ON PRAYER IBD

Sinopse

'There is much of interest in this well-presented volume. Mauss?s careful discussion of differences among types of oral rites - incantations, spells, invocations - remains instructive.' · Social Anthropology'Anthropologists, sociologists and theologians will be grateful for the first English translation of this important early text by Marcel Mauss . . . The notes edited by Robert Parkin and some ?Concluding Anthropological Reflections? by Howard Morphy make this a very valuable item for Mauss scholarship.' · Reviews in Religion and Theology'Mauss?s foray into the issue of prayer, though inchoate, is as unexpected as it is significant . . . Pickering has produced a highly scholarly and indispensable volume . . . Impeccably translated . . . this will be the standard reference for Mauss on the topic of prayer.' · New BlackfriarsMarcel Mauss (1872-1950) never completed his Doctoral thesis on prayer. Yet his scarcely mentioned introduction (Books I and II) of 176 pages and privately printed in 1909, can be seen as some of his most important work. His argument that much of prayer is a social act will be of great interest to anthropologists, sociologists and theologians.Here, the first English translation to be published, is preceded by a general introduction by W.S.F.Pickering and finally a specific commentary on Mauss?s use of ethnographic material.W.S.F. Pickering, British Centre for Durkheimian Studies, Oxford University, postscript by Howard Morphy, University of Canberra.Published in Association with the Durkheim Press.