Neither Mauss, nor Veyne

Abstract

This chapter examines Peter Brown's contribution to research on the gift, given the intense debate around the notion, the problématique of the gift. It is written from the viewpoint of a sociologist stressing on the need for continuous dialogue and mutual fructification between history and sociology in general and in the field of gift analysis in particular. The importance of Brown's analysis is that it demonstrates how religious giving was able to achieve public importance and undergo institutionalization. Religious giving not only differentiated itself from previous, euergetic form of public giving, but also underwent further, “internal“ differentiation. The result is the description of a fledgling repertoire of religious giving, with intricate relations of interpenetration, competition, and mutual distinction between charity to the poor, and mutual help in solidarity with members of the same religious communities.

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