Marcel Mauss
A nephew of Émile Durkheim, known for his work on the 'gift economy' and the concept of the 'total social phenomenon'.
Quotes by Marcel Mauss
Magic is the art of influencing men and the forces of nature by representations.
Prayer is not a mere formula; it is a collective representation of society.
The soul is not an individual possession but a social fact.
Totemism is a system of social classification.
The body is man's first and most natural instrument.
Habitus is the way in which the body is trained to perform tasks.
Every established order tends to produce the naturalization of its own arbitrariness.
Social facts are ways of acting, thinking, and feeling that are external to the individual.
Anthropology reveals the diversity of human institutions, yet their underlying unity.
The comparative method is the soul of anthropology.
We must study societies in their totality, not in fragments.
The sacred and the profane are not opposites but interdependent.
In times of crisis, the collective effervescence binds us together.
War teaches us the fragility of social bonds, yet their resilience.
The future of sociology lies in its application to real social problems.
One cannot understand a society without understanding its rituals.
Generosity is not altruism; it is a strategy of social power.
The kula ring exemplifies the poetry of exchange.
Potlatch is the agonistic form of the gift.
Money destroys the personal ties of the gift economy.