On Prayer

Marcel Mauss, the pioneering French sociologist and anthropologist, was the nephew of Emile Durkheim and continued much of his work. He is best known for his study of The Gift. W.S.F. Pickering is General Secretary of the British Centre for Durkheimian Studies, University of Oxford. Howard Morphy is Professor of Anthropology, University College London.

• FrontispieceAcknowledgementsPresentation, Notes and ReferencingIntroduction to an Unfinished WorkW.S.F. PickeringMarcel Mauss: On PrayerTranslated by Susan LeslieBook IChapter 1. General IntroductionChapter 2.Chapter 3. Initial DefinitionBook II The Nature of Elementary Oral RitesChapter 1. The History of the Question and Delineation of the SubjectChapter 2. Do Prayers Exist in Australia?Chapter 3. The Formulae of the IntichiumaNotesEdited by Robert ParkinMauss's Review of Segond's book on PrayerTranslated by Susan LeslieSome Concluding Anthropological ReflectionsHoward MorphyIndex

"This study should have been his doctoral dissertation that he never finished...Its English version clearly shows that we are dealing with an important text on a topic that is curiously little explored by anthropologists." · Revue philosophique"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 Blackfriars