In this, his most famous work, Marcel Mauss (1872-1950) presented to the world a book which revolutionized our understanding of some of the basic structures of society. A renowned anthropologist, Mauss sought in this work to transcend empirical observation and reach deeper realities. In so doing, he inaugurated a new era for the social sciences.;By identifying the complex web of exchange and obligation involved in the act of giving, Mauss called into question many of our social conventions and economic systems. As L'evi-Strauss remarked, "Few have managed to read it without feeling the whole gamut of the emotions: the pounding heart, the throbbing head, the mind flooded with the imperious, though not yet definable, certainty of being present at a decisive event in the evolution of science."

Seasonal Variations of the Eskimo is one of the first books in anthropology to adopt a sociological approach to the analysis of a single society. Mauss links elements of anthropology and human geography, arguing that geographical factors should be considered in relation to a social context in all its complexity.
The work is an illuminating source on the Eskimo and a proto-type of what an anthropologist should do with ethnographic data and exerted considerable influence on the development of social anthropology.
English translation first published in 1979.

Seasonal Variations of the Eskimo is one of the first books in anthropology to adopt a sociological approach to the analysis of a single society. Mauss links elements of anthropology and human geography, arguing that geographical factors should be considered in relation to a social context in all its complexity. The work is an illuminating source on the Eskimo and a proto-type of what an anthropologist should do with ethnographic data and exerted considerable influence on the development of social anthropology. English translation first published in 1979.

First written by Marcel Mauss and Henri Humbert in 1902, A General Theory of Magic gained a wide new readership when republished by Mauss in 1950. As a study of magic in 'primitive' societies and its survival today in our thoughts and social actions, it represents what Claude Lévi-Strauss called, in an introduction to that edition, the astonishing modernity of the mind of one of the century's greatest thinkers. The book offers a fascinating snapshot of magic throughout various cultures as well as deep sociological and religious insights still very much relevant today. At a period when art, magic and science appear to be crossing paths once again, A General Theory of Magic presents itself as a classic for our times.

In this influential work, first published in English in 1963, Durkheim and Mauss claim that the individual mind is capable of classification and they seek the origin of the 'classificatory function' in society. On the basis of an intensive examination of forms and principles of symbolic classification reported from the Australian aborigines, the Zuni and traditional China, they try to establish a formal correspondence between social and symbolic classification. From this they argue that the mode of classification is determined by the form of society and that the notions of space, time, hierarchy, number, class and other such cognitive categories are products of society. Dr Needham's introduction assesses the validity of Durkhiem and Mauss's argument, traces its continued influence in various disciplines, and indicates its analytical value for future researches in social anthropology.

In this influential work, first published in English in 1963, Durkheim and Mauss claim that the individual mind is capable of classification and they seek the origin of the 'classificatory function' in society. On the basis of an intensive examination of forms and principles of symbolic classification reported from the Australian aborigines, the Zuni and traditional China, they try to establish a formal correspondence between social and symbolic classification. From this they argue that the mode of classification is determined by the form of society and that the notions of space, time, hierarchy, number, class and other such cognitive categories are products of society.

Dr Needham's introduction assesses the validity of Durkhiem and Mauss's argument, traces its continued influence in various disciplines, and indicates its analytical value for future researches in social anthropology.

"In the wake of considerable recent biographical attention to Marcel Mauss in English-language publications, it is fitting that works by him still available only in French appear in translation. The Manual of Ethnography has been expertly translated by Dominique Lussier, and appropriately edited and introduced by N. J. Allen. This historically important document, ... reflects the youthful moment of modern anthropology when the questions and subjects of this discipline came to depend on rigorous collection of material from field research... an important historical document in the context of Mauss's teaching of anthropology and in the originary hopes for ethnography. Highly recommended." . George Marcus in Choice

Marcel Mauss (1872-1950) was the leading social anthropologist in Paris between the world wars, and his Manuel d'ethnographie, dating from that period, is the longest of all his texts. Despite having had four editions in France, the Manuel has hitherto been unavailable in English. This contrasts with his essays, longer and shorter, many of which have long enjoyed the status of classics within anthropology. We are therefore pleased to present, in the English language for the first time, this extraordinary work that is based on the more than thirty lectures Mauss delivered each year under the title "Instructions in descriptive ethnography, intended for travelers, administrators and missionaries." Despite his dates, Mauss's treatment of fundamental questions, such as how to conceptualize and classify the range of social phenomena known to us from history and ethnography, has lost none of its freshness."

Marcel Mauss (1872-1950) was the leading social anthropologist in Paris between the world wars, and his Manuel D'ethnographie, dating from that period, is the longest of all his texts. Despite having had four editions in France, the Manuel has hitherto been unavailable in English. This contrasts with his essays, longer and shorter, many of which have long enjoyed the status of classics within anthropology. We are therefore pleased to present, in the English language for the first time, this extraordinary work that is based on the more than thirty lectures Mauss delivered each year under the title Instructions in descriptive ethnography, intended for travelers, administrators and missionaries. Although some elements of his lectures have dated, the fundamental questions he explores concerning the range and classification of social phenomena he formulates and explores have lost nothing of their freshness and urgency.

Scan down a list of essential works in any introduction to anthropology course and you are likely to see to see Marcel Mauss's masterpiece, Essay on the Gift. With this new translation, this crucial essay is returned to its original context, published alongside the profound works that framed its first publication in the 1923-24 issue of L'Annee Sociologique. With a critical foreword by Maurice Godelier, this is certain to become the standard English version of this important anthropological work. Included alongside the "Essay on the Gift" are Mauss's memorial accounts of the work of colleagues lost during World War I, as well as his scholarly reviews of influential contemporaries such as Franz Boas, James George Frazer, Bronislaw Malinowski, Alfred Radcliffe-Brown, and others. Read in the context of these additional pieces, the "Essay on the Gift" is revealed as a complementary whole, a gesture of both personal and political generosity: his honor for his fallen colleagues; his aspiration for modern society's recuperation of the gift as a mode of repair; and his own careful, yet critical, reading of his intellectual milieu. The result sets the scene for a whole new generation of readers to study this essay alongside pieces that exhibit the erudition, political commitment, and generous collegial exchange that first nourished it into life.

"Classical Durkheimian Studies of Myth and the Sacred" presents English translations of several important essays, some never before translated, by members of the famous Annee sociologique group around Emile Durkheim. These works by Marcel Mauss, Henri Hubert, and Robert Hertz are key contributions to today s growing interest in and reinterpretation of Durkheimian thought on culture, religion, and symbolism. The central thrust in this new interpretive effort uses the Durkheimian theory of the sacred to understand the symbolism and meanings of cultural structures and narratives more generally. This book is vital to any contemporary collection emphasizing social theory.Durkheim indicated in "The Elementary Forms" that the sacred would certainly transform itself in modernity, although he limited his conjecture as to precisely how it would do so to some brief remarks on popular political manifestations of collective effervescence and sacred symbolic production. Much contemporary work in cultural sociology has made use of this observation by Durkheim to postulate new manifestations of the sacred in secular cultural forms. The texts translated here show how thoroughly such efforts can be rooted in the work emerging in the original Durkheimian school during its heyday in the first two decades of the 20th century. "

In this, his most famous work, Marcel Mauss (1872-1950) presented to the world a book which revolutionized our understanding of some of the basic structures of society. A renowned anthropologist, Mauss sought in this work to transcend empirical observation and reach deeper realities. In so doing, he inaugurated a new era for the social sciences By identifying the complex web of exchange and obligation involved in the act of giving, Mauss called into question many of our social conventions and economic systems. As L'evi-Strauss remarked, "Few have managed to read it without feeling the whole gamut of the emotions: the pounding heart, the throbbing head, the mind flooded with the imperious, though not yet definable, certainty of being present at a decisive event in the evolution of science."

Die in dieser zweibandigen Ausgabe zusammengefassten Aufsatze von Marcel Mauss haben nicht nur in der Soziologie zahlreiche Arbeiten massgeblich beeinflusst. Der lange im Schatten seines Onkels Emile Durkheim stehende franzoesische Sozialwissenschaftler ist heute weltweit so aktuell wie noch nie zuvor.

Die in dieser zweibandigen Ausgabe zusammengefassten Aufsatze von Marcel Mauss haben nicht nur in der Soziologie zahlreiche Arbeiten massgeblich beeinflusst. Der lange im Schatten seines Onkels Emile Durkheim stehende franzoesische Sozialwissenschaftler ist heute weltweit so aktuell wie noch nie zuvor.

First written by Marcel Mauss and Henri Humbert in 1902, A General Theory of Magic gained a wide new readership when republished by Mauss in 1950. As a study of magic in 'primitive' societies and its survival today in our thoughts and social actions, it represents what Claude Lévi-Strauss called, in an introduction to that edition, the astonishing modernity of the mind of one of the century's greatest thinkers. The book offers a fascinating snapshot of magic throughout various cultures as well as deep sociological and religious insights still very much relevant today. At a period when art, magic and science appear to be crossing paths once again, A General Theory of Magic presents itself as a classic for our times.

2011 Reprint of 1954 American Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. This is perhaps the first systematic study of the custom, widespread in primitive societies from ancient Rome to present-day Melanesia, of exchanging gifts. The gift is conceived as a transaction forming part of all human, personal relationships between individuals and groups. These gift exchanges are at the same time moral, economic, juridical, aesthetic, religious, mythological and social phenomena. A classic work.

2011 Reprint of 1954 American Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. This is perhaps the first systematic study of the custom, widespread in primitive societies from ancient Rome to present-day Melanesia, of exchanging gifts. The gift is conceived as a transaction forming part of all human, personal relationships between individuals and groups. These gift exchanges are at the same time moral, economic, juridical, aesthetic, religious, mythological and social phenomena. A classic work.