ABSTRACT
Almost all social theories assume that in modern times the logic of the gift only applies to friends and family circles. The chapter, however, argues against this assumption and first shows that the world of interactions cannot be conceptionally separated from a world of institutional orders and macrostructures. Second, the thesis is developed that the gift represents a background mechanism, which can accompany all micro and macro communications in modern societies. Just like other communication media, it reduces the likelihood that communication offers are rejected. Third, Marcel Mauss’ concept of the gift allows us to develop a different view of modern money. Money is not diametrically opposed to the concept of the gift. There were and can be personalised forms of money and, furthermore, the gift is always an implicit component of money, even of abstract modern money. Gifts are thus reconstructed as a ubiquitous background mechanism, which enables social order in the rear of language – namely at both the micro- and the macro-level.
