![]() There was an obligation to give gifts in certain settings, there was an obligation to receive gifts that were offered, and there was the expectation that gifts would be reciprocated at a future date. Mauss described the system of gift giving that existed in these societies and noted that gift giving was related to obligation in several different ways. Using several different societies of Melanesia, Polynesia, and northwestern North America, Mauss examined the roles and functions of gift giving and discovered that barter did not exist in these societies. Therefore, it was thought that some form of the market economy must have always existed and would have, in its early forms, relied on barter exchange. At the time, most people believed that the goal of humans was to maximize their pleasure by accumulating goods that would increase their comfort. ![]() He wanted to determine where the market came from and whether there were alternatives to the market economy. Mauss observed the events in Russia and believed that because the market could not simply be done away with, revolutionaries needed to develop a more intellectual and complete understanding of the market economy. Although Mauss studied a wide range of topics, his most significant publication is The Gift (1925), which was written as his response to Lenin’s New Economic Policy of 1921. ![]()
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