Gifts are a traditional part of Christmas – but why do we give presents at all?

The Gift, written by Marcel Mauss in 1925, explores why we exchange things and the social rules we follow - and might help explain why gift-giving can be so fraught with worry

Exchanging stuff - as gifts or economic transactions - and reciprocating those exchanges in a socially acceptable way - is a practice found in all human cultures. The rules and scope of the exchanges may be very different, but the fact of them is universal.

French anthropologist Marcel Mauss doesn't attempt to explain the politics and practice of the office Secret Santa (alas) - instead, he describes "archaic societies" in Melanesia, Polynesia and the north-west coast Native American peoples who practiced 'potlatch', a ceremonial gift-giving and feasting ritual characterised by competitive shows of conspicuous giving and consumption. These, Mauss says, are systems of gift-giving that aren't just about gifts, but carry legal, economic, spiritual and moral significance that saturates the whole social fabric (he calls them "total prestations"). In these societies, items given as gifts take on the spiritual significance of the giver. The value of the relationship is embodied in the thing given.