This work reassesses the significance of gifts in social life by focusing on sacred objects which are never exchanged despite the value they possess. It presents an analysis of the seminal work of Marcel Mauss and Claude Levi-Strauss, and drawing on his own fieldwork in Melanesia, Maurice Godelier argues that traditional theories are flawed because they consider only exchangeable gifts. By explaining gift-giving in terms of sacred objects and the power associated with them, Godelier challenges both recent and traditional theories of gift-giving.
- ISBN10 0226300447
- ISBN13 9780226300443
- Publish Date 1 February 1999 (first published 5 December 1998)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University of Chicago Press
- Edition 2nd Revised edition
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 288
- Language English