Validity of the critical perspective of Marcel Mauss in his essay about the gift

Abstract

Going to the work of Marcel Mauss today, from a critical perspective, gives us relevant criteria and notions, keys to face the evolution in the dynamics of old problems with a new look (Mauss, 1979). In his essay on the gift as the origin that governed exch ange in archaic societies. Incorporating the notions of reciprocity and integration, fundamental in the construction of the social bond. Currently, there is a crisis in democratic societies, where citizens demand reciprocity from governments and their institutions regarding the sovereignty that was given to them. The market has dismembered the social bonds, which today are reunited through the mobilizations. In them, the group expresses not being willing to continue giving as long as it is not returned. In short, the current citizen demand, seems to be reissued with a view to the origin, where the perspective of the gift that Mauss offers us, in the demand for a social morality of exchange, acquires full force. In this comment we will review the author and his work about the gift, as well as notions that emerge from it, considering that his perspective constitutes an input to critical theory, in the validity of his notions of analysis.