Michael Taussig
Australian-American anthropologist who explored mimesis, shamanism, and colonial perceptions.
Most quoted
"To understand the present, we must delve into the past, not as a static archive, but as a living, breathing force."
— from Mimesis and Alterity: A Particular History of the Senses, 1993
"The magic of the state lies not in its power, but in the illusion it weaves around our perceptions of reality."
— from The Magic of the State, 2012
"The commodity is not just an object, but a social hieroglyph, a condensed history of human labor and desire."
— from The Nervous System, 1992
All quotes by Michael Taussig (102)
In the heart of the jungle, I found that culture is not static; it dances with the wind.
Defacement is the ultimate rebellion: stripping the mask from authority's face.
Anthropology teaches us that meaning is not given; it is negotiated in the spaces between bodies.
The state's magic is bureaucratic sorcery, turning citizens into subjects through paperwork.
Illness in the tropics is not just disease; it's a dialogue with the unseen forces of the land.
Every interview is a fiction, co-authored by the anthropologist and the informant.
Colonial violence lingers in the soil, fertilizing myths of superiority.
Wisdom comes not from books, but from the rhythms of the river and the whispers of the forest.
The commodity form hides the blood of workers behind its shiny veneer.
In moments of crisis, the veil lifts, and we see the raw nerves of society.
Shamanism is resistance encoded in ritual, defying the colonizer's gaze.
Fieldwork is a love affair with the unknown, fraught with passion and peril.
The art of anthropology lies in translating the ineffable into the readable.
Power's illusion is maintained by our collective amnesia of its origins.
In the marketplace, gods and devils trade places with alarming ease.
Life's meaning emerges in the interplay of myth and materiality.
Ethnographers are spies of the soul, infiltrating cultures with notebooks.
Colonialism's legacy is a world haunted by absent presences.
Writing is re-enchantment, breathing life back into deadened worlds.
The wild is not chaos; it is the unscripted poetry of existence.
Contemporaries of Michael Taussig
Other Anthropologys born within 50 years of Michael Taussig (1940).