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
Anthropology is the science of the total man.
Life is a perpetual exchange, from birth to death.
I have given my life to understanding others; now I seek to understand myself.
The greatest gift is knowledge shared freely.
In laughter, we see the release of social tensions.
Ritual is the theater of society.
The individual is but a node in the web of social relations.
To study sacrifice is to study the heart of religion.
Education shapes the body as much as the mind.
The Eskimo's kayak is an extension of his very being.
Social morphology precedes social physiology.
In the gift, time itself is suspended.
Anthropologists must be both observers and participants.
The nation is a moral entity born of suffering and solidarity.
Humor in anthropology lightens the weight of exotic facts.
My last words: Continue the work of collective understanding.
Exchange is the poetry of social life.
The mana of the gift endures beyond the object.
Sociology without anthropology is blind; anthropology without sociology is lame.
In giving, we receive the essence of others.