On prayer

Marcel Mauss (1872-1950) never completed his Doctoral thesis on prayer. Yet his scarcely mentioned introduction (Books I and II) of 176 pages and privately printed in 1909, can be seen as some of his most important work. His argument that much of prayer is a social act will be of great interest to anthropologists, sociologists and theologians. Here, the first English translation to be published, is preceded by a general introduction by W.S.F.Pickering and finally a specific commentary on Mauss's use of ethnographic material

Frontispiece; Acknowledgements; Presentation, Notes and Referencing Introduction to an Unfinished Work; W.S.F. Pickering Marcel Mauss: On Prayer ; Translated by Susan Leslie Book I ; Chapter 1. General Introduction; Chapter 2. ; Chapter 3. Initial Definition Book II The Nature of Elementary Oral Rites ; Chapter 1. The History of the Question and Delineation of the Subject; Chapter 2. Do Prayers Exist in Australia?; Chapter 3. The Formulae of the Intichiuma Notes; Edited by Robert Parkin Mauss's Review of Segond's book on Prayer ; Translated by Susan Leslie Some Concluding Anthropological Reflections ; Howard Morphy Index

Marcel Mauss (1872-1950) never completed his Doctoral thesis on prayer. Yet his scarcely mentioned introduction (Books I and II) of 176 pages and privately printed in 1909, can be seen as some of his most important work. His argument that much of prayer is a social act will be of great interest to anthropologists, sociologists and theologians. Here, the first English translation to be published, is preceded by a general introduction by W.S.F.Pickering and finally a specific commentary on Mauss's use of ethnographic material