Mimesis and Alterity: A Particular History of the Senses

by Michael Taussig

In his most ambitious and accomplished work to date, Michael Taussig undertakes a history of mimesis, the practice of imitation, and its relation to alterity, the opposition of Self and Other. Drawing upon such diverse sources as theories of Benjamin, Adorno and Horckheimer, research on the Cuna Indians, and theories of colonialism and postcolonialism, Taussig shows that the history of mimesis is deeply tied to colonialism, and more specifically, to the colonial trade's construction of "savages." With analysis that is vigorous, unorthodox, and often breathtaking, Taussig's cross-cultural discussion of mimesis deepens our understanding of the relationship between ethnography, racism and society.

Genres: Anthropology, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Theory, History, Art, Academic

299 pages, Paperback

First published December 21, 1992

About the author

Michael Taussig (born 1940) earned a medical degree from the University of Sydney, received his PhD. in anthropology from the London School of Economics and is a professor at Columbia University and European Graduate School. Although he has published on medical anthropology, he is best known for his engagement with Marx's idea of commodity fetishism, especially in terms of the work of Walter Benjamin.

Reviews

[Grace Burns · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of commentary that questions the very “laws” that govern our mind day to day. Questions like: why is embodiment itself necessary? Why imagine at all? Why this urge to tangibilize? Why do we need object figures? How does something surpass being an object? And lots and lots of questioning of the basis of reality as we know it. Taussig has undoubtedly made me question my sense of the real and the difference in the ways I interpret and contextualize fantasy and arbitrariness. Is it so obscure to favor the belief system when not everything has an immediate answer and logical explanation? Is believing in logic illogical?

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is so mesmerizing...but I can never read it cover to cover, only bits at a time. It's about how we make mimetic objects and how they in turn, make us...

[Catherine · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is no excuse for academic impenetrability.

[Rafael Molinero Rosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un viaje en el que muchas cosas te van a quedar afuera y esa es la propuesta de Taussig. Paciencia y dejarse llevar

[Alexander Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

If for nothing else, this book is worth a read just for stylistic purposes. Taussig created a joy of a read from cover to cover! There is a lot in here to unpack for the person who really wants to understand it in its entirety. Although the goal of this book is not precisely the goal I had in mind when reading it. Still, I couldn't put this one down.

I didn't have enough time to fully unpack what was going on in the second half as what I wanted, but the particular notion of mimesis was pretty clear by the first 4 chapters, and by chapter 10 I had a brief idea of what it meant to step into "the other". In some ways this would compare excellently with Goffman's The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Mimeses and Alterity is a materialist history of senses and speaks a lot to identity if only by speaking about the Other while Goffman offers more of an anti-materialist social perspective. Also Goffman writes about people creating their identities through staging and acting out roles via Dramaturgy while Taussig writes about borrowing the Other identity for control and understanding.

For my particular use, Taussig spends a great deal of time synthesizing ethnographies and speaking about how many ethnographies seem to just barely miss on the particular social goals (maybe even social requirement) of mimesis for history to occur and uses a good bit of Critical Theorist and material Marxist, Walter Benjamin's work in order to explain the theoretical usefulness of mimesis. However in my particular use, this is a great materialist perspective to explain social network behaviors. There are entire sections in here that more than accurately and even poetically describe the acts of memeing and trolling and how a society might find this useful.

[Caley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the first 150 pages or so and the last 20. Frankly, I couldn't get past Taussig's self-described "roundabout" way of writing. Many sections were fuzzy logic-wise and he enjoyed making huge jumps from one argument to the next. I liked the opening section on Benjamin and mimesis, but he abandoned this whole train of thought once he went focused on his discussion of the Cuna people. Unnecessarily repetitive in parts and oftentimes incredibly colloquial, which detracted from his arguments that at times, had great potential. Wouldn't recommend.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

All right, so this is "official" reading, so it shouldn't be here (per my own, arbitrary rules), but I'm actually kind of enjoying it. Which is so strange and refreshing. Of course, I'm doing this now in order to procrastinate from reading it, so...

[Aaron Schuschu · Rating 4 out of 5]

An ethnography on how indigenous people imitate us and how we wind up imitating each other’s imitations of our imitations and how colonialism took advantage of that alienation

[James Zwierzynski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitively on the denser end of academic monographs that I've ever read -- even though I'm not sure I would call it a monograph, due to its unruly structure. Taussig engages with such a wide variety of interlocutors from not only critical theory, but particularly in ethnography and anthropology. I found myself grasping for straws with some of these engagements; it's clear that some of the ethnographic engagements have not stood the test of time and are offensive at best, in the way that Taussig utilizes them.

Nonetheless, Taussig clearly undertakes a huge feat here in being an early denier of the discursive, making the turn away from poststructuralism. However, in making the material turn of his claims, I'm not sure that it's quite as successful as more modern thinkers who take the same theoretical position. Challenging, difficult, yet rewarding, this book is clearly an important moment in intellectual history of cultural studies and critical theory.

[Trace Reddell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book like a dream journal, in fits and starts, some sections again and again and again in copying loops that rendered difference, sometimes just one short section or sub-section to start my day, or at other times in long sustained sessions, particularly toward the end. It's like time-travel, a magic spell, full sensory engagement, immediate and musty, antique present, and the future. I don't know how to respond academically. It is a psychedelic substance more than an analysis. Off to listen to Taussig's sessions with healer Santiago Mutumbajoy again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mECpC...

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

So interested in the main concept, and whilst there were some wonderfully curious moments (such as the mixed metaphor “we live constantly in the shadow of history’s incompleteness, in the aftertaste of the soundbite’s rolling echo”), repeatedly using six rhetorical questions in a row generates too many question marks for me.

[Boku · Rating 2 out of 5]

It might be easier to just read the original source material than to try and pull any meaning out of this book.

[Ruby · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m lost

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

As much as I appreciate Tausig, he is intervening in a body of knowledge I’m neither familiar nor interested in.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Absolutely fabulous premise - the crossover between mimesis, alterity, sympathetic magic, the senses, modernity and colonialism. Sadly it is way too absorbed by its own little clever moments, which completely sucks that fabulousness out of the entire book.

Illustrative excerpt:
"Mine is an old-fashioned interest in magic, but applied to fashion itself."

Except, of course, there is nothing in this book that could be literally described as 'fashion'.

[Kathryn Yaste · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this for a college class ( I think it was anthropology) and had forgotten about it until right now. I was reminded of it while browsing Amazon for another book with "Mimesis" in the title. What I remember about this book: it was dull and hard to understand. That's why I think I read it for my anthro class - the professor and everything he assigned us to do was dull and hard to understand.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I rated this book as "I liked it," I think that in time I will come to feel that it is worthy of four or more stars.

[Tara Bianca]

tried to read and would like to pick it up again.

[Az · Rating 5 out of 5]

Taussig, poet, Benjamin head, delicious.

[Juv3nal]

Mimesis and Alterity: A Particular History of the Senses by Michael Taussig (1993)

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

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