False Beggars: Marcel Mauss, The Gift , and Its Commentators

Abstract

A gift to be a gift must be generous. But one gives to others. This makes giving less than generous, stimulating as it does a reflection of oneself that leaves the giver interested. And yet there are what the world calls “gifts.” To explain how this might be possible is the object of the essay. Beginning with an ethnographic perspective it focuses on Marcel Mauss and a few of his commentators.

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