The Gift

Mauss continues his conclusion by further examining the value functions in societies. Drawing from Malinowski, Mauss examines the motives behind self-interest and disinterestedness. Where there is profit to be found, there are certain to be alliances formed. This interdependence on one another is evident when the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or the European Union (EU) is considered. These mega tribes come together for one purpose only—the exchange of goods and services. Niceties ensue between nations when it suits political or economic agendas. Reciprocation is expected. Lack of reciprocation results in the erosion of international ties.

Nevertheless, Mauss would agree that “money still possesses its magical power and is still linked to the clan or to the individual. The various economic activities, for example the market, are suffused with rituals and myths” (92). With few exceptions, even the act of giving between nations is marred by political interests. It can equally be an act to show one’s superiority (95), as it can be an act to beholden the receiver to the whims and ulterior motives of the giver. As Mauss notes, “...one has an interest in giving them away so as to be able to possess yet other objects, by transforming them into goods or services that, in their turn, can be transformed again into money” (94).

One wonders what Mauss would have made of the exodus of workers from the service industry since 2020. Whilst COVID-19 is to blame partially, something more has taken hold of the men and women who no longer wish to “gift” their time to employers who are accused of underpaying them. The accusations suggest a failure on the part of the gift receiver to reciprocate accordingly. The employer, troubled by these new developments, echoes Mauss’s words, “to refuse him this reward is to make him become idle or less productive” (99). No longer is a “living wage” deemed acceptable; a “thriving wage” is being called for that reflects the sacrifices being made by employees. Just as the tribe must share in the riches bestowed upon their chief, so too must the tribesmen and women of western societies be allowed to share in the riches of their employers.

Mauss argues that these systems of exchange all share the same building blocks regardless of where they are found in the world. Specifically, they contain “juridical, economic, religious, and even aesthetic and morphological [elements]” (101). They are moral in the way they are organized and distributed throughout society, although he recognizes that it is more equally distributed amongst certain groups than others. They are political, economic, and religious in nature. They are structural and encourage commercium (commerce) and connubium (marriage) (102), the latter being in the form of alliances, contracts, and promises.

For Mauss, the process of gift exchange is organic and reflective of the values, norms, traditions, and beliefs of the people who participate in it. Mauss acknowledges how “societies have progressed in so far as they themselves, their subgroups, and lastly, the individuals in them, have succeeded in stabilizing relationships, giving, receiving, and finally, giving in return” (105). This creates mutual interests and allows individuals and tribes to thrive together.

Additionally, Mauss is preoccupied with the study of the concrete (103).The Gift allowed him to systematically categorize, analyze, and develop quantifiable proof positives that would inevitably help sociology be recognized as a social science. “The principle and the end of sociology is to perceive the whole group and its behavior in its entirety” (103). It is this that distinguishes sociology, and indeed, anthropology, from other social science disciplines.