The devil and commodity fetishism in South America / Michael T. Taussig.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Taussig, Michael T.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economic development--Social aspects--Case studies.

Economic development.

Plantations--Colombia--Cauca River Valley.

Plantations.

Tin mines and mining--Bolivia.

Tin mines and mining.

Superstition--Case studies.

Superstition.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (315 p.)

Edition:

30th anniversary ed. / with a new chapter by the author.

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill [N.C.] : University of North Carolina Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this classic book, Michael Taussig explores the social significance of the devil in the folklore of contemporary plantation workers and miners in South America. Grounding his analysis in Marxist theory, Taussig finds that the fetishization of evil, in the image of the devil, mediates the conflict between precapitalist and capitalist modes of objectifying the human condition. He links traditional narratives of the devil-pact, in which the soul is bartered for illusory or transitory power, with the way in which production in capitalist economies causes workers to become alienated from the com

Contents:

Contents; Preface to the Thirtieth Anniversary Edition; Preface; PART I: Fetishism: The Master Trope; 1 Fetishism and Dialectical Deconstruction; 2 The Devil and Commodity Fetishism; PART II: The Plantations of the Cauca Valley, Colombia; 3 Slave Religion and the Rise of the Free Peasantry; 4 Owners and Fences; 5 The Devil and the Cosmogenesis of Capitalism; 6 Pollution, Contradiction, and Salvation; 7 The Baptism of Money and the Secret of Capital; PART III: The Bolivian Tin Mines; 8 The Devil in the Mines; 9 The Worship of Nature; 10 The Problem of Evil

11 The Iconography of Nature and Conquest 12 The Transformation of Mining and Mining Mythology; 13 Peasant Rites of Production; 14 Mining Magic: The Mediation of Commodity Fetishism; Conclusion; The Sun Gives without Receiving: A Reinterpretation of the Devil Stories; Bibliography; Index;

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [267]-287) and index.

ISBN:

979-88-908861-6-3

979-88-9313-455-1

1-4696-0423-X

0-8078-9841-4

OCLC:

656846650