The Magic of the State
1996
First Published
4.06
Average Rating
216
Number of Pages
Set in the enchanted mountain of a spirit-queen presiding over an unnamed, postcolonial country, this ethnographic work of ficto-criticism recreates in written form the shrines by which the dead—notably the fetishized forms of Europe's Others, Indians and Blacks—generate the magical powers of the modern state.
Avg Rating
4.06
Number of Ratings
88
5 STARS
35%
4 STARS
40%
3 STARS
22%
2 STARS
2%
1 STARS
1%
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Author
Michael Taussig
Author · 17 books
Michael Taussig (born 1940) earned a medical degree from the University of Sydney, received his PhD. in anthropology from the London School of Economics and is a professor at Columbia University and European Graduate School. Although he has published on medical anthropology, he is best known for his engagement with Marx's idea of commodity fetishism, especially in terms of the work of Walter Benjamin.
