Marcel Mauss’s discussion of the gift relies on a paradox: although gift-giving is the foundational act of building a society, in order for a gift to be circulated, society must be always-already presupposed so that the gift can reach and be recognized by its destination. This article focuses on how this paradox has been addressed in anthropological and philosophical studies of the gift, by reviewing work by Claude Lévi-Strauss, Maurice Godelier and Jacques Derrida. By illuminating each position through the lens of the Lacanian triad of the symbolic, the imaginary and the real, I first show how Lévi-Strauss and Godelier, respectively, focus on the symbolic and imaginary economies of the gift and how their perspectives are still bound by Mauss’s paradox in assuming the totality of society as the ultimate basis of gift exchange. I then read Derrida’s critique of Mauss as an attempt to explore the space for the aneconomic that grounds but simultaneously threatens the symbolic and imaginary economies of society. In doing so, I argue that the gift always includes the effaceable negativity and uncertainty that serve as the condition of (im)possibility for the social.

中文翻译：

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（反）社会礼物？莫斯的悖论与礼物的三合会

马塞尔·莫斯（Marcel Mauss）对礼物的讨论有一个悖论：尽管送礼物是建立社会的基本行为，但要使礼物得以传播，必须始终以社会为前提，以使礼物能够到达并得到礼物的认可。它的目的地。本文通过回顾克劳德·列维·斯特劳斯，莫里斯·戈德利尔和雅克·德里达的著作，着重研究这种天赋的人类学和哲学研究如何解决这一悖论。首先，通过象征性，虚构性和真实性的拉康三合会的镜头照亮每个位置，我首先展示列维·斯特劳斯和戈德利尔如何分别关注礼物的象征性和虚构性以及它们的观点如何受到束缚由Mauss的悖论提出，假设社会整体是礼物交换的最终基础。然后，我读了德里达对莫斯的评论，以期探索一种既有基础又有威胁性的象征性和想象性经济的非经济空间。在这样做的时候，我认为礼物总是包括可消除的消极情绪和不确定性，这是社会（不可能）发生的条件。