What the Devil Speaks About: Rereading Michael Taussig’s The Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America

Michael Taussig’s The Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America (1980) has had a continuing impact as an inspiration for ethnographies of resistance and the material turn in anthropology. Perhaps the most enduring influence is its analysis of quasi-religious narratives as a critique of Western,...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kroesbergen-Kamps, Johanneke (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2025
In: NTT
Year: 2025, Volume: 79, Issue: 3, Pages: 258-278
Further subjects:B Literature Review
B Devil
B Michael Taussig
B Anthropology
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Summary:Michael Taussig’s The Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America (1980) has had a continuing impact as an inspiration for ethnographies of resistance and the material turn in anthropology. Perhaps the most enduring influence is its analysis of quasi-religious narratives as a critique of Western, hegemonic systems. The article traces Taussig’s text’s lasting impact on the ethnography of the devil and concludes, however, that one crucial problem in Taussig’s analysis remains to be solved.
ISSN:2590-3268
Contains:Enthalten in: NTT
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.5117/NTT2025.3.002.KROE