Mimesis and Alterity: A Particular History of the SensesIn his most ambitious and accomplished work to date, Michael Taussig undertakes a history of mimesis, the practice of imitation, and its relation to alterity, the opposition of Self and Other. Drawing upon such diverse sources as theories of Benjamin, Adorno and Horckheimer, research on the Cuna Indians, and theories of colonialism and postcolonialism, Taussig shows that the history of mimesis is deeply tied to colonialism, and more specifically, to the colonial trade's construction of "savages." With analysis that is vigorous, unorthodox, and often breathtaking, Taussig's cross-cultural discussion of mimesis deepens our understanding of the relationship between ethnography, racism and society. |
Contents
1 In Some Way or Another One Can Protect Oneself From Evil Spirits by Portraying Them | 1 |
2 Physiognomic Aspects of Visual Worlds | 19 |
3 Spacing Out | 33 |
The Magic of Mimesis | 44 |
The Organization of Mimesis | 59 |
6 With the Wind of World History in Our Sails | 70 |
7 Spirit of the Mime Spirit of the Gift | 88 |
Invisible Counterparts | 100 |
12 The Search For the White Indian | 162 |
The Magic of Western Gear | 176 |
14 The Talking Machine | 193 |
15 His Masters Voice | 212 |
16 Reflection | 236 |
17 Sympathetic Magic In A PostColonial Age | 250 |
Notes | 257 |
Bibliography | 283 |
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Common terms and phrases
Adorno American animals Anthropology appearance baron become body Caillois Cambridge Canal century chant Chapin civilized cloth colonial commodity copy create culture Cuna Indians Cuna women curing figurines dance Darién Darwin Dialectic of Enlightenment dreams Emberá Erland Nordenskiold essay ethnography European fetish film Frazer's Fuegians genipa Göteborg Gusinde Hauka healer Henry Wassén Horkheimer human Ibid imitation Jean Rouch Kuna labor Lionel Wafer machine Marcel Mauss Marsh Mauss means medicine mimesis mimesis and alterity mimetic faculty mimicking mimicry miming modern molas nature negro nele Nordenskiold and Pérez notion object optical unconscious Origin Histories painting Panama Panamanian phonograph primitive primitivism purpa reproduction ritual Rubén Pérez sailors San Blas savage Selk'nam sense sexual shaman Sherzer soul spirit strange sympathetic magic taboo tactile Talking Dog things Tierra del Fuego tion trans Transl University Press Walter Benjamin Western white Indians woman womb wooden figurines writes York