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In order to contribute to the debate on the crossed works of Marcel Mauss and René Girard, this article develops a critique of the latter based on the former, and in particular his Essay on the Gift. The article first presents a synthesis of the elements that make up what the author calls the “Girardian system” while insisting on the function of religion as the temperance of violence and internal and external conflicts. The critique denounces the metaphysical aspects on which the system rests: the Christian notions of grace and forgiveness as the only way to truly get out of the vicious cycles of mimetic violence, as well as the tautological nature of the mechanisms of mimetic desire and of that of the scapegoat, which hide demands for recognition and forbid Girard to think love and friendship. The article then moves head-on into the debate opposing Girardians and MAUSSians about the anteriority and originality of the sacrifice or of the gift, while arguing strongly in favor of the latter.