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.
Author(s): Marcel Mauss
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Year: 2006
Language: English
Pages: 192
Techniques , Technology and Civilisation
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
A Note on the Illustrations
I Approaching technology
II Durkheim and the containment of technology
Material density and methodological materialism
Retraction - Sorel and Labriola
The religious turn
Disengagements from technology 1 - the Annee sociologique
Disengagements from technology 2 - the Elementary Forms
of Religious Life
Transition to Mauss: beyond things that present no danger
Bergsonian challenges
Socialising techniques
Techniques redeemed
Conservative views
Diffusionist circles
Conclusions-humanity and humility
Notes
Text 1
Technology (1901)
Text 2
Technology. Introduction (1903)
Text 3
Note on the Concept of Civilisation
(1913)
Text 4
Extract 1
Extract 2
I. Civilisation
II. Technique
Text 5
Extract 1
Extract 2
Text 6
Debate on the Origins of Human Technology (1929)
Text 7
Civilisations, Their Elements and Forms (1929/1930)
Introduction
I. Facts of civilisation
II. Civilisations. Forms of civilisation
III. Ordinary meaning of the word civilisation
Text 8
Fragment of a Plan of General Descriptive Sociology (on Tradition) (1934, extract)
Text 9
Techniques of the Body (1935)
Chapter Two: Principles of the Classification of Techniques of the Body
1. Sexual division of techniques of the body (and not just division of labour among the sexes)
2. Variations of techniques of the body with age
3. Classification of techniques of the body according to efficiency
4. Transmission of the form of the techniques
Chapter Three: A Biographical List of the Techniques
of the Body
1. Techniques of birth and obstetrics
2. Techniques of infancy
3. Techniques of adolescence
4. Techniques of adult life
Chapter Four: General Considerations
Notes
References
Text 10
Technology (1935/1947)
Techniques of the body1
General techniques with general uses
Mechanical techniques
Fire9
Special techniques with general uses/
General industries with special uses
Basketry12
Pottery14
Esparto goods and rope making
Glues and resins
Weaponry17
Specialised industries with special uses
Consumption
Industries of acquisition
Industries of production
Stockbreeding31
Industries of protection and comfort
Transportation industries42
Notes
Text 11
Conceptions Which Have Preceded the Notion of Matter (1939)
Text 12
Techniques and Technology (1941/1948)
Biographical Notes
Balfour, Henry (1863-1939)
Bastian, Adolf (1826-1905)
Bergson, Henri (1859-1941)
Boas, Franz (1858-1942)
Cushing, Frank Hamilton (1857-1900)
Durkheim, Emile (1858-1917)
Espinas, Victor Alfred (1844-1922)
Febvre, Lucicn (1878-1956)
Frobcnius, Leo (1873-1938)
Graebner, Fritz (1877-1934)
Halbwachs, Maurice (1877-1945)
Haudricourt, Andrc-Georgcs (1911-1996)
Hertz, Robert (1881-1915)
Holmes, William Henry (1846-1933)
Hubert, Henri (1872-1927)
Leroi-Gourhan, Andre (1911-1986)
Levy-Bruhl, Lucien (1857-1939)
Mason, Otis Tufton (1838-1908)
Mauss, Marcel (1872-1950)
Meyerson, Ignace (1888-1983)
Montandon, Georges (1879-1944)
Nordenskiold, Erland Nils Herbert (1877-1932)
Powell, John Wesley (1834—1902)
Ratzel, Friedrich (1844—1904)
Reuleaux, Franz (1829-1905)
Rivers, William liaise (1864-1922)
Rivet, Paul (1876-1958)
Schmidt, Wilhelm (1868-1954)
Simiand, Francois (1873-1935)
Sorel, Georges (1847-1922)
Spengler, Oswald (1880-1936)
General Bibliography
12.
Index
