Based on a conference held at Rice University in 1999, this volume is an interesting addition to recent philosophically informed literature on the gift. Following a brief introductory essay by Wyschogrod, the volume is divided into three sections. The first, with essays by Maurice Godelier, George E. Marcus, and Mark C. Taylor, explores the social, economic, and political functions of gift-giving in the context of the global economy. The second section, with essays by Stephen A. Tyler and Genevieve Vaughan, examines how language and gender influence the role that giving plays in shaping communities. The final section, responding to the work of Derrida and Levinas, addresses the ambiguities and paradoxes of gift-giving and the gift's relation to alterity, with essays by John D. Caputo, Jean-Joseph Goux, and Adriaan Peperzak. Drawing from anthropology, religion, and philosophy, the essays are all of high quality and will be accessible to a broad and multidisciplinary audience. This volume complements nicely the collections edited by Alan Schrift (The Logic of the Gift: Toward an Ethic of Generosity, 1997) and Aafke Komter (The Gift: An Interdisciplinary Perspective, 1996) and would be a welcome addition to academic libraries. Of interest to undergraduates through faculty.

Edith Wyschogrod is J. Newton Rayzor Professor of Philosophy and Religious Thought emerita at Rice University. The most recent of her books are An Ethics of Remembering: History, Heterology, and the Nameless Others; Saints and Postmodernism: Revisioning Moral Philosophy; and a second edition of Emmanuel Levinas: The Problem of Ethical Metaphysics (Fordham).

Jean-Joseph Goux is Laurence Favrot Professor of French Studies at Rice University (emeritus). He was associated with the Tel Quel group in the late 1960s. Between philosophy, economy, psychoanalysis, and aesthetics, his work engages the field of “symbolic economy.” He taught at the University of California (San Diego, Berkeley) and at Brown University. He was program director at the College International de Philosophie in Paris and associate director at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. His books include Symbolic Economies (Cornell University Press, 1990), The Coiners of Languages (University of Oklahoma Press, 1994), and Oedipus Philosopher (Stanford University Press, 1993).

Eric Boynton is Professor and Chair of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Allegheny College.