The devil and commodity fetishism in South America /

"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 co...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Taussig, Michael T. (Author)
Format:	Book
Language:	English
Published:	Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [1980]
Subjects:	Economic development > Social aspects > Case studies. Plantations > Colombia > Cauca River Valley. Tin mines and mining > Bolivia. Superstition > Case studies. Marxian economics. Développement économique > Aspect social > Cas, Études de. Plantations > Colombie > Cauca, Vallée du. Étain > Mines et extraction > Bolivie. Superstitions > Cas, Études de. Superstitions > Études de cas. Economic development > Social aspects Plantations Superstition Tin mines and mining Bolivia Colombia > Cauca River Valley Fetischismus Wirtschaftsentwicklung Kolumbien Südamerika Plantage-economie. Tin. Mijnbouw. Magie. Devil > Case studies. Plantations > Columbia > Cauca River Valley. Fetishism. Case studies Case studies. Études de cas.

Table of Contents:

Part I. Fetishism: the master trope
Fetishism and dialectical deconstruction
The devil and commodity fetishism
Part II. The plantations of the Cauca Valley, Colombia
Slave religion and the rise of the free peasantry
Owners and fences
The devil and the cosmogenesis of capitalism
Pollution, contradiction, and salvation
The baptism of money and the secret of capital
Part III. The Bolivian tin mines
The devil in the mines
The worship of nature
The problem of evil
The iconography of nature and conquest
The transformation of mining and mining mythology
Peasant rites of production
Mining magic: the mediation of commodity fetishism
Conclusion.