Corpse Magic - by Michael Taussig (Paperback)

About the Book

"Michael Taussig's new book, Corpse Magic, is animated by the ubiquity of violence across the world. Focusing on state-sanctioned violence in Colombia in the context of gangs, guerrilla warfare, and police action, and in the US, in the form of mass shootings and the killing of Black Americans by the police, Taussig examines the effects of violence not just on its victims, but also and especially on those who inflict it, as well as those who witness and relive it through footage circulating in the media. Taussig analyzes the haunting idea that the act of killing "infects" the killer and spreads outward, and he connects this to a belief he encountered in Colombia, namely that the souls of the slain possess those of their slayers, and that magic must be used on corpses to circumvent this process. Drawing from literature, religion, and philosophy as well as anthropology, Taussig analyzes violence as contagion, one through which the killer and the killed are mutually defined. What kind of power do the dead continue to have? What kind of magic can enact vengeance? What kind, if any, can stop apparently endless cycles of violence? These are only some of the provocative questions raised in this powerful, creative work"--

Book Synopsis

Corpse Magic examines beliefs about vengeance the slain magically enact on their killers, focusing on lethal violence in Colombia and the United States.

Corpse Magic is a response to the global ubiquity of violence. In this bracing new work, the influential anthropologist Michael Taussig puts killings in Colombia, by gangs and guerrillas, police and the military, and agents of agribusiness, in conversation with mass shootings and police killings, disproportionately of Black people, in the United States. In both contexts, he examines the effects of violent killing on its victims, its perpetrators, and those who witness and relive it through media footage.

Drawing from literature, religion, philosophy, and anthropology, Taussig traces the idea that the act of killing "infects" the killer and spreads outward, then connects this concept of contagion to beliefs in Colombia and elsewhere that the souls of the slain possess those of their slayers and that magic can be used to empower or thwart corpses as agents of vengeance. In this powerful and imaginative work, Taussig asks what kind of power the dead continue to have; what kinds of magic can manage that power; and what, if anything, can stop seemingly endless cycles of violence.

Review Quotes

"An engaging and engrossing book. Taussig's style of reading is a model for everyday cultural literacy."-- "Christopher Bracken, author of Magical Criticism: The Recourse of Savage Philosophy"

"This is pure Taussig. In his latest, he ruminates and loops through the vicissitudes of corpse magic and the many forms it takes in Colombia and beyond--a subject as important and underexplored as it is uncanny."-- "Alexander L. Fattal, author of Guerrilla Marketing: Counterinsurgency and Capitalism in Colombia"

About the Author

Michael Taussig is emeritus professor of anthropology at Columbia University. He is the author of many books, including And the Garden Is You and Mastery of Non-Mastery in the Age of Meltdown, both published by the University of Chicago Press.