On Prayer

Born in Épinal, France, the influential sociologist and anthropologist Marcel Mauss studied at the University of Bordeaux and in 1901 was appointed professor of “histoire des religions des peoples non civilisés” at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris. He collaborated with his uncle, the founding figure of French sociology, Émile Durkheim, on various projects, including the journal L’Année sociologique, later becoming its editor. In 1925 Mauss cofounded the Ethnology Institute at the University of Paris. An innovative teacher and writer, his ideas influenced many sociologists and anthropologists, among them Claude Lévi-Strauss. Mauss’s scholarly work focused on the ethnology and social structures of nonliterate societies (such as those in Polynesia, Melanesia, and northwestern North America). His analysis of the forms of exchange and transaction that characterized those societies yielded his lasting work, his 1923 Essai sur le Don (translated into English as The Gift). he also wrote works concerning magic, mourning rites, and other topics. Mauss was involved in public affairs, supporting Alfred Dreyfus in his battle to prove his innocence and helping to establish a socialist daily newspaper entitled L’Humanité. He suffered a mental breakdown due to his experiences under the German occupation of France yet survived the war and went on to publish two further works.