The lack of interest in the Shipman’s tale: Chaucer and the social theory of the gift

An essay on the lack of interest in the "The Shipman's Tale" by Geoffrey Chaucer and the social theory of the gift of sociologist and philosopher Pierre Bourdieu is presented. It explores Bourdieu's theory of the gift in which all exchanges are fundamentally agonistic and motivated by individual profit and the criticism of economic anthropologist David Graeber's against such theory. It also examines Bourdieu's emphasis that conscious motivation is irrelevant.