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In this ambitious and accomplished work, Taussig explores the complex and interwoven concepts of mimesis, the practice of imitation, and alterity, the opposition of Self and Other. The book moves from the nineteenth-century invention of mimetically capacious machines, such as the camera, to the fable of colonial 'first contact' and the alleged mimetic power of 'primitives'. Twenty years after the original publication, Taussig revisits the work in a new preface which contextualises the impact of Mimesis and Alterity. Drawing on the ideas of Benjamin, Adorno and Horckheimer and ethnographic accounts of the Cuna, Taussig demonstrates how the history of mimesis is deeply tied to colonialism and the idea of alterity has become increasingly unstable. Vigorous and unorthodox, this cross-cultural discussion continues to deepen our understanding of the relationship between ethnography, racism and society.
List of contents
1. In Some Way or Another One Can Protect Oneself From Evil Spirits by Portraying Them
2. Physiognomic Aspects of Visual Worlds
3. Spacing Out
4. The Golden Bough: The Magic of Mimesis
5. The Golden Army: The Organization of Mimesis
6. With the Wind of World History in Our Sails
7. Spirit of the Mime, Spirit of the Gift
8. Mimetic Worlds: Invisible Counterparts
9. The Origin of the World
10. Alterity
11. The Color of Alterity
12. The Search for the White Indian
13. America as Woman: The Magic of Western Gear
14. The Talking Machine
15. His Master's Voice
16. Reflection
17. Sympathetic Magic in a Post-Colonial Age
About the author
Michael Taussig is 1933 Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University, USA, and is affiliated with the European Graduate School in Switzerland.
Summary
In this ambitious and accomplished work, Taussig explores the complex and interwoven concepts of mimesis, the practice of imitation, and alterity, the opposition of Self and Other. The book moves from the nineteenth-century invention of mimetically capacious machines, such as the camera, to the fable of colonial ‘first contact’ and the alleged mimetic power of ‘primitives’. Twenty years after the original publication, Taussig revisits the work in a new preface which contextualises the impact of Mimesis and Alterity. Drawing on the ideas of Benjamin, Adorno and Horckheimer and ethnographic accounts of the Cuna, Taussig demonstrates how the history of mimesis is deeply tied to colonialism and the idea of alterity has become increasingly unstable. Vigorous and unorthodox, this cross-cultural discussion continues to deepen our understanding of the relationship between ethnography, racism and society.
