Chapter: 10 THE MYSTERY OF GIFT

Gift" was first issued in the "Annual Review of Sociology"

and was officially published in 1925. In his book, Mause

comprehensively analyzed the ethnographic materials from

Polynesia, Melanesia, Northwest America, Ancient Rome,

India, and China, and summed up how the giving, receiving,

and rewarding of gifts "made people and things into movement,

which will bring things back to the related people sooner or

later, and reconnected the point of arrival of these gifts and

rewards with their original starting point. [1]" Mauss believed

that the object of gift exchange is not only limited to the useful

things in economy, but also involves in all aspects of life. The

constant exchange of gifts connected the lives of each other

more closely. These exchanges have the general significance,

including the obligation to give gifts and the obligation to

receive gifts.

In Mauss's view, the Kula system is actually is a kind of

large Potlatch and the trading system between tribes. Centering

on the Kula exchange, there are all sorts of other exchanges,

pure celebrations, competitive sailings, and the establishment

of status. Mauss believes that the Potlatch contains the

functions of religion, myth and Shaman. The obligation to give

is the essence of the Potlatch, and it also has the obligation of

invitation and acceptance, while the obligation to repay is the

root of the Potlatch. The return with dignity is a kind of

mandatory obligation, and failure to perform the obligation of

return will be reduced to slave debt. Whether the exchange of

Kula or the Potlatch, sometimes it is not carried out by

individuals, but is the overall presentation of a tribal leader,

representing the interests of the entire tribe.

In the introduction of the "Gift", Mauss indicates that his

research is aimed at discussing morality and economics related

to trading, and thinks that they still play a profound and lasting

role in the current society. Therefore, it is necessary to derive

some moral conclusions from it, so as to provide reference for

the current social crisis [2]. In fact, he is comparing the

understanding of "things" in ancient society and modern

society. Just as Wang Mingming said, "Mauss drew a

conclusion about the relationship between people and things,

and he compared the different definitions of this relationship in

primitive and modern society. He pointed out that there is no

distinction between things and people in the pre-modern

society, the circulation of things and the circulation of people

and rights also start at the same time, gift giving is both moral

and economic activities. There are strict distinctions between

people and things, between human rights and real rights in

modern society. [3]" Mauss indicated that he tried to draw

three conclusions from these comparative studies: the

conclusion of morality; the conclusion of economic sociology

and political economy; and the conclusion of general sociology

and morality.

THE EXPLORATION ON THE INHERITANCE OF THE

MYSTERY OF GIFT" AND "THE FLOW OF GIFT"

In the study of gifts after Mauss, the most classic works are

Godelier's "Mystery of Gift" and Yan Yunxiang's "The Flow of

Gift". The former directly studies the "Gift" discussed by

Mauss and explains the mystery of gift; the latter combines the

theory of gift study with the case of "Xiajia village" in China to

explore the reciprocity principle and social network in rural

China.

Different from Mauss and Malinowski, in the "Mystery of

Gift", Maurice Godelier paid more attention to the things that

are valuable but never used for exchange in the ancient society,

that is, sacred things, and the resulting investigation of things....!!!