Books by Marcel Henaff

For philosophers, the gift fascinates because it demands disinterested generosity. Yet anthropology offers another view. Reciprocity, rather than disinterestedness, Henaff shows, is central to ceremonial giving, alliance, and the social bond. From actual gift practices, Henaff develops an original and profound theory of symbolism, the social, and the relationship between self and other.

Without stigmatizing commercial activity, this book takes a philosophical and anthropological look at the universe of the gift, debt, and money in the West from ancient Greece to the present in order to examine how and why knowledge has long been assumed to be priceless.