Page "Gift economy" Paragraph 31

French sociologist Marcel Mauss argues that a gift, a perfect example of ' total ' social phenomenon, is essentially never " free ".

They not only entail the obligation to reciprocate presents received, but also " supposes two other obligations just as important: the obligation, on the one hand, to give presents, and on the other hand, to receive them ".

According to Mauss, while it is easy to romanticize a gift economy, humans do not always wish to be enmeshed in a web of obligation.

Mauss wrote, " The gift not yet repaid debases the man who accepts it ," a lesson certainly not lost on the young person seeking independence who decides not to accept more money or gifts from his or her parents.

And as Hyde writes, " There are times when we want to be aliens and strangers.

" We like to be able to go to the corner store, buy a can of soup, and not have to let the store clerk into our affairs or vice versa.

We like to travel on an airplane without worrying about whether we would personally get along with the pilot.

A gift creates a " feeling bond.

" Commodity exchange does not.

The French writer Georges Bataille in his book La part Maudite uses Mauss's argument in order to construct a theory of economy: to his point of view the structure of gift forms the presupposition for all possible economy.

Particularly interested about the potlatch as described by Mauss, Bataille claims that its antagonistic character obliges the receiver of the gift to confirm a subjection ; the structure of the gift can refer thus immediately to a practice that bears out different roles for the parts that undertake an action in it, installing in this act of donating the Hegelian dipole of master and slave.