Mark Anspach, the anthropologist, is originally from California but lives in France and in Italy. He works at the Paris Centre de recherche en épistémologie appliquée, and has studied economy and social science at Harvard before obtaining a Ph.D. in anthropology in Paris and in Literature in Stanford under René Girard, whose writing he has edited. Anspach’s research focus is on the ritual aspects of violence and of exchange, and on social and cognitive mechanisms. Anspach contributes to the journal of MAUSS, the Anti-Utilitarian Movement in Social Science, and keeps a blog on the U.S. Website www.imitatio.org. He has written A buon rendere. La reciprocità nella vendetta, nel dono e nel mercato (2007), and co-authored Che cos’è il religioso? Religione e politica (published by Bollati Boringhieri in 2006) and Cosa significa donare? (with E. Sarnelli, D. Falcioni), published by Guida Editori in 2011.