The gift of sovereignty : kings from Mauss to Sahlins and Graeber

Abstract

Kingship has been of particular interest to anthropologists from Fraser to Graeber and Sahlins. This paper will join three concepts: gift-giving, law-making and kingship in a reflection‎ on the possible proto-economic roots of sovereignty. I am particularly interested in the reciprocity which existed between the king and the people, a space created and policed by law even in its earliest normative and communicative forms, but constituted through models of exchange. This takes in the notion of sovereignty at the level of the household and its role in the developing economy.