Marcel Mauss

There has never been a people, however primitive, that did not practice some form of gift exchange.

The gift is not a simple transfer of property; it is a total social phenomenon.

To give is to show superiority, to be more, to be higher in rank, to be master. To accept without returning or without returning more is to lose rank, to become a client and a servant, to sink lower.

The spirit of the thing given is always present in the thing received.

The gift creates a bond, a relationship, an obligation.

The human being is a social animal, and society is a system of exchanges.

There is no such thing as a pure gift; every gift implies a return.

The body is the first and most natural instrument of man.

Techniques of the body are not just physical acts, but social and cultural phenomena.

Each society has its own ways of using the body, its own 'habitus'.

The body is not merely a biological entity, but a social construct.

Sociology is the study of total social phenomena.

The individual is a product of society, and society is a product of individuals.

We must study social facts as things.

The division of labor is a social fact, not a natural one.

Religion is a system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things.

Magic is a social phenomenon, not a purely individual one.

The collective representations are the very fabric of society.

The concept of the person is a social construct, not a universal given.

The 'self' is not an isolated entity, but a relational one.