Marcel Mauss: Three Contributions Of The Gifts

1. According to Marcel Mauss, a French sociologist and Emile Durkheim’s nephew, there are three obligations of the “gift”. They are to give gifts to people out of ones own volition, to receive a gift when given a gift and to reciprocate by giving a gift when a gift is received. Gifts are links between people, things and other people. It promotes comradery and good will. People make/build/buy elaborate or prestigious items and present it to other people. Different societies differs in not only the exchange of gifts but alos the differs in reasons as to why they exchange gifts. According to Mauss getting what you need by exchanging is a primitive ideology. The motivation behind giving Gifts vary. The gift that’s given reap rewards in this life

Emile Durkheim, a French anthropologist claimed “sociology was the study of social facts, and social facts were the actions of society.” Social facts dictate why people within a social group/society seem to do the similar basic things, such as where they live, their diet, rules for interaction and engagement. The society they belong to shapes them to do these things, continuing social facts. It the way of thinking and feeling that exists outside the control of the individual. It consists of representations and actions. It tend to have a coercive power on individuals of the society. If individuals conform to these social facts then they do not feel coerced, but if an individual attempt to resist or react against the social fact they are met with consequences, often in the form of punishment. We can identify them by seeing how widespread an idea or way of things/living life doing is within that society. They are made up of beliefs, tendencies, practices and of a group of people and exists in collective conscience and works as a binding/unifying force within a group of people. For example, Marriage: Social groups tend to have the same ideas towards marriage, such as proper age for marriage, how marriage ceremonies are conducted etc. Stances that breach those social facts, such as bigamy or polygamy in the Western world, are regarded with disgust and social

No societies exist without, kinship, family ties and marriage. Even though the terms of kinship and descent differ from culture to culture, every society has kinship in some way or form. kinship, marriage and family become the central foci of all societies irrespective of their socio-economic, religious or political background. It dictates the rules and regulations for social heirchy, avoidance, inheritance of property etc. Beattie believes kinship is not a restricted to a set of genealogical relationships. According to John Beattie the key categories of biological relation serves to determine one’s position in their society and the relations they have with the people within that society. It provides a framework for distinguishing between people within the society. Therefore, kinship categories are more social than economics or jural. The categories of kinship are used to characterize social relationships, specific types of social behavior and particular patterns of values, expectations and beliefs. Kinship can be described as a social relationship between people rom the same group upon familial connections. In some cultures kin can also mean people who are not related by blood but related by clan, and people can go through a initiation to come in to the clan.It may also be described as a structured system of relationships in a family in which members are bound to one another by complex inter-locking ties. These social relationships can be of authority and subordination,