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Communism: Between Ideological Gift and the Gift in Everyday Life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Ivalyo Ditchev*
Affiliation:
University of Sofia
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This attempt to interpret Communist society through the total social fact of the gift takes up Mauss's strategy, which attempted to explain social reproduction without written laws or state institutions. It was a culture of chronic revolution (‘revolution’ in the etymological sense), where the rules of the game changed with each party congress, institutions were in a state of permanent reform, science discovered new truths every five years, and yesterday's heroes became the traitors of today. The very concept of living in a transitory society renders every social form temporary and unreal - starting with the proclaimed disappearance of the State, the family, and private property.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2002

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