The weaving in of Marcel Mauss work in the gift exchange how the exchange of gifts in ritual is a social phenomenon, since it involves legal, economic, moral, religious, aesthetic, and ultimately the gift is a way of establishing the social bonds and creating obligations yet Bataille goes further by using this as a way of explicating the sacred and the profane and the gift is an act of transcending the everyday world and entering into the realm of the sacred.

This is an interesting book, that I found myself getting frustrated at times as I felt Bataille was intentionally being obtuse when he could have been more direct. This is written more in the style of poetry rather than an explicit exploration in an academic framework. I'll need to revisit this once I 'consume' some more Bataille and see what I missed as I suspect I have missed some ideas due to the purposeful obfuscation of concepts (although I suspect Bataille would argue it is perfectly clear and I believe this is part of the issue).