On the Spirit of the Gift

Abstract

This essay is an exercise in merging two frames of reference: the sociology of exchange and the phenomenology of love. It first presents the modern Western theory of giving as found in the seminal essay by Marcel Mauss, The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies (1924/1969), where giving is perceived along a scale from functional altruism to ego-centered calculation. Levi-Strauss's generalizations on exchange theory, as well as E, 0. Wilson's explanation of altruism in terms of inclusive fitness, are also examined as parts of this general perspective which approaches the universal social behavior of giving from an objective, and mostly materialistic, egocentric point of view. This interpretation of giving is compared to and contrasted with the phenomenological approach where giving is experienced and intuited as an existential self-realization. Giving and love in Eastern cultures is examined in exemplifying this attitude, whose congruence with Victor Turner's concepts of "flow," "ritual drama," "holism," and "communitas" is emphasized. In conclusion, an integrative theory of giving is suggested, which would merge both the sociological and phenomenological approaches.