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The Magic of the State

Michael Taussig author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:21st Feb '97

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The Magic of the State cover

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.

"Taussig offer[s] much of value for us to think about." -- Religious Studies Review
"The clear allusions to the South American local of Taussig's fieldwork and the spooky accompanying photographs and drawings give the whole an errie verisimilitude. He seems to be saying, "You think this is fantasy, but it is and is not." Taussig's style of truthtelling roams in the fantasists privileged territory." -- American Journal of Sociology

ISBN: 9780415917902

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 560g

216 pages