The ambivalent character of the gift in segmentary societies according to Marcel H��naff and Pierre Bourdieu

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Philosophy - Philosophy of the 20th century grade: 13 University of Hagen (Philosophie) course: Meisterkurs mit Marcel Hnaff: ''Der Preis der Wahrheit'' language: English abstract: Are gifts disinterested presents challenges geared to rivalry and fighting offers of social reciprocal recognition or an exchange of goods on a pure economic base? Sociologists psychologists ethnologists and philosophers have discussed these questions for decades initiated in many cases by the Essai sur le don by Marcel Mauss written in 1924/25 about the form and reason for exchange in archaic societies. Reciprocity social totality anti-utilitarianism and amalgamation of souls and things are the main issues of his ethnographic fundamental and systematic comparative study of the exchange of gifts. Following Moebius the consequential intense receptions can be substantially divided into two main strands. On the one hand there is the anti-utilitarianism mindset. While the former idea emphasizes an anti-economic and unproductive wasteful perception the latter structure-centered view sees the exchange of goods as a supra-subjective structure caused unconsciously by the mind with its ability to symbolize and - following Bourdieu - to be thoroughly economic and benefit-oriented. In a different approach Caill tries to overcome the antagonism of both lines by his so-called third paradigm. He suggests to avoid the one-dimensional view of holistic vs. individualistic rationally vs. voluntary but to speak of the four different cornerstones of human activity which interact parallel with different intensity. These cornerstones are voluntariness obligation interest and altruism. The occurrence of contrasting characteristics as paradox phenomena of the gift is particularly picked up by Marcel Hnaff in a highly regarded approach directing attention to reciprocal recognition and the creation of a social bond. This seminar pap