès Eskimo (1904-5); Gift, Gift (1924b); Parentés à plaisanteries (1926b); Wette, wedding (1928); Biens masculins et feminins en droit celtique (1929a); Les Civilisations (1929b); Fragment d'un plan de sociologie générale descriptive (1934). 2
