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)
Bureaucracy is the modern idol, demanding sacrifice in triplicate.
In the shadows of the law, justice reveals its true, anarchic face.
Commodities are ghosts, animated by the labor they consume.
Personal reflection: Anthropology saved me from the sterility of academia.
Defacement strips away the veneer, exposing the fragility of order.
The shaman knows that healing begins where science ends.
Field notes are fragments of dreams, pieced together in waking life.
Mimesis is the mirror that distorts reality to show its truth.
In the devil's tale, we confront our own complicity in exploitation.
The state performs its sovereignty through spectacles of control.
Anthropology's humor lies in the absurdity of observing the obvious.
Wildness is the antidote to civilization's poisons.
Every culture is a collage of borrowed myths and forgotten histories.
Law without land is a hollow echo, resonating in emptiness.
The magic of writing transforms observation into revelation.
Colonial ghosts wander the streets, invisible to the victors.
Life's profound lesson: meaning is made, not found.
Shamanic visions pierce the veil of everyday illusion.
Ethnography is the poetry of the periphery.
Power's wit: it convinces us we are free while chaining our minds.
Contemporaries of Michael Taussig
Other Anthropologys born within 50 years of Michael Taussig (1940).