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The gift is a much vexed concept, partly because the moral logic underlying different sorts of transaction lumped together under that rubric are in no way uniform. Drawing on Marcel Mauss’ assumption that all major social principles (individualism and communism, democracy and monarchy, etc.) normally co-exist in any social system, this essay argues for three such basic principles : COMMUNISM (an eternal relation based on means and ends), EXCHANGE (a temporary relation between ostensible equals), and HIERARCHY (based on precedent, not reciprocity). These principles overlap, shift and shade into one another.