Marcel Mauss's writings on techniques and technology are at the forefront of an important anthropological and sociological research tradition, and they also highlight the theoretical and ideological challenges surrounding this field of study. A selection of Mauss's texts — including his major statements on methodology, on body techniques, on practical reason, on nation and civilisation, on progress, and so forth — are here translated and presented together for the first time, with a discussion of their context, impact and implications. This book will interest scholars and students dealing with the French sociological tradition, and also more generally those concerned with technology and material culture studies in archaeological,anthropological or contemporary settings.
Table of Contents:
Preface
Acknowledgements
A Note on the Illustrations
Introduction: Technological Commitments: Marcel Mauss and the Study of Techniques in the French Social Sciences
Nathan Schlanger
Texts Chapter 1. Technology (1901)
Emile Durkheim
Chapter 2. Technology. Introduction (1903)
Henri Hubert
Chapter 3. Note on the Concept of Civilisation (1913)
Emile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss
Chapter 4. The Nation (1920/1953, extracts)
Chapter 5. The Divisions of Sociology (1927, extracts)
Chapter 6. Debate on the Origins of Human Technology (1929)
Chapter 7. Civilisations, Their Elements and Forms (1929/1930)
Chapter 8. Fragment of a Plan of General Descriptive Sociology (on Tradition) (1934, extract)
Chapter 9. Techniques of the Body (1935)
Chapter 10. Technology (1935/1947)
Chapter 11. Conceptions Which Have Preceded the Notion of Matter (1939)
Chapter 12. Techniques and Technology (1941/1948)
Biographical Notes
General Bibliography
Index
About the Author :
Nathan Schlanger coordinates the AREA project (Archives of European Archaeology) at the INHA, Paris. He has published on prehistoric archaeology, on the technological contributions of Mauss and Leroi-Gourhan, and on the history of archaeology in colonial (African) contexts.
Review :
“The appearance of these two essays… in English for the first time attests to the continuing interest in Marcel Mauss and the fact that re-readings of his work still provide not only fertile ground for new interpretations of the Durkheimian school in general, but also a source of inspiration for scholars approaching Mauss as a remarkably contemporary voice still speaking in many ways to current issues in sociology and anthropology.” • Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
