Hau (sociology)

For the deity see Tāwhirimātea

Hau is a notion made popular by the French sociologist Marcel Mauss in his 1925 book The Gift.[1] Surveying the practice of gifting, he came to the conclusion that it involved belief in a force binding the receiver and giver. The term 'Hau', used by the Maori, became a paradigmatic example for such a view.[2] Writing at the turn of the century, Mauss relied on limited sources but his analysis has been expanded and refined.[3]

References

  1. Mauss M., The gift; forms and functions of exchange in archaic societies, Translated by Ian Gunnison with an Introduction by . E. Evans-Pritchard, London: Cohen and West, 1966: Internet Archive
  2. MacCormack G., Mauss and the 'Spirit'of the Gift, Oceania, Vol. 52, No. 4, Jun., 1982 p.286 Jstor
  3. Maurice Godelier, The enigma of the gift. University of Chicago Press, 1999.

See also

Gift economy


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 3/3/2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.