Abstract
Mauss’s intention in writing The Gift was to refute the strong ideological opposition between gifts and market contracts which would have the one free, generous and social, the other obligatory, self-interested and individualistic. The ease and frequency with which purchased commodities in Western societies are converted into presents supports his view that the two forms overlap and are permeable, each combining freedom and obligation, individual personality and social constraint. Mass-produced commodities are used to build up the material culture of a private domestic universe in a social process of appropriation. Presents are compared here with inherited objects, purchased items and immaterial donations such as money, gift vouchers and wedding list subscriptions. In light of this comparison of ethnographic observations made in France and Britain, the distinction between gifts and commodities seems to blur and the boundary between them is easily crossed.
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