Shamanism, Colonialism, and the Wild Man: A Study in Terror and Healing - Paperback

by Michael Taussig (Author)

Working with the image of the Indian shaman as Wild Man, Taussig reveals not the magic of the shaman but that of the politicizing fictions creating the effect of the real.

"This extraordinary book . . . will encourage ever more critical and creative explorations."--Fernando Coronil, [I]American Journal of Sociology[/I]

"Taussig has brought a formidable collection of data from arcane literary, journalistic, and biographical sources to bear on . . . questions of evil, torture, and politically institutionalized hatred and terror. His intent is laudable, and much of the book is brilliant, both in its discovery of how particular people perpetrated evil and others interpreted it."--Stehen G. Bunker, Social Science Quarterly

Back Jacket

Both terror and shamanism thrive on the subversion of order and meaning. The shaman, like a dadaist painter or poet, uses the technique of montage to disrupt conventional meaning.