The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies (French: Essai sur le don: forme et raison de l'échange dans les sociétés archaïques) is a 1925 essay by the French sociologist Marcel Mauss that is the foundation of social theories of reciprocity and gift exchange.
They occur between groups, not only individuals, and they are a crucial part of “total phenomena” that work to build not just wealth and alliances marked by economic wants but social solidarity because “the gift” pervades all aspects of the society.
From the disparate evidence, he builds a case for a foundation to human society based on collective (vs. individual) exchange practices.
He concludes by speculating that social welfare programs may be recovering some aspects of the morality of the gift within modern market economies.
[4] It has also influenced philosophers, artists, and political activists, including Georges Bataille, Jacques Derrida, Jean Baudrillard, and more recently the work of David Graeber and the theologians John Milbank and Jean-Luc Marion.