Marcel Mauss

About the author

Marcel Israël Mauss (1872–1950), known as the "father of French ethnology," was a pioneering French sociologist and anthropologist whose work dissolved the boundaries between the two disciplines. The nephew of Émile Durkheim, he brought a comparative, cross-cultural lens to subjects such as magic, sacrifice, and gift exchange. His most celebrated work, The Gift (1925), proved lastingly influential, shaping the thought of Claude Lévi-Strauss and the development of structural anthropology.

Mauss remains a foundational figure in the human sciences.