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Three Ways to Fail

Journeys Through Mapuche Chile

Magnus Course author Alma Gottlieb editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University of Pennsylvania Press

Published:17th Sep '24

Should be back in stock very soon

Three Ways to Fail cover

Three Ways to Fail is the story of how over three decades, one anthropologist came to understand failure—both his own and those of the discipline—through Chilean Mapuche narratives of the witch, the clown, and the usurper, and their insatiable appetites for destruction, greed, and property.

An ethnographic exploration of anthropological failure through the Mapuche archetypes of witch, clown, and usurper
How do we learn what failure looks like? During the years anthropologist Magnus Course spent living with Indigenous Mapuche people in southern Chile, he came to understand failure—both his own and those of the discipline of anthropology—through Mapuche narratives of the witch, the clown, and the usurper. In a context of enduring poverty and racism, increasing state repression, and his own disintegration, he began to realize that these figures of failure, and their insatiable appetites for destruction, greed, and property, reflected as much upon his own failings as on anybody else’s, but also showed the way forward to a better way to live.
Set amidst the stunning natural beauty and political tragedies of southern Chile, Three Ways to Fail is the story of what it means to become a part of other people’s lives, of what it means to fail them, and of what it means to live well when everything falls apart. Grounded in three decades of work and collaboration with Mapuche people, Three Ways to Fail sheds new light on Indigenous lifeways in the Americas while grappling with broader questions about the nature of ethnographic writing and the future of anthropology.

"A personal, thoughtful, beautifully crafted and written reflection on the topic of failure. A must-read." * Marjorie Murray, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile *

ISBN: 9781512826562

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

184 pages