L’anthropologie de la reconnaissance de Marcel Hénaff et la question du symbolisme : sur la pertinence de relire Mauss après Lévi-Strauss

Marcel Hénaff’s work (1942–2018) can be considered as a nuanced interpretation of modern western societies. The fact that it addresses a wide range of topics tends to mask the articulated thought it bears – in that matter, The Price of Truth: Gift, Money, and Philosophy (2010) is the best example. His thought took this particular form in part because of its genealogical stance, which is informed by social and cultural anthropology, phenomenology and, in some ways Christian theology. But if one wants to get a better grasp of its internal coherence, one must turn to religion as it has been approached by the French School of sociology and anthropology. For Hénaff developed his anthropology of recognition through a dialogue with Claude Lévi-Strauss’s thought on symbolism, revisited with Marcel Mauss’s own work on ceremonial gift exchange and symbolism.