The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies
Last updated October 31, 2026
By Marcel Mauss
Marcel Mauss's 1925 essay examines gift exchange in societies ranging from Polynesia and Melanesia to the Pacific Northwest, along with early Roman, Hindu and Germanic law. It became a founding text of anthropology. Mauss shows that gifts are never entirely free. They carry obligations to give, to receive and to repay, and these obligations bind people and groups together. He closes by considering what these customs suggest about modern economic and social life.
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