This seminar course explores conceptual worlds of Marx and Mauss by reading a few original texts and some secondary texts. It will juxtapose key notions that these thinkers articulated in debates with their contemporary mainstream thoughts. Those notions include exchange (of gift, commodity), accumulation (of wealth, capital), and totality (social and natural, production-consumption-distribution). Engaging in those texts and notions, the course aims training academic skills of close reading, articulation of conceptual thoughts, short responses, peer review, and revision of research papers.