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When we think of giving gifts we think of exchanging objects that carry withthem economic or symbolic value. But is every valuable thing a potentiallyexchangeable item whose value can be transferred? In The Enigma of the Giftthe distinguished French anthropologist Maurice Godelier reassesses thesignificance of gifts in social life by focusing on sacred objects which arenever exchanged despite the value they possess.Beginning with an analysis of the seminal work of Marcel Mauss and Claude LeviStrass and drawing on his own fieldwork in Melanesia Godelier argues thattraditional theories are flawed because they consider only exchangeable gifts.By explaining giftgiving in terms of sacred objects and the authoritativeconferral of power associated with them Godelier challenges both recent andtraditional theories of giftgiving provocatively refreshing a traditionaldebate.Elegantly translated by Nora Scott The Enigma of the Gift is at once a majortheoretical contribution and an essential guide to the history of the theory ofthe gift. «
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