The French ethnologist and sociologist Marcel Mauss's lengthy treatise “The Gift” focuses on the act of giving, primarily the giving of goods (including money) and services, and the act of counter-giving in return for such gifts. In this treatise, Mauss considers the civilizational and social significance of such practices, taking examples from contemporaneous non-Western societies and great ancient civilizations to put the various practices of gifting and counter-gifting into perspective. Mauss's treatise on gift-giving has not only been given the status of a classic in ethnology (cultural anthropology), but has also had a significant impact on philosophical and ethical studies, political thought, and economic studies, and has also had a considerable influence on the field of social movements that consider gift-giving an important occasion. Thus, it is no exaggeration to say that “The Gift” occupies a classic position on social thought in general.
 
In contrast, Mauss was a hardcore socialist and activist deeply committed to the consumer co-operative movement. This aspect of Mauss's life is not often discussed in Japan, but “The Gift” reflects his social and political position. In particular, in "The Gift", he considers the trends of Western societies at the time and derives certain practical prescriptions from them which shows the true essence of himself as a socialist.
 
The Idea of “The Gift” is a reading and re-reading of “The Gift”, and it adopts two approaches. The first is to contrast “The Gift” with other texts by Mauss, especially those written from a socialist perspective, to clarify its intertextual structure. This is an approach that examines the relationship between “The Gift” and various other texts, and attempts an extratextual reading of the text (reading the text from the outside). The other approach is to interrogate the composition of the text itself and the relationship between the various elements and expressions. This is an attempt at an intrinsic reading of the text (reading the text from within).
 
The Idea of “The Gift” ultimately integrates these external and internal readings to understand the “The Gift”. Ultimately, it extracts what might be called the ethic of “mixture” in Mauss, and elucidates this by comparing it with the ideas of the French philosopher Henri Bergson and those of Gilbert Simondon. It is characteristic that Mauss believes that it was in the origins of human beings that there was a “mixture”. From the primordial “mixture”, his idea is that in later generations there was a differentiation of individual fields and elements, with the differentiation between “law for man” and “law for things” being an important case in point. A major part of Mauss's argument is that the practice of gifting and counter-gifting should also be positioned under such a tendency from “mixture” to differentiation.
 
This book reads “The Gift” in the context of the social and political position of Mauss, and both its detailed external and internal reading show a research trend not seen in similar books. The extraction and thematic discussion of the ethic of “mixture” is an important outcome of this book considering global research trends, and marks the cutting edge of studies on Mauss and “The Gift”.
 

(Written by MORIYAMA Takumi, Professor, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences / 2023)

Related Info

Dialogue:
by Takumi MORIYAMA and Sonoe OMODA, “Re-reading Mauss and Arendt,” (“Shukan-Dokushojin”vol. 3473  January 20 2023)
https://jinnet.dokushojin.com/products/3473-2023_01_20
 
Reviews:
Book reviewed by Kai GOHARA (“Yomiuri-Shinbun”  January 8 2023)
https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/culture/book/review/20230110-OYT8T50036/
 
Book reviewed by Jun TANAKA (“Kyoyo-Gakubu-Hou”vol.645  May 9 2023)
https://www.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/info/about/booklet-gazette/bulletin/645/open/645-7-01.html
 
Public Joint Review Meeting:
by Hiroaki YAMADA, Toshihiro FUJIOKA, Daisuke KATAOKA and Kiyonobu DATE  (Feb 11, 2023)
https://www.eaa.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/blog/20230211-review/

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