Mauss The Gift Summary

In Mauss’s work The Gift, he also focused on the gift economy in social groups. For our purposes we will focusing on his more famous work of the potlaches of Pacific Northwest Native American tribes. He notes that the potlach system is unique and differ greatly from other gift economies in that it is an exercise in managing the wealth status of the tribes. (Mauss 2012) What he means by this is that the potlaches serves the purpose of changing the distribution of wealth in the tribes while building prestige. Mauss describes potlaches as ceremonies where possessions and property are given away or destroyed. By doing this, the giver is displaying their wealth which Mauss says buildups their status and prestige. The giver is show they don’t need

This shows in the destruction of some possessions as they not as valuable as the earned prestige from destroying them. While we can focus on the social aspects of building of prestige, there is other element to potlaches. Mauss suggests that the potlaches have other implications on the structure of the tribe. (Mauss 2012) For example with the redistribution of wealth, the economy of the tribe can change. When lower members of the tribe receive wealth from the rich gift givers, the separation of class among the tribes become more even out and equally disbursed. In a political sense, the gift giving of the potlaches can become competitive. While gaining prestige, gift givers are also gaining political

(Mauss 2012) While Black Friday is not an all to the ceremonious event like the potlach it still have the same implications. We can mainly focus on the competitive side of gift giving. As previously discussed, because of a reciprocity with magical force, people are more likely to go toward the larger and more expensive items at a Black Friday sale, but with using Mauss’s ideas we can see another reason why they would go for those items. By giving away these items as present, the giver is hoping to build their own version of prestige. Through the giving of extravagate gifts, they gaining the respect of others, and just Mauss wrote they also displaying their wealth. The holiday gift exchanges have been competitions of who spend the most on each gift. Often we see the gift exchanges with the highest stakes are within the work place. In the case of work place gift exchanges, there is actually a lot of anxiety when it comes to buying gifts, but this usually centered with lower employees. If the boss is involved in a gift exchange, it become the perfect opportunity for them to display their wealth and earn the respect of employees. Boss will usually opt for the giving away expensive gifts just do show that they can do it. Often we will people buying the more expensive items at Black Friday in