The Gift

Marcel Mauss (1872-1950) had the distinction of being recognized as the “Father of French Ethnology.” The nephew of Émile Durkheim, Mauss was heavily influenced by the works of his uncle, Bronislaw Malinowski and Franz Boas, also known as “The Father of American Anthropology.” Whilst The Gift is arguably Mauss’s most important contribution to sociology and anthropology, it is important to note that his collection of works contributed to the social and cultural anthropology that is widely accepted and taught today throughout the world. Like his uncle, Mauss also had considerable influence on future sociologists and anthropologists including but not limited to Claude Lévi-Strauss, who has since been credited as the founder of structural anthropology.

Mauss’s work further illustrates the successful attempts at solidifying sociology anthropology as social sciences. Competing with other social sciences at the time, this was no easy task, and it explains the meticulous fashion in which Mauss undertakes his comparative analysis. By drawing from many academic disciplines, he helped pioneer an integrated approach to culture. He turned what appeared to be mundane or inconsequential to the untrained eye into the key to understanding complex systems of exchange, reciprocation, and social ties. In a field already crowded with competing disciplines, cultural anthropology was in its infancy when Mauss came onto the scene.