ANTA02H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Kinship Terminology, Social Fact, Consanguinity
Document Summary
Marcel mauss- adherent to structuralism; factors such as culture, relationships, politics and so on are functionally related to each other in any given society. Any culture is like an organism; they"re all in balance with each other and if one aspect changes then every other function shifts along with it. Mauss" essay which he called the gift focuses on which the way of the exchange of gifts shows the interaction of peoples, the customs and values around gift giving. There"s no such thing as a free gift . Reciprocal exchange- when one person does something and the other person does the same thing back for them. Human history is filled with these reciprocal exchanges; the exchange of objects between people builds relationships. Every gift causes an imbalance between the giver and recipient, and until that gift has been reciprocated that imbalance is going to always be there and this binds them to a moral relationship (moral debt to the giver)
