"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 Marcel 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.