In recent years, gift-giving, the phenomenon associated with the name of Marcel Mauss, has been taken up and widely discussed from many different perspectives. All subsequent social theories pondering the gift and reciprocity refer to his Essay on the Gift; the spectrum of ideas ranging from rational choice theories through normative approaches to attempts to overcome the dichotomy between interests and norms. In this chapter, Mauss’ essay will first be introduced, then fundamental lines of the discussion on gift and reciprocity will be elaborated, before finally the gift paradigm will be worked out from this, as it has emerged in the last 30 years starting from the MAUSS group in the mainly French-speaking discourse. In this discussion, a distinct social theoretical perspective has developed that forms an alternative to individualistic and holistic as well as utilitarian and normative approaches. The gift paradigm rather denotes a positive anti-utilitarianism that shows a closeness to discussions about conviviality, recognition, care and interdependence.