The Gift

“According to Marcel Mauss that is what is wrong with the free gift. A gift that does nothing to enhance solidarity is a contradiction.”

Mary Douglas immediately introduces the nature and function of gift giving. As is the theme throughout Mauss’s work, this is what distinguishes the difference between an act of gift exchange and an act of commerce. Purchasing or bartering for a tool out of a necessity is not the same as receiving a gift that enhances one’s social status in their respective society. Therefore, a gift for the sake of giving a gift without enhancing the relationship between the gift giver and the gift receiver is a pointless act.

“In these ‘total’ social phenomena, as we propose calling them, all kinds of institutions are given expression at one and the same time—religious, juridical, and moral, which relate to both politics and the family; likewise economic ones, which suppose special forms of production and consumption, or rather, of performing total services and of distribution.”

Mauss purposefully situates the reader’s understanding that the potlatch is encompassing of all things societal. This differentiates the potlatch from a traditional potluck. It is at once a celebration of all that makes that particular society unique. The social institutions prevalent in said society are honored by its citizens. The act of gift exchange during a potlatch represents not merely the physical commodities that are exchanged but equally those that are not. Food, dancing, singing, the arrangement of marriages, the destruction of goods, and the joint celebration of shared deities are all integral to the success of the competing tribes’ alliance and shared community ties and bonds.