Marcel Mauss, MAUSS and Maussology: The productive reception of the Essay on the Gift in France

In: Journal of classical sociology

Abstract

Alain Caillé, the founder of the Mouvement du MAUSS, presents an influential interpretation of Marcel Mauss's classic Essay on the Gift as a foundational text of and for an anti-utilitarian theory of action. This article returns to Mauss's seminal essay and presents the paradigm of the gift by resituating the MAUSSian reading within the French field of Maussology. While the article is largely sympathetic to the anti-utilitarian project, it also develops critiques and theoretical suggestions of its own.